Category Archives: Missing Children

Sierra LaMar: Anatomy of a Search Day 73

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I am very concerned that we haven’t found Sierra. This has to be one of history’s largest sustained searches for a missing person. 7,952 search volunteers have been dispatched on 750 search assignments that have blanketed a 20 mile radius around Sierra’s home and we haven’t found anything relevant to her disappearance.

 

Last week the terms of the reward were altered to include, “Information leading to the conviction of the individual(s) responsible for the disappearance of Sierra LaMar,” and no one has yet come forward. This morning Steve and Danielle LaMar held a press conference that was very well-attended by local media to announce that the reward has been increased to $35,000. We continue to dispatch dozens of searchers on scheduled search days. They search new areas and high probability areas that have been previously searched. Despite our lack of progress morale remains high.

 

We have inspired, cajoled, and manipulated every angle that I can think of to recover Sierra, yet her location continues to elude our grasp. If I thought that it would help to resolve this case I would get down on my hands and knees to grovel and beg for an endgame. What is this brick wall that we keep hitting, and what will it take to move it?

 

The perp and his family have amply demonstrated that they are not criminal masterminds. His claim that he never met Sierra is dispelled by the fact that police have his DNA on her clothing and evidence that she was in his car. His mother believes that he is innocent, but admits that she is not his shadow. To think that he hid her so successfully and kept that information to himself is patently absurd. I think that he has confided his secret: but to whom?

 

Near the end of the search day I received a call from my old friend Mike Reynolds. Mike is the father of California’s 3-Strikes and You’re Out law which became a voter driven statute in 1994. He told me that there is an initiative on California’s November ballot to overturn the law. 3-Strike holds career criminals accountable by providing penalty enhancements for subsequent felonies. I am struck by the irony of this latest effort to soft step crime and return dangerous criminals to the very communities that are already so dangerous that we cannot let our daughters walk alone for fear that they will be victimized.

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Sierra LaMar: Anatomy of a Search Day 66

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He’s been to court twice now without entering a plea. The only words that he has spoken are, “Yes your honor”. There have been no developments in the case since Antolin Garcia-Torres was arrested for kidnapping and murdering Sierra LaMar on May 22. Sierra’s disappearance, which seemed on the verge of being solved 15-days ago, now seems as far from resolution as ever. Clearly, something needs to be done.

That’s why the terms of the $25,000 reward for the safe return of Sierra LaMar are being changed to include, “Information leading to the conviction of the person or persons responsible for the disappearance of Sierra LaMar”. Rewards aid law enforcement in arresting and successfully prosecuting crimes by providing financial consideration in exchange for information that will resolve a crime.

 

In theory, there are always people who know more about a given crime than they are initially willing to admit. They may be family, friends, acquaintances or simply somebody who saw or heard something that they were not supposed to see or hear. Often times these people require incentive before they are willing to come forward and divulge closely held secrets.

 

Rewards are clearly viable and have assisted in numerous cases over the years. One organization, Secret Witness, in Reno, Nevada has been providing rewards for more than 30-years. Secret Witness has grown from taking five or six calls a month to more than 200. Tips have helped solve more than 1,000 crimes, including 30 murders. That includes information leading to the arrest and conviction of the individual responsible for the 2008 kidnap and murder of 19-year-old college student Briana Denison.

 

Good people clearly want to do the right thing. Sometimes they just need motivation. First of all, providing valuable information that will result in a conviction is the right thing to do. Sierra and her family deserve nothing less. We all have, or love children. So we should put ourselves in Steve and Marlene LaMar’s shoes. If our daughter were missing we would want others to assist in bringing our child home. Finally, at the end of the night most of us are exhausted and ready for bed. The last thing that we need to ponder as we surrender to sleep is whether or not God knows what is in our hearts and minds.

 

If you are not the perp, but you know more than you are saying, providing information is not simply about good or evil. In the final analysis it’s simply about getting your priorities straight. Whether you are bound by humanity, spirituality or some other moral value, sometimes we simply need an extra incentive to do the right thing. That’s what rewards are about. Or at least we hope so, and after all, the reason that why we continue to show up to look for Sierra day after day is because hope reigns eternal.

 
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Join The Search for Sierra LaMar!

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Sierra LaMar was walking to catch a school bus in Morgan Hill, CA on March 16, 2012 when she disappeared. “It’s like she literally vanished,” said Sierra’s mother Marlene LaMar.

Despite well-coordinated searches by law enforcement, Sierra is still missing. Sierra’s mother has called on the KlaasKids Foundation to organize a community volunteer search. The Friendswood, TX based Laura Recovery Center will assist in the Find Sierra Search effort. The search is also being aided by San Jose, CA based Child Quest International, Inc.

 Brad Dennis, Director of Search Operations for the KlaasKids Foundation has announced that volunteer searches will begin on Tuesday, March 27, 2012 at 8 a.m.  The Find Sierra Search Center is located at Burnett Elementary Schoolat 85 Tilton Avenue in Morgan Hill, CA.

Individuals who would like to participate in the search for Sierra should check in at the Burnett Elementary School between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday, March 27th. Searches will be conducted throughout the week, commencing at 8:00 a.m. daily through and including Sunday, April 1, 2012.

Volunteers must be at least 18 years of age and bring photo identification. “Dress appropriately for the weather, wear long pants and sturdy, covered toe shoes. We need people who can do foot searches as well as individuals who are willing to work in the search center,” explained Dennis.  “We are also looking for donations of bottled water and office supplies.”

For more information about the search or information on how you can donate supplies, volunteers can call Tricia Griffiths at (801) 560-1933, or email info@klaaskids.org.

The KlaasKids Foundation is a non-profit 501(c) (3) public benefit corporation determined to stop crimes against children and assists families of missing children. Please visit www.klaaskids.org for more information. 
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FCC Regulatory Action on Trucker TV Could Save Lives

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When North Carolina truck driver Beano Francis spotted a white Ford Escort headed south on Interstate 85 in July, he recognized the car from an “Amber Alert” and quickly notified authorities. Police say the West Virginia man driving the car had “met” the 13-year-old girl online before abducting her and credited Mr. Francis for his fast action, but he was actually just the latest trucker to answer a family’s prayers and help an abducted child return safely home. 
It was big news, but professional truckers responding to Amber Alerts is actually fairly common – it was even the second success story in North Carolina in July alone. My family’s introduction to the long-haul trucker community came when my daughter Polly was kidnapped in 1993 and the drivers helped circulate flyers far and wide. You rapidly realize that truckers are out there on the roads and at highway rest stops, convenience stores, gas stations, and fast food restaurants where persons on the run frequently try to escape.
So it has been a bit mind-boggling over the past several years that a broad-based alliance that includes the foundation we formed in the wake of Polly’s murder, KlaasKids, has been unable to convince the Federal Communications Commission to approve a proposal that would literally bring hundreds of thousands of new truck drivers into the missing persons loop.
The proposal we support has been made to the FCC by Clarity Media Systems, LLC, a subsidiary of Flying J Inc., the company that owns and operates all those Flying J travel plazas. Under U.S. Department of Transportation regulations, commercial truckers must spend at least ten hours or more per day resting. If the trucker’s cab becomes their “living room on the road,” then those Flying J plazas are their community centers.
However, one service that truck drivers have never been able to access in their on-road living rooms is basic television. Clarity has proposed to change that by providing 70 channels of television programming, including five of its own locally-produced channels to entertain and inform truckers. This localized, low-powered system would reach truckers in these on-road living rooms, effectively creating a video hot spot limited to within the truck-stop perimeter – but they need FCC approval.

Perhaps most importantly for those concerned with missing persons, Clarity’s proposal includes a Public Safety and Alert channel that will allow truckers to receive news flashes, special reports, and full-length programming about unresolved missing person cases from local television stations, national cable and satellite channels, and Clarity channels. And in addition to high-profile cases, the service will also feature lower-profile cases that may have failed to receive media attention, including missing adults excluded by their age from the Amber Alert system.
We at the KlaasKids Foundation know firsthand the valuable role that informed long haul drivers can play in fulfilling our mission to recover missing persons and look forward to working with the Alert effort to highlight specific cases.
To many of us, this frustrating case just seems like such a no-brainer: It costs the taxpayers nothing; it provides professional drivers with a service they want and need; it saves lives. We will never know how many people might have been saved in the years this has languished in the FCC process, but surely it is time to allow Clarity to implement its proposal.
Let’s face it, we sure could use more of those trucking heroes like Mr. Francis in North Carolina. Families hoping for just such a miracle should not miss their chance because of regulatory inaction.
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Social Networking and Missing Kids

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Not every parent has the good fortune to have their missing child profiled on television or in nationally distributed magazines. Most families must find other ways to raise awareness and distribute information about their missing children.
Social networks have a reach that extends around the world with hundreds of millions of profiles, and the ability to embrace causes. These invaluable resources provide no-cost opportunities that were inconceivable when Polly was kidnapped in 1993.
If your child is missing, you can take advantage of opportunities available from Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and YouTube.
These free sites enable you to create informational profiles of your missing child. You can post articles, photographs, testimonials, blogs, and videos. By organizing your profile and editing content to create a compelling presence, you can link and interact with vast networks of individuals and organizations interested in your issue. Cross-pollinating with true crime websites like Websleuths provides you with allies who are dedicated to maintaining interest in and solving ongoing cases.
A Southern California mother whose two children were reported missing 15 years ago tracked them down in Florida using Facebook. The children’s father had taken off with them in 1995 when they were still toddlers, but in March 2010 the mother found her daughter’s profile after searching for her name on the social networking site. My friend Robert McConnell used Facebook to locate his daughter, who was illegally kidnapped to Indonesia by a noncustodial mother in 2003. Personally, I regularly use my Facebook profile picture to post photos of America’s missing.
Child abduction is a big problem in China, with thousands of children disappearing each year. According to the Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs, as many as 1.5 million children are beggars. Most of them have been forced into servitude and many of them are kidnap victims. A viral Twitter (Weibo) campaign, launched on January 25 by social scientist Yu Jianrong, encourages citizens to post photos of child beggars and compare them with photos of missing children. More than 220,000 netizens responded and so far six children have been reunited with their families.

In an unrelated case, 33-year-old Peng Gaofeng recovered his son who was kidnapped in 2008 through a micro blog. When law enforcement efforts proved futile, Peng posted his son’s picture on Weibo. A newspaper reporter tweeted about Peng’s micro blog campaign to his 110,000 followers. It was reposted more than 5,000 times before a citizen compared the missing boy’s photo to a child who looked just like him. It turned out to be the same child. The reunion video posted on the Internet became an online sensation and captured the attention and respect of authorities. 

Of course, liabilities do exist. Information may not be accurate or time sensitive. A visible time stamp on missing flyers will mitigate social networking shortcomings. Outdated information posted on social networking sites can be distracting. Time and resources are wasted when misinformation passes from hand to hand – Particularly if the case has been resolved. Before information is distributed it should be verified with Law Enforcement or National Crime Information Center.
Overall, the assets outweigh the liabilities. The Internet empowers the families of missing persons. With new and innovative applications constantly in development, the possibilities inherent in social network websites and other online innovations are limited only by our imaginations.
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Psychic Detectives & Other Nonsense

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Psychic detectives are the vanguard of a second wave of predators that also includes tabloid journalists, cheesy defense lawyers and photo-op politicians.  They use tabloid newspapers and talk shows to boast about their accomplishments and predict success.  They materialize whenever children are kidnapped and circle the cases like vultures on a fresh carcass.

They scan the media for the haunting eyes of desperate parents willing to do anything to recover their children and then they show up on your doorstep, literally or figuratively, to make the pitch.  They claim to be on the cutting edge of communications, able to predict future events and reach into heaven and hell with their mind.  They hold your hand, massage your psyche and convince you that the only thing separating you from their extraordinary gift is your money.  However, some simply require airfare and living expenses, what we call a vacation.  They seem to answer the prayer that ends the nightmare, but only if you can afford the ticket.

Frantic parents will do anything and they offer something, which is better than nothing.  Few of us posses the resources to underwrite crisis, let alone psychic detectives so they should be reminded that a substantial reward awaits whoever solves the case and returns the stolen child.

Although that strategy eliminates most psychics, some maintain a foothold by appealing to superstitiously vulnerable family members.  They make provocative predictions.  In California, rolling hills, a road or highway, perhaps a building or a bubbling brook.  In Arizona, sand dunes replace rolling hills and cactus substitutes the bubbling brook: In other words, they describe ninety-five percent of the geography of the western United States.

Psychic detectives do not posses supernatural insight, they do not converse with the missing or the dead, they never bring children home.  However, their rambling predictions may have filled in enough gaps to pad their resumes and claim the reward.

A few months after Polly was recovered a psychic claimed that she solved Polly’s case on the television program Hard Copy.  Not only was she using my daughter’s death to promote herself, but she also dismissed all of the wonderful people: police, media, and volunteers who worked so hard and tirelessly to locate my child. 

In truth, that psychic detectives contribution to the case was counter productive.  As always seems to be the case with psychic predictions, her interference created distraction.  Law enforcement resources are diverted toward useless endeavors as phantom leads disappear into thin air.  One cold and dark November evening many of us were lurking around somebody’s property because the psychic said that it held the key to my daughter’s disappearance.  With the heightened sense of paranoia that already existed in the community that property owner would have been well within his rights to blow us away on the spot for trespassing.  We were very fortunate that night, because although he did angrily confront us, he had absolutely nothing to do with the crime we were investigating. 

In the end, and despite their protests, there is not even one case of a psychic truly assisting or solving a missing child case.  It’s just smoke and mirrors.  Their references do not support their claims and law enforcement cannot acknowledge their existence.  Instead, their wishful thinking collides with your desperate hope and leaves you diminished. 

Unfortunately, the next time a little child is kidnapped and mom and dad reach the end of their emotional string the vague, empty promises of the psychic detective will rebound off the stark walls of the missing child’s bedroom and a photo or toy will be palmed as the negotiations are engaged.  It is inevitable: I predict it.
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Psychic Detectives & Other Nonsense

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Psychic detectives are the vanguard of a second wave of predators that also includes tabloid journalists, cheesy defense lawyers and photo-op politicians.  They use tabloid newspapers and talk shows to boast about their accomplishments and predict success.  They materialize whenever children are kidnapped and circle the cases like vultures on a fresh carcass.

They scan the media for the haunting eyes of desperate parents willing to do anything to recover their children and then they show up on your doorstep, literally or figuratively, to make the pitch.  They claim to be on the cutting edge of communications, able to predict future events and reach into heaven and hell with their mind.  They hold your hand, massage your psyche and convince you that the only thing separating you from their extraordinary gift is your money.  However, some simply require airfare and living expenses, what we call a vacation.  They seem to answer the prayer that ends the nightmare, but only if you can afford the ticket.

Frantic parents will do anything and they offer something, which is better than nothing.  Few of us posses the resources to underwrite crisis, let alone psychic detectives so they should be reminded that a substantial reward awaits whoever solves the case and returns the stolen child.

Although that strategy eliminates most psychics, some maintain a foothold by appealing to superstitiously vulnerable family members.  They make provocative predictions.  In California, rolling hills, a road or highway, perhaps a building or a bubbling brook.  In Arizona, sand dunes replace rolling hills and cactus substitutes the bubbling brook: In other words, they describe ninety-five percent of the geography of the western United States.

Psychic detectives do not posses supernatural insight, they do not converse with the missing or the dead, they never bring children home.  However, their rambling predictions may have filled in enough gaps to pad their resumes and claim the reward.

A few months after Polly was recovered a psychic claimed that she solved Polly’s case on the television program Hard Copy.  Not only was she using my daughter’s death to promote herself, but she also dismissed all of the wonderful people: police, media, and volunteers who worked so hard and tirelessly to locate my child. 

In truth, that psychic detectives contribution to the case was counter productive.  As always seems to be the case with psychic predictions, her interference created distraction.  Law enforcement resources are diverted toward useless endeavors as phantom leads disappear into thin air.  One cold and dark November evening many of us were lurking around somebody’s property because the psychic said that it held the key to my daughter’s disappearance.  With the heightened sense of paranoia that already existed in the community that property owner would have been well within his rights to blow us away on the spot for trespassing.  We were very fortunate that night, because although he did angrily confront us, he had absolutely nothing to do with the crime we were investigating. 

In the end, and despite their protests, there is not even one case of a psychic truly assisting or solving a missing child case.  It’s just smoke and mirrors.  Their references do not support their claims and law enforcement cannot acknowledge their existence.  Instead, their wishful thinking collides with your desperate hope and leaves you diminished. 

Unfortunately, the next time a little child is kidnapped and mom and dad reach the end of their emotional string the vague, empty promises of the psychic detective will rebound off the stark walls of the missing child’s bedroom and a photo or toy will be palmed as the negotiations are engaged.  It is inevitable: I predict it.
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