Donated Uber rides will help reunite families after a missing child has been located.

ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 28, 2016 – Today, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children® and Uber announced a new partnership that will help reunite missing children with their families. Uber is joining NCMEC’s reunification assistance program to give free rides to families who need help reaching their missing child after they’ve been located.

“Last year there were more than 460,000 reports of missing children made to law enforcement in the U.S.,” said John F. Clark, NCMEC president and CEO. “Thankfully, most missing children are recovered, but our work does not end when the child is located. With Uber’s generosity, we’ll now be able to do more to help bring families back together.”

Since it was created in 1984, NCMEC has assisted law enforcement in the recovery of more than 222,000 missing children. Some children are located hundreds or thousands of miles from where they went missing. The reunification assistance program was created to help families in financial need make travel arrangements at no cost to them once their child is found. Other partners in the program include American Airlines™, Amtrak and Greyhound®.  
“We are pleased to be joining NCMEC’s reunification effort to help reunite families.  Working alongside some great transportation companies, we are very proud of the small role we can play in helping these children get an Uber ride home,” said Niki Christoff, Head of Federal Affairs at Uber.

Uber first began working with NCMEC in 2015 to redistribute AMBER Alerts to its drivers in 180 U.S. cities, reaching a network that covers 75 percent of the U.S. population.

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About the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children is the leading 501©(3) nonprofit organization working with law enforcement, families and the professionals who serve them on issues relating to missing and sexually exploited children. Established in 1984 and authorized by Congress to serve as the nation’s clearinghouse on these issues, NCMEC operates a hotline, 1-800-THE-LOST® (1-800-843-5678), and has assisted law enforcement in the recovery of more than 218,000 children. NCMEC also operates the CyberTipline, a mechanism for reporting child pornography, child sex trafficking and other forms of child sexual exploitation. Since it was created in 1998, more than 10 million reports of suspected child sexual exploitation have been received, and more than 158  million suspected child pornography images have been reviewed. NCMEC works in partnership with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. To learn more about NCMEC, visit www.missingkids.org. Follow NCMEC on Twitter and like NCMEC on Facebook.

If you would like to schedule an interview with a spokesperson from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, please email [email protected].

(A screen capture from our Sextortion PSA. Viewable on YouTube)

Lucas Michael Chansler found all 106 of his young victims the same way he found 14-year-old Ashley Reynolds. With a click of a mouse.

Ashley was safe at home, perusing social media sites on her computer, when a stranger began threatening her online. He told her he had naked photos of her, and if she didn’t send him more, he was going to show them to people she knew. Ashley ignored him. The man persisted.

He made it sound like if she’d just send him the photos, he’d leave her alone. Against her better judgment, she finally complied. But then he wanted more and more – and he had an increasingly lurid list of demands. Ashley felt terrorized, and utterly helpless, until her mom stumbled across the explicit images on her daughter’s computer.

That’s when the FBI stepped in and cracked one of the biggest “sextortion” cases in history, one with young victims in 26 states, three Canadian Provinces and the United Kingdom. And those were just the 106 children investigators could find. They seized images in Chansler’s possession of nearly 350 victims, all young girls between the ages of 12 and 16. Chansler was sentenced to 105 years in prison.

Here at the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, known as NCMEC, we’ve seen a growing number of these types of cases, a relatively new form of child sexual exploitation online. Sextortion occurs when non-physical forms of coercion are used, such as blackmail, to acquire sexual content from children, including photos and videos, or to extort money or to engage in sex with a child. Chansler was exploiting his victims for the images to produce what he would call an “epic video.”

At our Alexandria, Va., headquarters, we operate the CyberTipline, the nation’s reporting mechanism for suspected online child sexual exploitation. The number of overall reports, predominately child sexual abuse images, continues to grow exponentially. Last year, the CyberTipline received a record 4.4 million reports. So far this year, we’ve received 4.6 million.

“NCMEC staff recognized and grew deeply concerned with the growing number of sextortion incidents involving children being reported to the CyberTipline,” said John Shehan, vice president of our Exploited Children Division. “The emotional impact on the children is profound and heartbreaking. The information motivates us to stay current on the technologies and the methods offenders are using target children. Our aim is to prevent these incidents from ever occurring through education.”

NCMEC Research Analyst Stacy Jeleniewski analyzed a subset of reports of suspected sextortion – 801 submitted to the CyberTipline from October 2013 to June 2015 – and saw patterns emerge about the victims who are targeted; where, when and how sextortion is occurring; and who reports them to the CyberTipline.

Overwhelmingly, the victims were female children with an average age of 15, although some girls were as young as eight. The crime most often occurred on a phone or tablet messaging app, social networking sites or during video chats. Commonly, the offender would approach the child on a social networking site and then try to move their communication to anonymous messaging apps or video chats where he or she would obtain sexually explicit images from the child.

(Ashley Reynolds, a woman fighting sextortion)

Like Ashley, the child would then be threatened to have the images posted online for family and friends to see if the child did not do what the offender wanted. But other tactics emerged in the analysis, including reciprocation, as in “You show me yours, and I’ll show you mine.” Offenders would develop a bond with the child through flattery and praise, often pretending to be younger or a female.

Threats were also exhibited – threatening to harm the child or their family, threatening to create sexual content of the child using digital-editing tools, even threatening to commit suicide if the child would not provide sexual content. In some cases, the offender would pretend to be a modeling agent to get the child to agree to the various poses he wanted.

Most reports were made to the CyberTipline by Internet companies, the victim or parents and guardians. In fewer cases, they were made by peers and authority figures such a teachers or police.

“The impact of this coercive crime can be devastating,” said Jeleniewski, who conducted the analysis. “These children are being blackmailed and, because of that, may experience a range of emotions, including hopelessness, fear, anxiety and depression.  Some children are even suicidal or attempt to take their lives.”

Children can easily connect with others online, share pictures and talk in real-time through live-streaming on computers, gaming systems, tablets and smart phones.

“It’s not only vital that people understand that this is happening, but that it’s literally happening in the palms of children’s hands, including the places they should feel most safe—their homes,” Jeleniewski said.

If you have information regarding suspected child sexual exploitation, please report at www.CyberTipline.com or call 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678).

By Mike Hill

I work at the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, and I’m also a father.

Father’s Day is a day when dads celebrate with their children. As we celebrate Father’s Day with our families this weekend, it’s very easy to forget about the fathers out there whose children are missing.

These dads will not be celebrating. They’ll be clinging to the hope that one day, there will be a phone call or a knock on the door.

I can only imagine the sound of that knock and the hope that these fathers have that their children are behind that door, safe and sound.

What it must feel like to embrace your child after they have gone missing and returned home is beyond comprehension. Some children may never return home, and many families will never have the answers they desperately want. For these fathers, hope is all they have. Hope that their child is out there somewhere, trying to find their way home.

                                   Mike Hill

I started my career at NCMEC in 2002 when I was 23 years old. I became a father for the first time in 2013 and again in 2016. My daughters have completely changed my perspective about what I do for a living. The issues I deal with every day are what drive me. But becoming a father has made my job all the more personal.

My girls are my heart and soul. I live every moment for them.  They are truly my whole world. A child is a precious gift, and my wife and I are truly blessed to have two healthy children of our own.

As anyone who works at NCMEC can tell you, it’s easy to grow accustomed to hearing about cases of missing children, child sex trafficking or online predators. The FBI received more than 460,000 reports of missing kids last year alone. Our CyberTipline received 4.4 million reports last year of suspected child sexual exploitation. But not until you actually become a parent, does it really hit home. At least that’s the way it was for me.

I want to raise strong, empowered girls, who will one day grow into strong, empowered women. I believe that working at NCMEC has given me a head start and empowered me with the knowledge to keep my family safer.

                                                                        Photos by Sarah Baker (NCMEC)

I kiss my babies goodbye every morning I leave for work, and I pick them up and hug them as soon as I get home. My 2 ½-year-old thinks daddy goes to work to play with Clicky, our NetSmartz Internet Safety Robot.

What she doesn’t know, is that her daddy is Clicky, inside and out. For 15 years, NCMEC has been teaching children to be safer online with the prevention education program, NetSmartz (www.netsmartz.org.)

I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to provide the voice of Clicky for the majority of my adult life. I’ve also been able to feel what it’s like to look through his eyes as I’m high fiving kids in the Clicky costume.

To children like my daughters, Clicky is real. He teaches kids to be empowered so they can make safer decisions online and in the real world. He’s a hero and a role model to children, and in some small way, even though he’s a fictional robot, I look up to him. The same way I hope my girls will one day, look up to me and be proud of their father for what he chose to do for a living.

This weekend, as my family celebrates Father’s Day, I’m going to take a moment to remember those dads who aren’t celebrating. Those dads whose heart must sink deep into their chests every time someone knocks on the door. Those dads who are waiting for their babies to come home.

Hope is all they have…and hope is why we’re here.

By Sheryl Stokes

The murder of three Oklahoma Girl Scouts in 1977 shocked the nation. On June 13 that year, Michelle Guse, 9, Denise Milner, 10, and Lori Farmer, 8, were beaten, raped and murdered on their first day at camp.  Lori was my childhood friend. Her murder changed me and the course of my life. It’s hard to talk about, even 39 years later, but I will try.

Lori lived one street over and rode the bus with me to school.  My first memory of Lori was my first day of school after moving to Oklahoma.  She gave me a seat on the bus when no one else wanted to let the “new kid” sit down, smiling the whole time.  She was a beautiful and kind little girl who was protective of her siblings and inspired me to love to read almost as much as she did.

I found out about the murders on the news. As an 8-year-old child, I watched in horror. I heard what happened in detail. I saw the photos.  I remember hearing Lori’s name over and over and thinking to myself, this can’t be our Lori.  It rocked our community and our neighborhood.

Shortly after it happened, I remember hearing adults say the murderer was still out there and that he might come back and hurt more children.  Words can mean something completely different to a child than to an adult.  To me, “out there” meant outside my window or out in our neighborhood.  Coming back meant that maybe he had been here before.

Back then, there was not really any help for the families, community and friends.  We were left to figure it out on our own.  For a long time, I would wait until everyone else went to sleep, and I would take a pillow and my dog and spend the night in my closet. I was terrified that the murderer would come back. I knew my dog would bark if someone approached, and it was really soothing to pet him and talk to him about how I felt.  I remember him licking the tears off my face as I poured my heart out to him night after night.  My heart ached for all of the families, and I wondered how Lori’s family was ever going to be okay again. I really missed my friend.

              Sheryl, 8                                                              Lori, 8

Ten months after the largest manhunt in Oklahoma history, Gene Leroy Hart was arrested and charged in their murders. At his trial, at which he was acquitted, there was a big crowd of people at the courthouse holding up signs in support of Hart, but no one was holding up signs for the children.  What about the three beautiful little girls who were murdered?  Who was advocating for them and supporting their families?  I knew from a young age I was going to be an advocate for kids when I grew up. I wanted to make sure families and friends would not be alone if the unthinkable happened to them.

Many years later, I saw John Walsh on “America’s Most Wanted.”  He was the first person I had ever seen who was really angry there was nowhere for families to turn for help when their children went missing. His son, Adam, was abducted from a Florida shopping mall in 1981 and later found murdered. When he talked about Adam, I could see the love he had for that little boy. I could also see his anger.

Our situations were different, but I could relate to his anger.  I was angry too.  I was angry that Lori’s life was taken on purpose, and I was angry when I thought about what her last moments on Earth must have been like.  I was angry at myself because I wasn’t there to help her.  I was angry that no one was held accountable, and that people were forgetting that it ever happened. I was angry that no one was at the courthouse with signs supporting the children and their families.

I was also in awe of how John and his wife, Revé, took something so terrible and made something so amazing: The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.  What a beautiful way to honor Adam’s life and make meaning of a tragedy.  John and Revé became my earthly heroes and, as a child, I hoped to be advocates just like them one day.

Six years ago, I got my wish. I began working for the national center they founded, known as NCMEC. I’m a specialist in the Family Advocacy Division. Every day I get to advocate for children and help their families through one of the most difficult and isolating times in their lives.  FAD provides crisis intervention and helps families of missing and exploited children find support in their communities so they don’t have to go through something like this alone.  

Thirty-nine years later, I’m still waiting for answers. I still believe the murders will be solved.  I live each day with continued hope for answers for the families. Someone knows what happened, and my hope is someday that person will come forward.

I have photos on my desk of Lori, Denise and Michelle that I see every morning when I walk into my Alexandria, Virginia office.  I wish I could tell Lori how much she impacted my life, and that I have held her closely in my heart for 39 years.  I wish I could tell her that I have a close relationship with her family today, and that they are some of the most resilient and loving people I know.  Today and every day, I honor your memory, Lori.

Tomorrow, June 9, marks 21 years since Morgan Nick was abducted from a Little League Baseball field in Alma, Arkansas at the age of 6. Her family has never stopped searching for her, and will never give up.
Below is a letter that her mother penned for her 26th birthday.
View and share her poster here.

(Morgan Nick, missing since 1995, and her kitten Emily.)

Dearest Morgan,

Today is your 26th birthday. Today marks twenty birthdays without you here. We miss you so desperately and our hearts are ragged with grief. We have searched for you every single day since the day you were kidnapped from us at the Little League Baseball field in Alma, Arkansas.

You were only 6 years old. We went with our friends to watch one of their children play in the game. You threw your arms around my neck in a bear hug, planted a kiss on my cheek, and ran to catch fireflies with your friends.

It is the last time that I saw you. There have been so many days since then of emptiness and heartache.

On this birthday I choose to think about your laughter, your smile, the twinkle in your sparkling blue eyes. I celebrate who you are and the deep and lasting joy that you bring to our family.

I smile today as I think about your 5th birthday. For that birthday, we took you to the Humane Society with the promise of adopting a kitten. You, my precious little girl with your big heart, took one look around the cat room and picked out the ugliest, scrawniest, most pitiful looking kitten in the entire place. Such a tiny little thing, that it was mostly all eyes.

Dad and I used our best parental powers of persuasion to get you to pick a different kitten, to look at the older cats, to choose any other feline besides that poor ugly kitty. It looked like someone had taken the worst leftover colors of mud, stirred them together, and used them to design a kitten.

You planted your five-year-old feet, looked us straight in the eye and declared that this was the kitten you were taking home. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. You would not budge and you resolutely refused to take a second look at any other cat or kitten in the room.  You had a fire of conviction in your heart.

The unexpected obstacle we faced was that we were not able to adopt on that Saturday, but had to wait until Monday to finalize. For the rest of the weekend and all day Monday, you fretted and pouted and worried that someone else would take “your” kitten home with them. We tried to assure you that no one else would want that cat. We didn’t want to say it was because it was so tiny, or so ugly, or so-nothing-at-all-but-eyes. You could see only beauty and you were in love.

Finally, Monday afternoon came and dad brought it home with him after work. In that moment, your daddy was your biggest hero because he had saved your kitten.

You tenderly snuggled that little bit of fur into your arms and declared that her name was Emily. You adored your new kitten and she loved you right back. Emily gained some weight and filled out a bit. Her colors started to take shape. We began to see the same beauty in her that you had seen in that very first moment.

Where you went, Emily went. You played together. You ate together. You watched Barney together. You slept together.

Which brings me to the photo. It captures everything we love about you. I would slip into your room late at night and stand there, watching the two of you sleeping together, in awe of your sweetness, and my heart would squeeze a little tighter.

So many birthdays have passed since then. So many days since a stranger ripped you from our hearts.

My sweet girl, if you should happen to read this, we want you to know how very important and special you are to us. You are a blessing we cannot live without. We feel cheated by every day that goes by and we do not see your smile, hear your bubbly laughter, or listen to your thoughts and ideas. We have never stopped believing that we will find you. We are saving all our hugs and kisses for you.

Please be strong and brave, with a fire of conviction in your heart, just like the day you picked out your kitten!

On this birthday we promise you that we will always fight for you. We will bring you back home to our family where you belong. We will always love you! We will never give up.

Love Mom & Dad

To everyone who joined the #RockOneSock campaign in the month of May – Thank You! We here at the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children were blown away by the support and awareness that the campaign helped to garner for missing children. 

We were touched to see photos from family members of missing children, survivors, celebrities, athletes, members of the media, advocates, mommy bloggers, law enforcement, corporate partners, pets and many more. People were wildly creative and energetic with their Rock One Sock photos and the campaign even trended nationwide on Twitter on May 25, Missing Children’s Day. Overall the campaign truly helped to raise awareness and support for the work and programs of the National Center and, more importantly, it stood as a symbol of hope for the families of missing children that we stand by them and we will never stop searching.

So to each and every person (and pet) who donned one sock during the month of May, we say thanks.

Below are just a handful of the posts from the campaign that show how much fun everyone had while participating:

So @John_Walsh challenged me to #RockOneSock for @MissingKids I challenged @JoshSundquist and he beat me to it! Me: pic.twitter.com/POkGkPptvQ

— Pauley Perrette (@PauleyP)

May 28, 2016

I took the #RockOneSock challenge to raise awareness for @missingkids. #JasonSudeikis you’re next! pic.twitter.com/wGMNkbHvq6

— Tony Hawk (@tonyhawk)

May 27, 2016

Members of FBI’s Office of Public Affairs are rocking one sock in honor of Nat'l Missing Children’s Day #RockOneSock pic.twitter.com/JxHObQR2NT

— FBI (@FBI)

May 25, 2016

You can view many more #RockOneSock images by searching for that hashtag on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook. 

Our president and CEO, John F. Clark, demonstrates #RockOneSock for National Missing Children’s Day at the Department of Justice.

When 6-year-old Etan Patz disappeared on his way to school in New York City on May 25, 1979, there was no national response or database in place to aid in locating him. Two years later, when Adam Walsh, also 6, was abducted from a retail store, there was still no regional or national response system in place to help local law enforcement search for him. These prominent missing children cases and others pushed Congress to enact the Missing Children’s Act in 1982 which mandated the entry of missing child information into the FBI’s National Crime Information Center database, known as NCIC. It was also the launching pad for the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

National Missing Children’s Day was first proclaimed in 1983 by President Ronald Reagan and is observed every year on May 25, the anniversary of the disappearance of Etan, to encourage parents, guardians, caregivers and others concerned with the well-being of children to make child safety a priority.

“The search for Etan Patz has continued for more than three decades,” said Robert Lowery, vice president of the Missing Children’s Division at NCMEC. “We never forget a child no matter how long they have been missing. National Missing Children’s Day honors this commitment to help locate and recover missing children like Etan by reminding parents, guardians, families and communities that every child deserves a safe childhood.”

The good news is more missing children come home safely today than at any other point in history. As for Etan, his case may finally be on the verge of closure as the Manhattan District Attorney considers trying his case a second time after the recent trail against Pedro Hernandez ended in a mistrial. Regardless of the outcomes of the trial, Etan’s legacy lives on through the work of NCMEC each day and by bringing awareness to missing children each year on May 25.

“National Missing Children’s Day is a day to remember Etan and the many other missing children who are still out there – we never, ever stop looking,” Lowery said. “It is also a day to take action: Look at a poster of a missing child, share it or take time to talk with a child about safety.”

FIVE WAYS YOU CAN HELP:

ONE: ROCK ONE SOCK

In honor of National Missing Children’s Day (May 25), the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children launched a new nationwide campaign: Rock One Sock!  We’re asking everyone to rock one sock for missing kids, take a “footsie” and post to social media using hashtag #RockOneSock. Let’s start a movement!

Our friends at Discovery Communications helped us create this awesome PSA. Check it out!

TWO: SHARE A POSTER

On National Missing Children’s Day this year, can you take a moment to share the poster of a missing child in your state? Just one small act can bring a child home safe. Sharing a child’s image is law enforcement’s single most effective tool in recovering missing children.

CLICK HERE to find a poster of a child missing in your state.

THREE: KNOW WHAT TO DO

Know what to do if your child goes missing. Create a child ID kit for each of your children and update it at least once a year.

FOUR: TALK TO YOUR KIDS

Know what to tell your children about child abduction. Simply teaching your children about “stranger danger” may leave them vulnerable to other forms of child abduction. According to NCMEC’s research, teaching our children to avoid strangers is not enough. We must also teach them how to recognize and respond to risky situations. In fact, 83% of children who escaped their would-be abductors kicked, yelled and pulled away to escape.

Read more parent tips on http://www.kidsmartz.org/ to make sure your children are prepared.

FIVE: TEACH YOUR KIDS ONLINE SAFETY

More children age 12-17 are online and on mobile devices than any generation before. This poses a unique challenge for parents to ensure the safety of their children from online threats. NCMEC’s NetSmartz program provides tips and discussion topics for parents to teach their kids how to responsibly and safely use digital citizenship. There are also sections for teachers and law makers, as well as cartoons and comics for kids and teens. http://www.netsmartz.org/Parents

No matter how you get involved with Missing Children’s Day this year make sure you’re doing something in the fight to #KeepKidsSafe. And remember, one small act can bring a child home safe.

In honor of National Missing Children’s Day (May 25), the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children launched a new nationwide campaign: Rock One Sock!

We’re asking everyone to rock one sock for missing kids, take a “footsie” and post to social media using hashtag #RockOneSock. Let’s start a movement!

Our friends at Discovery Communications helped us create this awesome PSA. Check it out!

Why Rock One Sock?

We know that missing children’s issues do not affect every household, but this is a small gesture you can do to show that you stand in solidarity with missing children and their families.

After you post your footsie, continue to spread awareness and support by tagging friends to either do the #RockOneSock challenge or make a donation to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.  Need some inspiration? Check out what others are posting!

by Barbara Worth; photos by Sarah Baker, Carol Summers and Amanda Newcomb 

She never saw him, but through her computer screen, the stranger got right in her face. “Naked pictures,” remembers Ashley Reynolds, then 14. “The subject line said something about naked pictures that he has of me.”  

He kept messaging, demanding explicit photos. “He was not going to stop,” Reynolds says in an FBI videotape. “He was set on sharing my picture with whoever he could to ruin my reputation.” She was frightened just enough to send seven pictures, then more, and more, responding to escalating demands and further blackmail until she was sending 60 pictures a day.   

Reynolds had been ensnared in sextortion. The torment lasted months, until her mother discovered it and called The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children’s CyberTipline – the national mechanism for reporting suspected child sexual exploitation. NCMEC contacted the FBI, which not only found and successfully prosecuted the offender, but uncovered computer records showing he had terrorized nearly 350 other girls in the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom.

This week at NCMEC’s 2016 Hope Awards, Reynolds was honored with the “Courage Award” for bravely taking on a predator and going public about her ordeal in hopes of helping others.  Also at the dinner in Washington, Facebook was honored with the “Charles B. Wang International Children’s Award” for its commitment to child safety and its innovative use of technology to mobilize the public on behalf of NCMEC’s mission. And a special Hope Award was given in memoriam to Joseph R. “Beau” Biden III who was deeply committed to the protection of children. He used his two terms as Delaware’s attorney general to change the way his state prosecuted crimes against children and to rescue children from abusive situations.

Every year, NCMEC celebrates inspiring work done to protect children. The Hope Awards recognize leaders in child safety, honor survivors and remember children who are still missing. “We hope one day all missing children come home and that there will be no more exploitation,” says John F. Clark, NCMEC’s president and CEO. 

In hopes of warning and educating others about sextortion, Reynolds has chosen to speak about her ordeal to children, parents and law enforcement. The lead investigator who helped track down and arrest her abuser, FBI special agent Larry Meyer, appeared with Reynolds on the Hope Awards stage. "I’m thrilled that she’s getting this award,“ says Meyer. "She has done a great job in bringing this new trend in child sexual exploitation to the public.”  

(Photo: Ashley Reynolds  along with her parents, actor Bryan Cranston and FBI Special Agent Larry Meyer) 

Meyer said in an interview that the FBI has identified 115 victims of this one sextortion scam alone. There are likely many more victims.  At the Hope Awards, Reynolds said that as our virtual world grows, sextortion "is only getting worse." As she puts it, "I was virtually kidnapped…I was abducted by a stranger…my parents saw me every single day but they had no idea." 

Though sextortion is made possible by technology, technology is also being enlisted to fight both it and other forms of child sexual exploitation – and to help find missing children. Facebook has been a long-time partner in NCMEC’s fight to protect children and has been a leader in the effort to apply technology and innovation to the issues of missing and exploited children. The social media giant was one of the first adopters of PhotoDNA, a technology that uses hash values to find similar images among millions. Facebook’s use of this technology has vastly elevated the voluntary detection of suspected child sexual abuse images and helped remove countless children from abusive situations. Facebook’s ability to connect with the public is an incredible asset in sharing information about missing children. Facebook is also a secondary distributor in the AMBER Alert program and has donated tools to help increase the number of people who see posts about missing children. 

"I’m really excited that our service is playing a vital role in this incredible program,” said Facebook’s Joel Kaplan. He added that Facebook is now working to expand the presence of AMBER Alerts to countries around the world.

(Photo:  Joel Kaplan, Facebook vice president, public policy who accepted the Charles B. Wang International Children’s Award, stands with NCMEC board member Emily Vacher, Facebook’s director of trust and safety, and actor and child advocate Bryan Cranston) 

Raising awareness about the need to protect children was part of Beau Biden’s life mission. As Delaware’s attorney general, Beau created a Child Predator Task Force to track down and arrest people who committed sex offenses against children. The task force convicted more than 200 predators and rescued more than 120 children from abusive situations. “The Beau Biden Foundation for the Protection of Children” was founded after his death on May 30, 2015 at the age of 46.

His younger brother Hunter accepted the award posthumously for Beau, whom NCMEC co-founder John Walsh called “our star attorney general of all time." Before his death last year, Beau Biden had spoken about safety to some 30,000 kids – visiting middle and high schools after work, after his national guard duty – staying until every kid’s question was answered. "He was tireless, guided by a firm sense of right and wrong,” said Hunter Biden at the Hope Awards. "We need more Beau Bidens in the world. I wish we still had one.“(Photo: Beau Biden, Feb. 3, 1969 – May 30, 2015) 

 (Photo:  Hunter Biden accepts Hope Award on behalf of his brother, Beau Biden, from NCMEC co-founders John and Reve’ Walsh. Also shown is Manus Cooney, NCMEC board chair.) 

Next year, NCMEC will celebrate more inspiring stories and astounding dedication to the work of helping children.  We thank all who support the critical mission of our organization and the partners and friends who help make our work possible.  

Eleven-year-old Joshua Hale was allegedly abducted by his mother, Erin Hale on November 3, 2015. A felony warrant was issued for Erin on December 3, 2015.

Today, Joshua’s father, Mike, has penned a heartfelt letter to his missing son pleading for his safe return home.

Joshua,

I can’t explain how much I miss seeing your smiling face… It has been almost six months since I have seen your face or heard your voice. There is not a minute that goes by that I don’t think about you.

I hope you’re ok… I hope you’re well. I’m not sure why this has happened to us, but I hope you come home to your family and friends that miss and love you. We continue to look and search for you. We will always continue to look and search for you. I pray each night that you call. I pray each night that you will return home to us. 

I miss you, Bud…more than you will ever know. 

You will never know how sad I am without you. We have missed out on a lot of important things together… I think of the minutes, hours and days that have passed and the experiences that we have not been able to share together.  We love you. We miss you with all of our hearts we hope you come home soon.

We love you,

Dad

By Barbara Worth, graphics and photos by Sarah Baker

The nightmare: You’re standing in the middle of traffic on a busy expressway. You have no shirt, no shoes, no belt, and your pants are slipping off. Cars are speeding past; any second, one could hit you. You try to call for help, but you cannot speak: You can make only unintelligible noises. Drivers are honking at you, yelling at you, swearing at you. You crouch, hands over your ears, seeing no way to save yourself. Finally, you wake up, relieved to know it was just a bad dream.

For you, that is. For one 12-year-old boy this past February, it was reality. Like many children with autism, the boy is a wanderer. Kids like him tend to walk or run away from safe environments to get close to their often-dangerous fixations, such as traffic signs or, most often, bodies of water. Many move so fast that first responders can’t move fast enough, and the children don’t survive.

Between 2011-2015, there were 98 deaths of children with autism who wandered, the vast majority from drowning, according the National Autism Association.  

The boy in our story survived. He is alive today because after he wandered onto the Northwest Expressway in Oklahoma City, he was spotted by Ashlee Cody, a mom whose 7-year-old daughter has autism. When she saw the boy caught in traffic, she says something in her knew he was “just like my daughter. He didn’t know where he was and what he was doing .”

Cody began calling out to other drivers, “He has autism!” She parked her SUV. A pregnant woman agreed to watch Cody’s two children, and a jogger walked with Cody into traffic. Together, they guided the boy to safety. Cody retrieved a pair of noise-canceling headphones from her car and placed them over the boy’s ears. He calmed down instantly. “I gave him soothing things,” she says: a juice box, an orange lollipop, an electronic tablet so he could draw. When the police arrived, the lost, misunderstood boy who had been helplessly trapped in traffic, “was so happy…he was hugging me,” says Cody. “He was drawing happy faces.”

Knowledge. Understanding. Compassion. They made all the difference to this boy, and to other children with autism who wandered, went missing and were safely recovered. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children recently joined forces with Autism Speaks and The Massachusetts State Police to train about 400 first responders at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts on how to effectively search for and recover these children. Their most important takeaway, according Mike Murphy, program manager in NCMEC’s Missing Children Division, was that “Every autism call is both critical and unique.” Critical because of the high mortality rate among wanderers, and unique because the signs of autism can be very confusing if first responders aren’t familiar with them.

Photo of attendees at Foxborough seminar.

For example, children with autism may be non-verbal, so an officer who knows that won’t be surprised if they don’t respond to simple questions. Some children might speak, but only use lines from favorite movies. Others may simply repeat words spoken to them. Still others might appear to be deaf, only to run away if they hear something that frightens them, such as sirens, lights, or an authority figure saying, “I don’t know what to do with this kid.”

Like Cody, a trained officer will understand that noise-making could be a child’s attempt to say, “I need help,” in the only way he knows how. Seeing a child cover his ears with his hands would be a sign that he is over-stimulated, as Cody understood when she gave the noise-canceling headphones to the boy she led from traffic. Further, children with autism might not perceive that an officer’s uniform connotes authority, and they might walk away instead of showing respect. Or, they might simply be afraid, as they are often bullied. If officers know these things, and know that these children commonly wander to bodies of water or into traffic, or shed their clothes, they should be less likely to mistakenly suspect that the children are on drugs or should be handcuffed – an action that Cody stresses would further overwhelm a child with autism.

…and there are many of them. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in 68 children is diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum. More than half of these children are prone to wandering. The behavior is known as “wandering” or “elopement” in the autism community, but “bolt” may be a better descriptor. Many of these children take off in a flash.  NCMEC’s Murphy warns first responders, “You will be encountering someone with autism, I promise you. It’s not if:  It’s when.”

Tracy Eldridge, chief dispatcher at the Rochester Communications Center in Massachusetts, wants to be prepared for the call before it comes in. “We are going to be ahead of it, not behind it,” says Eldridge, who attended the training session in Foxborough. Drawing from material provided by NCMEC and leading autism advocacy groups, she’s working with parents and caregivers to set up “Operation Special Alert.” It will consist of detailed information about local residents with special needs, including autism, and procedures for her dispatchers to follow. They will know to ask callers, who may be panicked, if a wandering child is verbal, needs medication, has specific triggers or fears, whether they’ve wandered before and where to – information that sets up a correct response for those headed to the search area. 

Photo of Tracy Eldridge, Chief Dispatcher, Rochester Communications Center, Rochester, MA. Courtesy Tracy Eldridge.

Moms like Cody know firsthand that such informed responses are vital.  She’s aware of the possibility that the next wandering child caught in traffic could be her daughter. She says, “I may need somebody to help rescue Peyton someday.”

To report a missing child, including one you suspect may have autism, call law enforcement and The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678). To get a copy of NCMEC’s guide for investigators go to www.missingkids.org/lawenforcement.  More resources are at www.awaare.org, a collaboration of autism agencies providing resources and tools, including the Big Red Safety Box.

Advocates for people with special needs on the field at Gillette Stadium following first responder training sessions.

by Christine Barndt

Two years and counting with NCMEC’s “Help ID Me” Facebook page

“We just thought…is there something more we can be doing for these kids?” Carol Schweitzer, a senior forensic case specialist at the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, knew that social media was going to change the way we search for missing kids, and could hold the key to identifying the more than 700 unknown deceased children on file with the center.

NCMEC’s Unknown Victim Identification Program was launched in November 2011 to assist medical examiners, coroners and law enforcement who are investigating the deaths of unidentified children.

Two years ago, the UVIP team decided to undertake the task of getting decades of images out to the public, from facial reconstructions to photos of clothing and jewelry found on young victims. They launched the Facebook page, “Help ID Me,” in April 2014 to bring the public into the search for the identities of deceased children…some of whom have remained nameless for decades.

“Up until 2014, we were really at the mercy of others to get these images out to the public,” said Schweitzer. There’s only so many pictures we could fit on a poster.”

The team was inspired by identifications they saw from other social media sites and decided it would be the perfect avenue to reach the wide audience they needed.

“We got really excited about the idea that a Facebook page could reach the people who may have known our kids…siblings, neighbors, childhood friends,” said Schweitzer.

What many people may not realize is how difficult it is to search for an unidentified child. Relying on reports of missing kids is not enough because many children are never reported missing. In fact, 38 percent of the kids NCMEC has identified weren’t reported missing. That’s an astounding number and one that underscores the difficulty of the team’s work. How do you search for someone you don’t know is missing?

Over the last two years, the UVIP team has assisted law enforcement in the identification of 34 children and they can tie at least seven of those IDs directly to social media.

“You never know what’s going to spark recognition,” said Schweitzer.

And so, the team will continue its efforts to find answers for the hundreds of kids still waiting to get their names back.

Check out the unidentified cases in your state and “like” the Help ID Me page at www.facebook.com/HelpIDMe

Erin,

Happy Birthday!  

The fact that this is your 30^th birthday seems so unreal.  

The 30^th Birthday is a huge marker for everyone as we move through our lives.  Most people have a list of the things we will “have achieved”, “have learned”, “have adventured”, or “have enjoyed” by the time we turn 30.  You are a planner and a list maker.  I know you had a list at 15:  Actress of the highest caliber.  Platinum award winning musician.  Broadway star.  Mom to three kids.  Horse trainer.  Veterinarian. All around amazing person.   Your hopes and dreams when you were growing up were high.  Then plans got interrupted.  

Your 30^th Birthday is an even bigger marker for us celebrating it without you.  We celebrated 15 birthdays with you.  This makes the 15^th birthday celebrating it without you present.  That is half of your life.  It means you have been gone from us as many years as you were with us.  When I realized the significance of this, about two months ago, I was in the car on the phone with my friend.  I started crying as soon as the words were out of my mouth.  You are 30. I want to celebrate.  But sitting and crying seems just as appropriate.

I have NOT lost hope of finding you.  I WILL celebrate a birthday with you.  The biggest party ever!  Some people have lost hope.  I can’t blame them.  We all have had to figure out how to get through the last 15 years with our heads still on straight.  We have all done it in our own way.  We carry you with us.  But in our heads, you are still 15.  We can’t see you as any other way.  Even when the age progression pictures show us otherwise.  None of those capture your smile.  I know we’ll know you by your smile.

We are having a party for you this weekend.  Pizza, games, cupcakes, streamers, all of the best things for a party.  I know you can throw a better party than I can.  You always got everything right, even the little details.  Details like glitter and confetti.  There will be no glitter.  The glitter was yours.  I don’t like glitter very much anymore.

We have invited your friends. I never realized how many friends you have.  How many lives you touched.  I hear such great stories all the time from people. From friends, family, teachers, and a dance coach I hadn’t met.  Even the secretary at the high school speaks highly of you.  We all miss you.  We all want you home.  Please come home.

We love you.  I love you.  More than I probably ever told you.  “I Love you” doesn’t even seem to cover it in a way that magnifies it enough. Now that you aren’t here to say it to, it seems even more empty.  It needs to be so much more.  “Love is a rose.  But you better not pick it.  It only grows when it is on the vine.”  I used to love singing you that song.  I wish you were still on the vine.  I still sing the song.  To any little one that will lay still long enough.  And I tell them about you.  And how great you sang it too.

Happy Birthday Erin! Wherever you are.  We love you.  I wish that was enough.

Love,

Mom

View Erin’s poster

Here Erin’s photo is shown age-progressed to 29 years

by Deborah Hennig

Nearly half of children with autism will wander, or elope, from safe environments and many of these children are attracted to water or other dangerous environments. In 2014, a 14-year-old  boy with autism, Avonte Oquendo, wandered away from his school in New York City, sparking a massive search. Tragically, Avonte drowned in New York City’s East River before rescuers could find him.

“Children with autism can exhibit unique behaviors that can make finding those who wander especially challenging,” said Robert G. Lowery Jr., vice president of NCMEC’s Missing Children Division.  Working with autism organizations, NCMEC has developed special search protocols to help find these children as well as other useful resources, which are available at http://www.missingkids.org/autism.

Avonte’s story helped birth Kevin and Avonte’s Law of 2016 (S. 2614), which will help families locate missing loved ones who have Alzheimer’s Disease, autism or other related conditions that may cause them to wander away from their caregivers. The bill was introduced in the Senate on March 1, 2016 by Senators Charles E. Schumer (D-NY), Charles E. Grassley (R-IA) and Thom Tillis (R-NC).  On April 5, 2016, Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-IL) was added as a cosponsor.

The bill, named in honor of Avonte Oquendo and another boy with autism, 9-year-old Kevin Curtis Wills, who jumped into Iowa’s Raccoon River near a park and tragically drowned in 2008, passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee on April 14, 2016 and now faces a vote in the Senate.

“I’m honored to join Sen. Grassley and Sen. Schumer in their effort to create a system that will help locate children with autism who are prone to wandering,” said Sen. Tillis. “This legislation will give families in North Carolina and across the nation the peace of mind that our local communities and first responders have the resources to help find missing children with autism spectrum disorder and adults with Alzheimer’s Disease.”

The legislation will reauthorize the expired Missing Alzheimer’s Disease Patient Alert Program and includes new provisions to support people with autism. The legislation allows for the use of Department of Justice grants by state and local law enforcement agencies and non-profit organizations to develop and implement training and education programs intended to help proactively prevent individuals with autism from wandering.  The bill also provides access to resources for state and local agencies to aid in locating these individuals when they go missing and permits the use of federal funding to establish or enhance notification or communications systems for the recovery of missing children with autism.

“We’ve all seen the heartbreaking stories of families frantically trying to locate a missing loved one whose condition caused him or her to wander off,” Sen. Grassley said. “We’ve also seen benefits of the AMBER Alert program and other notification systems to locate missing children and bring relief to families through community assistance.”

Kevin and Avonte’s Law will use similar concepts and other technology to help locate people with Alzheimer’s Disease or other forms of dementia as well as children with autism spectrum disorders who may be prone to wander away from their families or caregivers.  It will also make resources available to equip first responders and other community officials with the training necessary to better prevent and respond to these cases.

“With better information sharing, communities can play a central role in reuniting these children with their families,” Sen. Grassley said.

The month of April is #AutismAwareness month and here at the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children we hope every American will take 5 minutes to learn about the dangers that families of children with autism face. In the U.S. alone, it’s estimated that autism affects over 3 million people. It’s estimated that one out every 68 children has an Autism Spectrum Disorder, and according to a 2012 study in Pediatrics, nearly half of children with ASD wander or bolt from safe settings. Individuals with ASD are often attracted to water, yet have little to no sense of danger. Drowning is a leading cause of death in children with ASD.

Finding and safely recovering a missing child with autism presents unique and difficult challenges for families, law enforcement, first responders and search teams. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children has special search protocols and checklists to help first responders.

As part of Autism Awareness month we had the National Autism Association take over our Instagram account to help spread awareness. Check out some of the top posts from the takeover below, or follow us on Instagram to see all of them. https://www.instagram.com/1800thelost/

It’s estimated that one out every 68 children has an Autism Spectrum Disorder, and according to a 2012 study in Pediatrics, nearly half of children with ASD wander or bolt from safe settings. Individuals with ASD are often attracted to water, yet have little to no sense of danger. Drowning is a leading cause of death in children with ASD.  @NationalAutism #Autism #AutismSafety #WorldAutismAwarenessDay #instagramtakeover

Nearly half of children with #autism will wander, or elope, from safe environments. And more than one-third of children with autism are considered nonverbal. Finding and safely recovering a missing child with autism presents unique and difficult challenges for families, law enforcement, first responders and search teams. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children has special search protocols and checklists to help first responders. @NationalAutism #Autism #AutismSafety #WorldAutismAwarenessDay #NCMEC #Instagramtakeover

“Once you’ve met one person with autism, you’ve met one person with autism.” Share & help educate! @NationalAutism #AutismAwareness #WorldAutismAwarenessDay #Instagramtakeover

“This is my worst nightmare. I have an almost seven-year-old daughter with autism. She is a wanderer/runner. She is easily over stimulated and will run to try to get away from noise.  You can’t imagine how frightening it is as a mom to not know what to do to keep her safely tucked in bed.  Or to be able to take her to the park and not feel safe even for a moment.” – Tambra W., Mother of a child with autism @NationalAutism #Autism #AutismSafety #WorldAutismAwarenessDay #Instagramtakeover

Drowning is the leading cause of death resulting from a wandering incident. Please follow the link for a list of @ymca locations that offer special needs swimming lessons, and be sure that your child’s last lesson is with clothes and shoes on. @NationalAutism #Autism #AutismSafety #Instagramtakeover @thecommunityymca @ymca

By Barbara Worth

Dwelling in the private world known only to twins, Jeannette and Dannette Millbrooks spent much of their free time relaxing on their front porch in Augusta, Georgia, talking to one another and watching the world pass by. If anyone spoke to them, they would just smile.

“They didn’t come off the porch,” said their cousin, Yolanda Curry. “I can see their smiles with my eyes closed.”

Then one day – March 18, 1990 to be exact – the fraternal twins left the safety of their beloved porch – and vanished. They’ve been missing for 26 years this month.

What happened to Jeannette and Dannette is a mystery, but their family has never given up hope of finding them. If by any chance the girls, who would be 42-year-old women on April 2, are reading this story, Curry wants them to know this: “I love them and I will never stop looking for them until the day I die.”

Just days before their 16^th birthday, the twins headed out to visit a family friend. Their 12-year-old sister, Shanta (shawn-TAY’) Sturgis, begged to go with them, but the teenagers didn’t want their baby sister tagging along.

Jeannette and Dannette made it to their friend’s house at about 4 p.m., then walked on to what was then a Pump-N-Shop gas station and convenience store near the intersection of 12^th Street and MLK Boulevard. They went inside and bought chips and drinks. The store clerk later told their sister that the twins seemed fine. It was about 4:30 p.m. when the clerk, busy at a cash register, saw the twins leave the store. She caught a vague glimpse of a vehicle outside, but didn’t see enough to give sheriff’s deputies a detailed description, or to say whether the twins got in or what direction they might’ve gone.

It’s been hard – especially on the twins’ mother, Mary Sturgis. Shanta Sturgis, the little sister left behind, wrote on her Facebook page last year, “I have been trying for so long.  My mom is 60 years old now. Imagine yourself not seeing your kids that long…I can’t imagine this happening to me. But wait:  It did, ‘cause those girls are my blood sisters and a piece of me left when they never returned.”

Says Curry, “I feel they got picked up by somebody…if someone was friendly to them and offered a ride, they would have gotten into the car.”  Shanta Sturgis has said she wishes she had been able to go with the twins that day, but says Curry, if she had, Shanta might have been taken as well.

Yolanda Curry today, age 44, hoping to see her twin cousins again.

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children’s Robert Lowery says it’s “extremely rare” for two siblings to be abducted together by a non-family member. It does happen, however. In 1975, sisters Katherine and Sheila Lyon, aged 10 and 12, went missing in Wheaton, Maryland and have never been found. In 1997, sisters Kati and Kristin Lisk, ages 12 and 15, were murdered after being abducted outside their home in Spotsylvania County, Virginia. In 2014, Amish sisters Delila and Fannie Miller, 7 and 12, were abducted in upstate New York. They were released within 24 hours following an AMBER Alert, but not before they were sexually abused. Their kidnappers told police they used a dog to lure the girls to their car, and that they had intended to keep the girls as slaves.

Yolanda Curry fears her quiet, homebody cousins could be enslaved somewhere. Lowery, vice president of NCMEC’s Missing Children Division, says while it’s important not to raise false hopes, “It’s important that we not give up hope, because a number of these long-term missing kids have been found and reunited with their families. Some amazing things have happened.”

For example, Jaycee Dugard was found alive after 18 years in captivity in California. Three girls who were abducted and held – much of the time in chains – in a Cleveland house for a decade are free today because one of them escaped and called law enforcement. And when she was 23, Carlina White of New York discovered she had been abducted as an infant, contacted NCMEC, and was reunited with her biological family. Law enforcement is appealing to the public for any information that might help them find the Millbrooks twins. Major Scott Peebles, commander of the Criminal Investigations Bureau at the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office  in Georgia, says any observations or memories that would help shed light on the case would be greatly appreciated. Curry notes that in the area where the twins were last seen, everybody knows everybody, and she believes there’s no way in the world the two girls could’ve gone missing without someone seeing something. Even now, Curry says people still ask her about her missing cousins.

Jeannette and Dannette Millbrooks are African-American. When they went missing, their black hair was styled in soft, shiny loose curls known as Jheri curls. Both have brown eyes, pierced ears and scars on their navels from operations shortly after birth. Dannette was 5 feet 6 inches tall, 130 pounds and bowlegged. She was last seen wearing a white top with Mickey Mouse on it (both girls loved watching cartoons), white jeans and black shoes. Jeannette was 5 feet 4 inches, 125 pounds. She was last seen wearing a blue pullover shift, a white turtleneck, a beige skirt, white stockings and white sneakers. The twins were in the ninth grade at Lucy Laney High School.

The photo on the left shows Dannette as a teenager. She was 15 when she went missing.
The image on the right is an age progression showing what Dannette may have looked like at age 39.

The photo on the left shows Jeannette as a teenager. She was 15 when she went missing.
The image on the right is an age progression showing what Jeannette may have looked like at age 39.

View their poster: http://ow.ly/tf0q3

If you have any information, please call

NCMEC at 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678)

or the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office in Augusta, Georgia (706) 821-1080.

by Deborah Hennig

The work of tracking sex offenders is never done. It takes a comprehensive network of agencies on the federal, state and local level to ensure compliance and to locate and apprehend noncompliant sex offenders. Helping these various players work together to ensure compliance and to keep kids safer is just one of the key goals of the Adam Walsh Reauthorization Act of 2016.

The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, enacted in 2006, went a long way in addressing these goals and in enabling increased communication between the agencies. The reauthorization of the act, which was introduced in the Senate on March 1, 2016 by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley and Senators Charles Schumer, Orrin Hatch, and Dianne Feinstein enables the continuation of two key programs:

ONE: It reauthorizes the Sex Offender Management Assistance Program, a federal grant program that assists state and local law enforcement agencies in their efforts to improve sex offender registry systems and information sharing capabilities.  

TWO: It reauthorizes the Jessica Lunsford Address Verification Grant Program, a federal program that assists state and local law enforcement agencies in their efforts to verify the residence of all or some registered sex offenders.

The bill also reauthorizes the work the U.S. Marshals Service does to aid state and local law enforcement in the location and apprehension of sex offenders who fail to comply with registration requirements.

“Preventing sex crimes, especially by known offenders, requires a team effort by law enforcement at every level,” Said Sen. Grassley. “Congress has passed laws to promote a unified approach to sex offender registration and notification. This bill will help to ensure that our state and local law enforcement officials continue to have the federal resources and assistance they need to successfully track offenders with a history of crimes against children.”

The Adam Walsh Reauthorization Act is scheduled to be considered during the month of March by the Senate Judiciary Committee. After it passes out of committee it will then have to be passed by both the Senate and House before being signed into law by the president. 

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, through its Sex Offender Tracking Team, provides technical assistance and analysis to federal, state and local law enforcement in their efforts to locate and apprehend noncompliant sex offenders. 

NCMEC created SOTT in 2006 to use our analytical resources to support law enforcement efforts to locate noncompliant registered sex offenders and to help link these noncompliant offenders to unresolved cases of missing and sexually exploited children known to NCMEC.

In September 2009, the U.S. Marshals Service established the National Sex Offender Targeting Center to provide assistance to law enforcement agencies enforcing the provisions of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006.

For more information about NCMEC’s Sex Offender Tracking Team visit: http://www.missingkids.org/SOTT

By Barbara Worth, Graphics by Carol Summers

If a child goes missing, you know to contact the police and The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. 

But who do you contact if you see an Internet ad offering a child for sex? Or to report child pornography or other suspected child sexual exploitation? Answer: You contact NCMEC’s CyberTipline.* 

The CyberTipline is the national mechanism for the Internet industry – and you – to report suspected child sexual exploitation. In 2015, the CyberTipline received more than 4.4 million reports. That’s up from 2014’s high of just over one million – and more than in all previous 16 years of the CyberTipline’s existence combined. 

Keep reading

“Baby Allison” was probably never given a real name.
The newborn was thrown out in the trash.

It was near Christmas 2003, and students at an Amish school in Lancaster, Pennsylvania were getting ready to break for the holiday. The kids did what that always did—took their trash out behind the school and burned it in a barrel.

The Amish Sycamore School in Lancaster, Pennsylvania

Little could they imagine that the 55-gallon burn barrel would soon become a crime scene. When the students returned from break only a few days later, they yet again took their trash out to the barrel but this time they were confronted with the unimaginable. Inside were the remains of a newborn, discarded in nothing but a pair of blood-soaked women’s underwear and partially wrapped in a plastic bag.

An autopsy revealed that Baby Allison, a name investigators gave the child, was a six-pound infant, born alive and killed shortly after. Her throat had been slashed with a sharp blade.

Although she was found behind an Amish school, genetic testing showed that she was likely not Amish. It also showed that her parents were probably of European decent. The person who gave birth to her could have been local; however, cops say she could have easily been from out of town, since Lancaster is a busy tourist destination, especially around the holidays.

Initial media coverage of the case caused an employee at a local mini mart to come forward with one possible lead: Around the time the child was born, a large amount of blood was found in a trash can in the store’s restroom. Unfortunately, the trash can had since been discarded and incinerated, leaving no blood to test against the mother’s blood found in the burn barrel.

Investigators believe there could be a connection between the mini mart and Baby Allison. A DNA profile for the child’s mother was developed and has been uploaded into CODIS, the FBI’s DNA database.

It’s been more than 12 years since this baby was murdered. Please help law enforcement figure out who did this so she can finally get the justice she deserves. If you have any information, please help by calling the Pennsylvania State Police at 717-290-1971 or the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children at 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678).

by Melissa Snow

Join #EndIt movement on Feb. 25 to help shine a light on modern day slavery. Post a “red x” photo to social media to help ‘X’ out slavery and tag it #ENDITMOVEMENT.

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children works every day to shine a light on child sex trafficking. Today we link arms with friends, families, survivors, law enforcement and many others to fight for freedom and END IT.  

End the nightmare of child sex trafficking that is happening every day in big cities and small towns across America.

Everyone working to End It has a story, a moment that shaped how and why they’ve dedicate their passion and voice to this movement. For me, one of these moments occurred when a survivor looked me in the eyes and said, “I felt so trapped, so stuck, my pimp told me that no one cared about me. He beat me down both physically and emotionally. I feel like a whole new person just knowing someone sees me and that someone cares.”

Today every red ‘X’ sends a powerful message to all survivors, including those who are still struggling with how to break free. We see you, we care and you are not alone.  

If you suspect child sex trafficking you can REPORT IT to the CyberTipline: www.cybertipline.com

by Mike Hill

This month, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children is proud to celebrate 15 years of empowering children, parents and educators to be safer online through its NetSmartz Workshop

NetSmartz was launched on Feb. 21, 2001 by NCMEC, in partnership with the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, to educate youth about the risks they may encounter online.  In 2016, it’s hard to imagine what the term “online safety” meant to the general public back in 2001.

There was no Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram or Kik. People weren’t texting, and cell phones had yet to become “smart phones.” Furthermore, “cyberbullying” and “sexting” did not yet exist.

But, dangers still lurked online, and children with access to the Internet needed a program to educate, engage and empower them to make safer choices online.

The NetSmartz team is comprised of a unique mix of talented writers, educators, 3D animators, voice actors and designers who utilize their passion and skills to teach children and adults to be safer online with engaging, interactive, multimedia content.

In 2001, John Walsh, co-founder of NCMEC, reminded parents how essential it was to keep kids safer online as it was offline.

“We had high expectations for NetSmartz when it launched 2001 and I am proud to say that 15 years later, NetSmartz has affected the lives of millions of children and has empowered generations of kids to be safer online from those who choose to prey on them,” said Walsh. “And we do this not by scaring them into obedience, but by teaching them how to make safe decisions on their own. We truly believe that knowledge is power.”

Vice President Joe Biden, whose efforts on Capitol Hill as a U.S. senator helped secure the initial funding for NetSmartz, echoed his support.

“We know all we need to know about the adults who prey on children in Cyberspace,” Biden said at the time. “I’m confident that this innovative new program will teach our kids how to avoid situations that put them most at risk.”

Fast forward to 2016.

NetSmartz may be needed now more than ever. According to a 2015 study from Pew Research Center,

92 percent of teens report going online daily – including 24 percent who say they go online “almost constantly.”

In order to maintain relevance, NetSmartz has had to continue to adapt to the times as well as advances in technology. Smart phones, tablets, messaging apps, social networking platforms, virtual worlds…the list goes on and on.

Today, NetSmartz is making a difference in the lives of millions of children.  NetSmartz is comprised of three websites – http://www.netsmartz.org/, http://www.nsteens.org/, http://www.netsmartzkids.org/. Together they average nearly 6 million visits a year and are visited in schools on a monthly basis throughout every state in America.

The effectiveness of the program is echoed from educators, parents and children, not only in the United States, but around the world through the heartfelt emails they send to our characters, Clicky, Nettie and Webster

“We all love you. Thank you for teaching us how to treat people online and for teaching us the rules of being on the internet.” - Sincerely Mrs. Straub’s kindergarten class

Where children once turned to McGruff and Smokey the Bear for safety, they now turn to a fun, lovable, rapping robot and his friends who protect them online. As one child put it:

“Dear Clicky, You are my hero, you teach me so much! You are so smart, I love Nettie, Webster, and Router. You teach me to be safe online. My name is Emma .Pleas respond. I am your biggest fan.” Love, Emma”

Birthdays are supposed to be about parties, hats and noisemakers, cake, ice cream, friends singing and making wishes. But not this year. Again. How I wish I could wrap my arms around you and hug you tight! I’ve watched the tape of your last birthday party, when you turned 11, over and over again. We rented a suite at the Holiday Inn for your party. You and Aaron raced back and forth in the pool and took turns throwing each other in the deep end. It was so much fun!

I want you to know that since you were stolen from us, people everywhere have been searching, praying and hoping for your safety and for answers. Last fall, 26 years later, news of possible answers had your story as the second most-watched news coverage in the region. That’s pretty amazing 26 years later. People care. There are more good people than bad in the world, and people still hope.

My birthday wish is for you to come home. We need to find you. I have another wish for every child who is home safe today, that they will never have to endure abduction or sexual exploitation of any type. We’re working just as hard on prevention as we are on searching because this is so wrong…so unfair. I remember how much it bothered you when things were unfair. Me too. It bothers me too.

I’m hoping and praying that people will remember you on Feb. 17, and we ask that everyone hug their kids a little tighter, tell them that they love them and take time to play a game or read books. My wish is also that parents will support agencies that help to find our missing kids and help other victims, like the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. Today, we ask everyone to volunteer, attend events, send financial support and share safety information. The non-profit work continues on a daily basis.  Sometimes sexual exploitation and abduction are on the news, and sometimes not, yet we all rely on the support and expertise of these agencies when we need them. They are there for us. They need our support as well.

And once again today, Feb. 17, we will light our candles, fix your favorite foods and cake, and thank God for the gift of you.

We love you Jacob, and we’ll never stop searching for you!

I so wish for a Happy 38^th Birthday for you…

Love,

Mom

Patty Wetterling

“Valentine Doe” was found murdered on Feb. 15, 1991.

There were some clues. Witnesses saw Jane Doe hitchhiking the day of her murder. She was last seen near mile marker 17 on U.S. Highway 1, about 18 miles from where her body was discovered. Two witnesses from the “horseshoe” area independently observed an older model white pickup truck with a camper shell in the area, driven by two white males. One of the witnesses saw the pickup on Feb. 14 and the other remembers the truck in the area two to three days prior.

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By Staca Shehan and Barbara Worth

If only everyone traveling to the San Francisco Bay area for Super Bowl 50 were only going there to watch the game.

If only.

Away from family, friends, and work, sexual predators are well aware that their actions can more easily go unnoticed. Some of them seize the opportunity to buy children for sex. Traffickers know this. They crassly regard events attended by large numbers of people as business opportunities and they bring missing children to the host city and surrounding communities to meet the increased demand for commercial sex with children. But this doesn’t mean the Super Bowl is the only, or even primary, venue for child sex trafficking in the United States. That is a common misconception and one of many surrounding the issue of child sex trafficking. For the record, The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children seeks to dispel:

Five Myths about Child Sex Trafficking

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(Read Part 1 of this story here, and Part 2 here.)

Carissa Phelps survived an abusive childhood that included being trafficked for sex. Placed into a rehabilitation program, she was cared for by a kind counselor and attentive teachers. Under their guidance, she discovered she could write and that she loved math. But rehab was like living for six months in a protective bubble. Once the program ended, the bubble burst.

As happens with so many runaways, Carissa was returned to her family’s home – back to the situation she had tried to escape in the first place. There was no wraparound of support at home or in the outside world. She writes that in gossip she was often portrayed as a prostitute, with no reference to how she had been “threatened and raped and scared” for her life.  

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(Read Part 1 of this story here.)

Sold repeatedly for sex as a child, a traumatized and confused 14-year-old Carissa Phelps was facing incarceration alongside hard-core gang members for a rap sheet that included shoplifting, repeatedly running away, probation violations and now, auto theft. She recounts her fears, and the turn of events that may have saved her life, in an interview with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, and in her book, “Runaway Girl:  Escaping Life on the Streets, One Helping Hand at a Time.”

Carissa cried. She had been sentenced to nearly eight months in what in 1990 was called the California Youth Authority.

This was not juvenile hall. Carissa writes in her book that YA was “a prison” where girls had to choose between joining a gang or being beaten every day. They came out “with missing teeth and missing chunks of hair.” She says, “We all knew it, and anyone who had not gone up was scared of what would happen from the first night to the last.”

Unbeknownst to Carissa, Fresno County officials were well aware that they could not keep sending girls up to YA. It was a costly investment, and the returns had not been so great. They needed to try something else. A local rehabilitation program counseled and taught life skills to delinquent boys, but nothing similar was offered for girls. There were meetings and a decision. As Wilson Phillips belted “Hold On” to the top of the charts, county officials did just that: They held on to four girls, including Carissa. She became part of the first coed juvenile rehab program at Fresno’s C.K. Wakefield School for Boys, a program within juvenile hall.

“Juvy” wasn’t always a safe haven. But at Wakefield, Carissa felt she had a choice: Follow the rules, or be sent up to YA. She chose to follow the rules. She got out of bed on schedule, cleared her cafeteria tray, stayed out of fights. She was watched closely by Wakefield staff – and by one counselor in particular: Ron Jenkins. Only 24 at the time, Ron made Carissa feel like she mattered.

For the first time, she knew that someone important, someone in the system as she knew it, noticed her, cared about her. And most importantly she knew that if she ran again someone would miss her, and might even look for her. She says, “Meeting Ron felt like being seen for the first time.”

Ron became Carissa’s first counselor, teacher and role model. He gave her a journal and urged her to write about what had happened to her. She did – beginning each entry with the words, “Dear Ron.” One day, after reading her work, Ron said what amounted to a magic word to a child who had been taken, abused, and left behind. That word was: 

“Potential.”

When Ron said, “You have potential,” Carissa did not know exactly what the word meant. She just understood it was positive, and for that she was grateful. “You write better than some of the staff,” said Ron. He went to Carissa’s other teachers. One of them, Roganne Wegerman (affectionately known as “Mrs. W”), tested Carissa. Suddenly, the young girl was not just a writer, she was also good at math!  Mrs. W introduced Carissa to algebra, which Carissa loved and in which she excelled. There was finally structure in Carissa’s life, with adults consistently helping her.

The security, however, was not to last.

Read part 3 of Carissa’s story, and learn how she has become a hero in the fight to help runaways and survivors of sex trafficking next week at www.missingkids.org/blog.

By Barbara Worth*

The man motioned for her to come closer. She was only 12 years old and had already seen what he could do if she did not follow his orders. She moved in slowly – as slowly as possible without irritating him. Closer in, she could smell the alcohol on his breath. He was drunk, and uninhibited. He wanted her closer.

“Come here.”

When she was in reach, he grabbed her with one hand by the shirt. With his other hand he held up an empty 40-ounce bottle and threatened to smash it.

“I’ll cut your throat.”

She was frozen.

“He was going to murder me,” says Carissa Phelps, now 39. “I couldn’t run. I was too afraid. I thought if I ran, he would kill me sooner.”

The man, a self-proclaimed “pimp,” would torture her, force her to do crack and sell her for sex. Carissa looks back and thinks about feeling that “No one was looking for me, and I knew it.” She says by the time she made it out she had been raped more times than she could count.

Carissa felt utterly hopeless. 

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January is Human Trafficking Awareness Month. In 2015, more than 11,800 reports of endangered runaways were made to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. Of those, one in five were likely child sex trafficking victims. This is Part Two of a mother’s story about her fight to free her young daughter from the clutches of child sex traffickers. Read Part One Here.

I thought her life was finally back on track. Then, one terrible day, she told me she was going to the store. She never returned. I panicked. I began calling everyone (all my resources) all over again. I even called the pimp’s probation officer from a recent drug dealing attempt, and they got a warrant issued for the pimp and he was arrested. But, I still did not have my daughter back. This time felt worse; if that is even possible. I begged law enforcement to track her phone. When the detective called me and told me that the FBI was involved, my heart fell. I DID NOT KNOW WHERE MY CHILD WAS OR WHAT MONSTERS HAD HER. I kept pushing for answers and never took the pressure off law enforcement.  

A week or two later, I finally got the call that she was alive, and the U.S. Marshals Service had found her in the neighboring state. She had been drugged and kidnapped by the pimp’s father (also, a pimp) and forced to work the streets. Apparently, she viewed the pimp’s father as a trusted father figure, even as he was grooming her. She was in detention, so I was only able to talk to her for a few moments, but she had never sounded so terrified. She was transported back to our town, but had to remain in detention. This has always been infuriating to me…. she is continually incarcerated, and the pimps never charged. She was treated like a criminal while the predators remain on the streets. I pleaded with law enforcement to get them on any charge if they cannot get the pimping charge to stick. The pimp and his father were well-known to law enforcement.  

When my daughter was incarcerated this last time, my son took his life. There were a multitude of reasons I am quite sure; he was laid off from work as the sole supporter of a family of five, stress over his sister’s situation and his own depression. I had to tell my daughter that her brother was dead while she was incarcerated. She was given permission to come home to be there with me, and we prepared the arrangements together. My son’s death spurred my daughter to take action.  She spoke to detectives a day before the funeral, and provided them with information to help further the investigation. I know in my heart she did it for my son.

We chose to move to be near family. Mind you, right before leaving, my daughter received threats as these criminals were finally being arrested. We made it out though, and to safety.

My daughter promised to make her brother and me proud, and she has maintained that to date. The thing she doesn’t realize is that I have always been proud of her. There are just too many manipulative predators in the world who used her weakness to benefit them. It has almost been a year. She is currently 18 years old, beginning her second year of college and working temporary jobs in her free time.  

My daughter has a way to go in her emotional recovery, but she is putting one foot in front of the other, and we are continuing this journey together. I know there are a lot of aspects of what she went through that she cannot share with me, but I let her know if she wants to talk to me or get an objective party, I can make that happen. I do not push her to relive all of these traumas. I just be there and listen. That is a real hard lesson for a parent to learn when you are raising a teenager, but believe me if it wasn’t for that lesson, we would not be where we are today.

I have had to go toe-to-toe with the criminal justice system to save my daughter. Our battle continued for a year and a half, but in the end, me and my daughter overcame and did not fall to the stereotypical impressions of others….we won.

I want to add a note to the parents out there who may be in similar circumstances.  Never let anyone, including law enforcement, doctors, probation officers, social service agencies, tell you how to recover your child. When it comes to your child, push and push hard to make the people who are supposed to help you do their jobs, and forbid them from locking your child up. Your child is the victim.

Another note I want to add, please call the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children if your child is a runaway or in the control of a pimp. They truly believed in me and that my child was a victim who needed to be saved. They also talked me through many sleepless nights and taught me how to cope and deal with the daughter I have after coming out of this horrific situation.

We would like to thank the brave mother who shared this story with us. If you ever suspect a child is being trafficked you should contact law enforcement and also call 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678). If you suspect child sexual exploitation online make a CyberTipline Report.

January is Human Trafficking Awareness Month. In 2015, more than 11,800 reports of endangered runaways were made to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. Of those, one in five were likely child sex trafficking victims. This is Part One of a mother’s story about her fight to free her young daughter from the clutches of child sex traffickers. Her daughter was always “a good girl,” she said, but when she turned 15 everything changed.

My 15-year-old daughter was always driven, exceptionally smart and very mature. She was a child I never had to discipline. She always did the right thing. She always did her schoolwork, and her academic scores were off the charts. She never disrespected me. She was a “good girl.” Hindsight makes me think perhaps she was too naïve. Or perhaps I was.

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by Deborah Hennig

When a concerned mother in Blount County, Alabama had a heart-to-heart discussion with her teenage daughter in November, she was shocked to learn that her daughter was hiding private photos in a deceptive app on her Smartphone. The app looks just like a calculator, but entering the correct pass code reveals the user’s hidden photo albums.

The mother contacted Blount County’s district attorney, and self-appointed Smartphone app watch dog, Pamela Casey, with her discovery.

“My slogan has been, one text, one call, can change it all. Think before you post,” Casey told the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. “It’s important that you realize, one picture can change you for the rest of your life, or one text can change you for the rest of your life.”

Casey regularly posts videos and articles to her Facebook page warning parents about potentially dangerous Smartphone apps,

According to a 2015 study by the Pew Research Center, nearly three-quarters of teens have, or have access to, a Smartphone. In a separate study in 2013, those same researchers found that 58 percent of teens download apps to their Smartphones, and they only consult their parents when those apps cost money to download.

With new apps constantly hitting the market the most important thing parents can do is educate their children about the potential dangers and consequences.

“It’s incredibly important that parents get to know the devices and apps kids are using,” said Ju’Riese Colon, NCMEC’s executive director of outreach. “Start by using the devices yourself and have your kids show you some of their favorite sites and apps. Spending just a few minutes can make a tremendous impact on their safety.”

Here are three types of potentially dangerous apps to look for as you dialogue with your children.

Hidden Photo Apps

A simple google search for “hidden photo app” reveals several apps that do the same thing as the calculator app that Pamela Casey discovered was being used by teens in her district. The problem with any hidden photo app is that it increases the potential that a teen could possess and distribute nude photos of themselves which is actually considered a form of child pornography. There is also the possibility that a child could be blackmailed into sharing nude content of themselves which is known as sextortion. If you ever suspect this is happening report it to law enforcement immediately and also make a CyberTipline report.

Live Chat and Texting Apps

Live chat and texting apps have seen a meteoric rise in popularity among users between the ages of 13-17. Examples of these apps include Snapchat, WhatsApp, Kik, Facebook Messenger, WeChat and Skype. Here is a list of the 23 most popular direct messaging apps. It may be impossible to monitor a child’s daily use of such chat apps, but there are some safety tips that can help.

Never engage in a chat app with someone you do not know. The potential that a stranger could conceal his/her identity and obtain dangerous private information is too great to take this risk. Remember that exchanging content on these apps is never 100 percent private or anonymous. Anyone could screen shot or record content that you share with them.

Social Networks

Finally, it’s always a good idea to check your privacy settings on your social networks. Again, it’s wise never to friend anyone who you do not know personally. Consider carefully who can view and potentially save photos that you or your children share on social media. Recently there have been cases of “digital kidnapping” where a stranger finds photos of a child on Instagram or Facebook and then saves and reshares these photos on their own profile as part of a cyber role-playing game. If your photos are not set to private, it’s extremely difficult to regain access of them once they have been shared publicly on a social network.

Hopefully this is a good starting point to start an ongoing conversation with your teen about privacy and cyber safety.

“Sometimes parents just don’t know where to start when it comes to online safety,” said Ju’Riese Colon, NCMEC’s executive director of outreach.  “The NetSmartz Workshop has great resources for families that are easy to use and make starting the conversation a little easier.”

When our 6-year-old son, Adam, was abducted and murdered, we knew there needed to be a place for parents like us to turn.

A place to help find missing children.

A place to protect children.

A place to fight for justice for children.

So, working in our garage with a card table and landline, we founded what is today the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.     

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What is an #Unselfie? It’s a show of support for your favorite charities on #GivingTuesday. All you have to do is take a photo with a caption or card in the photo explaining why you’re giving. Tag your photo with #UNselfie, #GivingTuesday and #Missingkids. Upload your photo to Instagram, Twitter or Facebook. And don’t forget to make a tax-deductible donation to The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, we rely on gifts from people just like you.

http://www.missingkids.org/donate

Wondering what to say? Use some of the following posts along with your #unselfie image:

Show your support of #MissingKids by taking an #UNselfie on #GivingTuesday. Help us bring them home. Take action. Give. Share. #SocialGood

I give to #MissingKids because every child deserves a safe childhood. #UNselfie #GivingTuesday

I give to #MissingKids to bring #Hope to those who are searching. #UNselfie #GivingTuesday

Join me in supporting #MissingKids on #GivingTuesday. #UNselfie

#UNSelfie PDF DOWNLOAD: http://www.missingkids.org/en_US/documents/MissingKids-UNselfie.pdf

By Deborah Hennig

This holiday season, you should take a few minutes to discuss child safety with your friends and loved ones. Don’t let myths and misinformation about child abduction baffle those you know and love. With the following talking points, you can come to the conversation armed with practical information to frame the discussion in a way that will empower the children in your social circles rather than scare them. This Thanksgiving, let’s all take a few minutes to be here for kids.

First, let’s dispel the myth that a child goes missing every 7 seconds.

Because not all missing children are reported missing, no one knows the overall number of missing children each year. We do know the FBI receives more than 400,000 reports of missing children annually. In 2014, there were 466,949 reports, and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children assisted law enforcement with more than 12,000 of these cases.

Here’s the breakdown of the cases intaked by NCMEC:

84 percent endangered runaways.

12 percent family abductions.

2 percent lost, injured or otherwise missing children.

1 percent nonfamily abductions.

1 percent critically missing young adults, ages 18 to 20.

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UPDATE: Today the Senate voted unanimously to direct the filing of civil contempt proceedings against Backpage.com. This action follows Backpage’s refusal to attend a November 2015 hearing before the Senate PSI and its refusal to provide information regarding online child sex trafficking. This is the first time in over 20 years that the Senate has taken such extraordinary action. The Senate vote follows a congressional investigation that found the website takes actions to conceal that certain advertisements posted on its website are sex ads involving children. 

The Senate investigation and contempt proceedings follow increased scrutiny of Backpage among anti-trafficking non-profit organizations, in civil court proceedings and on Capitol Hill for child sex trafficking on Backpage.com.

Nov. 19, 2015

For the first time in more than 20 years, a key witness failed to appear today before a Senate subcommittee investigating the sale of children for sex on the Internet.  Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, said his committee may pursue a criminal contempt charge against the CEO of Backpage.com.

Carl Ferrer, CEO of the online classified website, ignored the subpoena and has refused the subcommittee’s request for documents pertaining to its business practices, citing First Amendment protections.

“Backpage made a huge mistake today by making a mockery of this Senate hearing,” said John Walsh, co-founder of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, who attended today’s hearing on Capitol Hill. “Backpage has made millions of dollars at the expense of children by enabling pimps to sell them for sex on their website.”

The subcommittee, led by Portman and ranking member Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO), has been investigating human trafficking on the Internet and has said Backpage is the “most important player” in this market, despite the website’s claim that it is a market leader in combatting the problem.

“We’re here to talk about the online, lucrative sale of America’s children for sex, which in our experience occurs most prominently on the website, Backpage.com,” testified Yiota Souras, NCMEC’s general counsel and one of two witnesses. “Every year in the United States, thousands of children are sold for sex and repeatedly raped.”

Souras testified that a vast majority of suspected child sex trafficking victims reported to NCMEC were advertised on Backpage.  Since 1998, NCMEC’s CyberTipline, the nation’s reporting mechanism for suspected child sexual exploitation, received more than 45,000 reports relating to suspected child sex trafficking, most from ads on Backpage.

“Technology has fundamentally changed how children are trafficked,” said Souras. “Today, an adult can shop from their home, office or hotel room, even on a cellphone, to buy a child for sex.”

The subcommittee released a scathing report today condemning Ferrer and Backpage, saying the company edits out certain content that could distinguish legal ads from those that are selling children for sex.

The subcommittee is recommending enforcement of Ferrer’s subpoena.

“If Backpage thinks they are going to go quietly into the night, they are sadly mistaken,” McCaskill said.

by Christine Barndt

A new survey released last week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says autism may be even more prevalent than current estimates. One in 45 children in the U.S. has an autism spectrum disorder, according to the report based on data from 2011-2014.  

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Halloween is right around the corner! As kids are busy picking out their costumes and planning the best trick-or-treat route to get the maximum amount of candy, here at the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, we have some common-sense tips to keep the spookiest night of the year safer for kids…that is, safer from everything but the ghosts, ghouls and goblins.

There are some simple things parents can do ahead of time to prepare for a safe outing. Choose brightly colored costumes and stock up on things to make your kids more visible– flashlights, glow sticks or reflective tape. Plan out a trick-or-treat route in a familiar neighborhood and consider giving your child a cellphone so they can reach you if you accidentally get separated.

On Halloween night, make sure older children trick-or-treat with friends, and younger children stay with a parent or trusted adult. It’s a good idea to walk younger children up to the door to get candy. Don’t let them enter someone else’s home unless you go in with them.

And finally, take a few minutes to talk to your children about safety to empower them with the tools they need. After studying more than 10,000 attempted abductions, we know that overwhelmingly, kids escaped their would-be abductors by kicking, yelling and pulling away. You can check out more safety tips and watch cool videos by visiting KidSmartz.org. From all of us at NCMEC, have a happy and safe Halloween!

This week at the National Center for Missing & Exploited children we celebrate the 32nd anniversary of our hotline: 1-800-THE-LOST. The hotline was officially launched on October 19, 1984 with one IBM-XT computer. The staff of four, including NCMEC’s first Communications Director, Carla Branch (pictured here with her seeing-eye dog, Winston) worked out of NCMEC’s original location on K street in Washington D.C.

During the last 32 years, NCMEC’s national toll-free hotline, 1-800-THE-LOST® (1-800-843-5678), has received more than 4 million calls and in that time NCMEC has assisted law enforcement in the recovery of more than 211,000 missing children.

By Barbara Worth

A houseguest takes a 6-year-old child from her home in the middle of the night… A man charged with assault drives off with his girlfriend’s 7-year-old… A grandmother helps abduct a woman and her 2-year-old, subduing the mother with a stun gun and tying her up before leaving with the toddler…

Nightmare scenarios by any measure. These children could’ve been missing indefinitely, molested, trafficked for sex and even killed. But because a gas station clerk, a shop employee, and an abductor’s own brother saw urgently delivered AMBER Alerts, the children were rescued, and their abductors arrested.  www.missingkids.org/amber/success

Within. Hours.

The AMBER Alert: “It works; it’s fast,” says Robert Hoever of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. The stalwart missing child bulletins are credited specifically with the rescue of 772 children, all recovered because tipsters saw the alerts on TV or digital billboards, or in text messages or social media via cell phones or computers, then recognized the suspect’s car, the child, and/or the suspect and called police. Now, NCMEC is relaying the alerts to what Hoever calls their latest “force multiplier:” the tens of thousands of drivers in the Uber car network. The drivers now get timely, geo-targeted AMBER Alerts as text messages on their Uber app. www.uber.com.newsroom

“Technology has been harnessed to rapidly rescue abducted children,” says Hoever, with a smile.  “It’s amazing how we’ve gone from milk carton days to here.”

Hoever’s reference goes back to 1984, when pictures and descriptions of missing children first appeared on milk cartons in response to high-profile abductions such as the disappearance of 6-year-old Etan Patz in New York. These postings were the most visible sign of missing children advocacy until 1996, when a man forced 9-year-old Amber Hagerman into a truck, drove away, and killed her. A concerned citizen named Diana Simone suggested using what was then called the emergency broadcast system to quickly spread word of abducted children and enlist the public’s help in finding them. The notifications were named in Amber’s honor, with the acronym AMBER standing for America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response.

With assistance from NCMEC, all 50 states, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Canada and parts of Mexico have embraced AMBER Alerts. The program is administered by the U.S. Department of Justice. Local law enforcement decides when to issue the alerts, then sends them to broadcasters, the Department of Transportation, and to NCMEC, which then relays the alerts to federal law enforcement, wireless emergency systems, Internet service providers, social media, organizations in the trucking and hotel industries, digital billboards, and as of Oct. 14, Uber.  

From 2006 through last year, 98 percent of children involved in AMBER Alerts were recovered. Understandably, that success rate had led to more demand for the alerts than the system was meant to handle. While all cases of missing children should be taken seriously, NCMEC’s Hoever says, “We have to be very careful not to desensitize and oversaturate the public” by issuing too many alerts. They are, he says, for “the most time-critical cases where an abducted child is believed to be in great danger and in need of immediate assistance.” Law enforcement must also have enough information, such as a description of the victim, the suspect, the vehicle, a license plate number and/or the circumstances of the abduction, before issuing an alert. Officials could decide that other procedures, such as sending out search dogs, would be more effective. It just depends on the specifics of each case.

Robert Hoever, director of special programs, Missing Children Division, NCMEC. Hoever manages NCMEC’s role in the AMBER Alert Program.

So, when you see an AMBER Alert, know that a great deal of thought has gone into its construction and use. Know that a child’s life may be in danger. And know that with your attention, you join with NCMEC and all of the AMBER partner outlets as a “force multiplier,” strengthening everyone’s power to find and rescue missing children in urgent need of your help. www.amberalert.gov

October is National Bullying Prevention Month.

In the age of all-things digital, it seems like everything is moving online. We have instant access to all our friends and peers…for better or worse.

So it’s no surprise that bullying has crept into our online social lives as well.

It’s called “cyberbullying,” and it’s more common than you might think. According to the Cyberbullying Research Center, 26 percent of students say they have been the victim of cyberbullying at some point in their lives, and 16 percent admitted to cyberbullying others.

A new video released today by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and Sprint, shows teens alternative ways to end conflicts before they escalate online:

So what does cyberbullying look like? It might start with an embarrassing photo posted online or a rumor spread via social media. With a large audience of kids who are constantly glued to their smartphones, this kind of harassment can escalate quickly and become aggressive and unrelenting.

Children may feel they have no way out. Parents may notice that kids are avoiding computers and their phones or appear anxious and stressed when reading texts and emails. At its worst, cyberbullying can lead to low self-esteem, poor grades and depression[1].

To help empower kids to deal with issues like cyberbullying, NCMEC teamed up with Sprint to launch NSTeens.org in 2007. This site gives teens the tips they need to stay safer on the Internet. New cyberbullying resources available today include a video (above), discussion guides and activity cards for the classroom.

NCMEC encourages parents, guardians and educators to take the time to talk to kids about online safety and empower them to make better decisions.

[1] Hinduja, S., Patchin J. Bullying Beyond the Schoolyard: Preventing and Responding to Cyberbullying. Thousand Oaks: Corwin Press, 2009.

“I don’t want my sister to be forgotten.”

Mary Pockett-Engelbrecht’s big sister Janice was born 50 years ago this Oct. 15.  But more than four decades ago, when she was just a little girl, she went missing. She was looking for a butterfly.

Among those making sure Janice is remembered is a special task force of detectives working through hundreds of tips from people who might know something – anything – that could help reveal what happened to Janice and two other Connecticut girls, Lisa White and Deborah Spickler.  All three are believed to have been abducted in Tolland County between 1968 and 1974.

That’s a long time ago.  But old memories, no matter how insignificant they may seem, can help the task force find new leads.

“It happens all the time,” says Detective John DiVenere, who is assigned to Lisa’s case.  He urges people who might be unsure about the usefulness of a memory to “call us, let us vet it and determine its significance.”  There are rewards totaling $150,000 for information leading to the conviction of anyone responsible for the girls’ disappearances.

DiVenere encounters people who still remember Lisa. She was 13 and loved to dance. At about 8 p.m. on Nov. 1, 1974, she was walking near a small park on Prospect Street in the Rockville section of Vernon. She never made it home.  

Seven-year-old Janice Pockett was last seen on July 26, 1973 in Tolland, riding her bike on Anthony Road toward a wooded area on Rhodes Road, just one-tenth of a mile from her home. “I remember my mom calling her name over and over,” says her sister. “Then we saw her bike by the side of the road.  And that was it.” Investigators spoke to drivers on Rhodes Road and deduced that Janice was abducted during a 10-minute window between 3:45 and 3:55 p.m.

Deborah Spickler was 13 when, on July 24, 1968, she was walking with her cousin to a swimming pool in Vernon’s Henry Park.  Her cousin left to meet up with a friend. When she returned about 30 minutes later, she couldn’t find Deborah, and no one at the pool remembered seeing her.

“I think of these families, not only losing a loved one, but not knowing what happened,” says Matthew Gedansky, state’s attorney for the Judicial District of Tolland. Pockett-Engelbrecht hopes people will respond to the continuing search for the girls. “If there’s any little bit of information, even a thought or a theory,” she says, “please come forward.”

You can leave tips – anonymously if you prefer – on the Tolland County Cold Case Squad’s tip line, (860) 870-3228, at [email protected], and with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children at 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678).  For additional information about the missing girls, see Janice and Lisa’s Facebook pages, www.missingkids.org or the Cold Case Squad’s webpage, http://www.ct.gov/csao/cwp/view.asp?a=1798&q=555058.

By Barbara Worth

Jimmy Elvis has three times found a special needs boy who ran away – twice tracking him into a swamp.  Jimmy Earle and Jimmy Cletus found a boy lost in a dense woods. Jimmy Amber found yet another boy lost in a wooded area.  

These “Jimmys” are all hard-working police bloodhounds, named after a little boy whose spirit lives forever, protecting and rescuing missing children.

He was nine, and his name was Jimmy Ryce. He was abducted  on Sept. 11, 1995. (“God sleeps on September 11,” his late mother, Claudine Ryce, came to say.) We know from his killer’s confession that Jimmy had just gotten off a school bus less than a block from his home in Redland, Florida. A man jumped from a truck, pointed a gun and asked, “Do you want to die?” The man forced Jimmy into the truck and took him to a trailer. For four hours, he tortured Jimmy and raped him. When Jimmy broke away and tried to escape through the trailer door, his abductor shot him in the back. Three months later, Jimmy’s dismembered body was found hidden in concrete. His killer was eventually put to death, showing no remorse for his crime.

What happened to Jimmy awakened in his mother and father, Don Ryce, a determination that their son would be remembered, in Ryce’s words, as “a symbol of hope.”  To that end, the couple created the Jimmy Ryce Center for Victims of Predatory Abduction, or JRC. They began to attach Jimmy’s name to what Ryce calls “wonderful things.”

Logo by:  http://www.patchmethru.com  
One project grew out of Jimmy’s parents’ conviction that a bloodhound could have found their son. In hopes of finding other missing children, the JRC began supplying bloodhounds to law enforcement. Through donations, they have placed about 500 dogs at agencies in the U.S. and Canada.

Jimmy’s bloodhounds have been bred for the past two decades by Pam Andrews of Lake Bloodhound Kennels in Greenville, Florida. There is no doubt whose spirit they carry, and that’s why she registers all of them with the first name “Jimmy.”    

The bloodhound program is just one of the accomplishments of the Ryce family and the JRC. Because of their efforts, federal buildings are now required to post pictures of missing children. Florida passed the Jimmy Ryce Act, which permits continued confinement for violent predators even after their criminal sentences have run out. The many services provided by the JRC include publicizing cases of missing children, working to increase public awareness of child abduction and sexual predators, counseling  parents of missing children, and helping parents and teachers understand what kids need to know to protect themselves.  

Children’s education is the “first line of defense,” says  Ryce. “If they know what to do, they can avoid being taken captive.” He urges parents to face the hard reality of the dangers posed by those who prey on children. “Parents run away from this issue.  It makes them uncomfortable,” he says.  But, he warns, “abduction can happen to anyone…it happened to us.”  

The Ryces joined with other parents to create a survival guide to help families cope with the disappearance of a child. Claudine Ryce was one of the founders of Team Hope, NCMEC’s support group of and for searching and grieving parents, helping each other the way only those who have been through similar ordeals can.  

Prevention of abduction became especially important to Jimmy’s mother. As painful as it must have been to do so, she mined the confession of Jimmy’s killer to identify defensive actions children can take when threatened, including running, screaming and fighting back.  She named her method Jimmy Ryce’s Great Escape Maneuvers – “GEMS” – a loving pun on the name of her son, her precious gem. www.jimmyryce.org/educate.

The Ryce family also believes that it’s critical to train those who work with children in dangerous situations. One of what Ryce calls the JRC’s “proudest achievements” is The Jimmy Ryce Law Enforcement Training Center at the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. The JRLETC has assisted and trained more than 300,000 U.S. and Canadian law enforcement, security and healthcare professionals.  Among the skills they are taught are how to prevent, take calls about, and investigate cases of child sexual exploitation and missing children, including infants. www.missingkids.org/training.

Samuel James “Jimmy” Ryce was born 30 years ago on Sept. 26.  He loved to read, loved baseball and loved his dog. He had an IQ of 130, and if he couldn’t play pro ball when he grew up, he wanted to find a cure for a disease. “His life was cut so short,” says his father, “and we had such expectations for the kind of man he would turn out to be.”

Jimmy’s spirit lives on through his  dad, his  mom’s GEMS, and of course the  bloodhounds. In Wellesley, Massachusetts, Special Officer Sue Webb is training puppy Jimmy Suki.  Webb says it used to be days before police would use a search dog. “They call for a dog right away now,” she says. In Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Sergeant Alex Miles is “100 percent  sure” his Jimmy Dixie and Jimmy Pax would find a lost child.  As a test, he had his 15-year-old son pretend to get lost in a rugged area “so steep you have to grab a tree to haul yourself up.” Dixie found the teen in about 15 minutes.

And there are signs that Jimmy’s legacy will live indefinitely. Pam Andrews reports that bloodhound puppies were born at her kennel in mid-September – and more are on the way.

By Barbara Worth

The wind blew, the rain pounded, the levees broke, and there were children who had no idea what was happening, only that it was very bad. Cortez Stewart was three. She remembers that she cried, because she had never seen so much water. When the storm was over, she and her godmother could not find her mother, and Cortez had become one of thousands of children who were separated from their primary caregivers.  No one knew when they would see each other again – if ever.

Keep reading

Attention #Military personnel, were you or someone you know stationed at the Naval Weapons Station near #GooseCreek, #SouthCarolina in 1997? Do you recognize Kevin McClam? 

Kevin’s family is hoping you can help bring him home.Kevin was last seen playing video games in his home on the Naval Weapons Station during the early morning hours of March 30, 1997. He has not been seen or heard from since. 

Kevin was last seen wearing a brown and white striped long-sleeve shirt, white pants, and white and black Nike shoes. His clothing was found at a nearby building site.  Anyone with information about Kevin is urged to call 1-800-843-5678.

Here is an image of Kevin’s new age-progressed photo.  It shows what he might look like at 33 years old.  To see Kevin’s full poster, go to: http://www.missingkids.com/poster/NCMC/830882

On June 25, 2015 a light-skinned female, 3-4 years old was found deceased along the shoreline of Deer Island, Massachusetts. She had been deceased only a few days. Authorities in Massachusetts and ‪‎NCMEC‬ are seeking the public’s help to identify this child.

Some caretaker, preschool teacher, pediatrician, social worker, neighborhood children and community member somewhere, has to know who she is.
The little girl stood around 3 ½ feet tall and weighed around 30 pounds or more. She had long brown hair and brown eyes. She was found wearing Circo brand white leggings with black polka dots, size 4T. She was also found with a plush zebra print blanket.

Anyone with information can contact NCMEC’s 24 hour call center at 1-800-THE-LOST, Suffolk County State Police Detective Unit at (617)727-8817, Massachusetts State Police at (508)820-2121 or the Winthrop Police Department at (617)539-5806.

You can see the full poster here: http://www.missingkids.com/poster/NCMU/1250459/

Source: CNN

By Deborah Hennig

This summer, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children is embarking on a virtual road trip across the United States. We’re calling it #SummerOfHope. Our road trip will feature missing children from every state and territory. Please join us!  You could help find a missing child.

Our journey begins on Monday, July 6, 2015. Some of these children, thanks to Clear Chanel Outdoors, will be featured on billboards. We’re calling on you, our social media followers, to be #ChildFinders, a term coined by the late Charles Pickett, a NCMEC case manager who worked on over 21,000 cases throughout his career.

“(Charles) never gave up on anyone or any case,” said Maura O’Rorke, a NCMEC case manager. “I think he knew each case like it was his own kid.”

After a career as a Richmond police officer and a Virginia state trooper, Pickett worked as a case manager at NCMEC for 30 years before retiring in 2013. According to O’Rorke, who served as his assistant for over 13 years, he used the term “child finders” daily.

“We’re dealing with a person not a case number,” O’Rorke said he would always say. “You have to go the extra step to find a child, it’s not just your basic 9-5 job.”

Pickett lived the NCMEC mission 24/7. During Hurricane Katrina, he took the lead in the efforts to reunite 5,192 children with their families during the disaster.

“He gave out his personal cellphone number to everyone and anyone to get information to recover these children,” O’Rorke said.

So in honor of Charles Pickett’s legacy, join us for a Summer of Hope. Make sure you follow @missingkids on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Youtube to follow the journey and share posters every day this summer. Please send your tips to 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678). You, too, can be a #childfinder and in the words of Charles Pickett, “thanks for walking an extra mile for a child.”

By Ceara Lafferty

Cameras play a significant role in human life. Like the clear jars used to capture fireflies to watch them twinkle like the stars above, cameras capture precious moments of the beauty of life on Earth. With the click of a button, a camera can capture a moment in time that we wish would last forever. Photos allow us to relive our most cherished memories, whether it be of an outing with friends or a child’s first steps. The considerable meaning that the camera’s function possesses cannot be understated. Yet, many people may not know that June 29 happens to be National Camera Day. Here at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Camera Day is a holiday to be celebrated because photos are the most powerful tool for recovering missing children and returning them to their families.

Camera Day is an unofficial holiday and often goes unnoticed. However, at NCMEC, June 29 is a day to be celebrated because of the fundamental role photos play in the search for a missing child. NCMEC has distributed billions of missing child photos since it was founded 31 years ago. The photos that NCMEC places on missing children posters are vital to recovery of the children because they help people identify missing kids in public settings. Visual images also have the ability to jog someone’s memory, to remind them of a split-second when they spotted the face of a child in a crowd matching one on a missing child poster. Photos have been the key factor in the fulfillment of NCMEC’s goal to return children to their families.  

The National Center never stops looking for children, no matter how much time has passed since they were last seen.

“Whether the child just went missing or has been missing many years, photos remain the single most important tool in bringing kids home,” said Bob Lowery, vice president of the Missing Children Division.  

Photos are also necessary for NCMEC forensic artists to create age progressions, images that predict what a child might look like at their current age. These age progression images are then placed on posters next to photos of the children before they went missing, facilitating the public’s ability to recognize a long-term missing child. NCMEC refuses to give up on children, many of whom are eventually recovered thanks to the help of age progression images.

For a search to be fruitful, it’s advantageous for parents and guardians to have a quality, up-to-date photo of their child to present to law enforcement and to disseminate to the public. Canon, a name that many have seen both in the media and emblazoned on their own cameras, acknowledges the importance for parents and guardians to take high quality photos of their children frequently. As a partner of NCMEC and through their Canon4Kids program, the leading imaging technologies company helps to educate parents and guardians about the value of being proactive about keeping updated photos of their kids. Canon also emphasizes an investment in the safety of children through the numerous events that they host benefiting NCMEC. These events include the NCMEC Celebrity Golf Tournament and Canon Customer Appreciation Reception, Canon Promotional Night at Yankee Stadium, and NCMEC’s annual Hope Awards and Congressional Breakfast that serve to honor National Missing Children’s Day and those whose efforts have brought missing children home.  

Please be sure to like NCMEC on Facebook and follow us on Twitter and Instagram so you can see missing children posters and share them with your friends and followers. By circulating photos of missing children, you can become a #ChildFinder and bring children home to their families.

Happy National Camera Day from NCMEC!

On Wednesday, July 1, 2015, from 6-9 pm, Alex and Ani and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) are teaming up for a night of shopping for a cause!

Everyone is invited to join us for shopping and complimentary appetizers at participating stores and Alex and Ani will donate 15% of your purchase to NCMEC to help keep kids safer.

If you are unable to attend the event, you can call one of the locations up to three days in advance and place your order by phone. Be sure to let them know that you would like to support NCMEC!  

You shop, kids benefit.

Spread the word to family and friends. We look forward to seeing you there!

Come in July 1, 6-9 PM or place phone order to any of the below stores:

ALEX AND ANI Fairfax
2905 District Avenue
Suite 145
Fairfax, VA 22031
(703) 992-9711
[email protected]

ALEX AND ANI Georgetown
3068 M Street, N.W.
Georgetown, DC 20007
(202) 333-4195
[email protected]

ALEX AND ANI Rochester
145 Culver Road
Armory
Rochester, NY 14620
(585) 730-8018
[email protected]

ALEX AND ANI Soho
425 West Broadway
New York, NY 10012
(646) 484-5099
[email protected]

ALEX AND ANI Victor
236 High Street Extension
Victor, NY 14564
(585) 598-3853
[email protected]

On the day 6-year-old Morgan Nick disappeared, June 9, 1995, the fireflies had just started to pop and blaze, filling the twilight sky with twinkling lights. Morgan left her seat next to her mother on the bleachers of the Little League field in Alma, Arkansas to catch fireflies with her friends as the baseball game wrapped up.

The kids greeted the summer evening supported by some of the pillars of childhood – baseball and catching fireflies. They ran back and forth between the parking lot and the bleachers as the evening faded to night and the action on the baseball diamond concluded. As the players filed off the field at the conclusion of the game, Colleen glanced back to check on Morgan and the other children, but Morgan wasn’t with them. Colleen immediately went to investigate.

“I asked them where Morgan was and they said that she was taking sand out of her shoes, sitting by my car, but I could see my car and I didn’t see her,” Colleen recalls.

She checked inside her car but Morgan wasn’t there.

“That’s when the real panic set in,” Colleen said. “It’s a really small field and a really small parking area and it was just easy to see that she wasn’t right there anywhere. And by now people are leaving and cars are leaving, and I remember standing in front of my car and I’m thinking, if everyone would just stand still for just a minute that I would be able to see her, that we were just passing each other somehow. One of the coaches called 911 and within six minutes law enforcement was at the field and began what has turned into a
20-year search for Morgan.”

What Colleen experienced over the next four days was nothing short of chaos and panic as the official search for Morgan ensued with help from a number of different law-enforcement agencies. Many of the resources that exist today to help in the search for missing children were not available to Colleen at that time. She was asked to produce her own missing child poster, to field non-stop media inquiries and to keep functioning despite the constant fear.

Four days into the search for Morgan, Colleen met with the mother of an 18-year-old girl who disappeared from a neighboring community but was found murdered just six months before Morgan was abducted.

“I had this deep need to talk to her mom,” Colleen said. “It was about knowing that the mom had survived this terrible thing. She just looked me in the eye and she said, you can’t give up hope. And it was the most powerful thing anybody has ever said to me.”

That moment sparked the fight that Colleen brings to the search for Morgan every single day.

“Today she may still be missing for 20 years but my fight for her has not changed. I’m her mom. And it is my job to make sure that we fight for her and bring her home.”

Colleen’s fight to find Morgan also includes her advocacy work through the Morgan Nick Foundation, as a volunteer with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and in annual events created to bring awareness to Morgan’s case.

Colleen created the foundation to educate children, families and law enforcement and to prevent the abduction of children. The foundation offers safety courses for schools using NCMEC’s prevention materials. Last year alone, the foundation educated more than 29,000 children.

“You know fear-based safety doesn’t work for kids,” Colleen said. “A lot of times parents think that works, but when you empower kids and you give them the tools they need to stay safe we see kids reacting in ways where they are safer.”

Her foundation also provides tools for families of missing children, including media training and how to best utilize law enforcement.

As a volunteer with NCMEC, Colleen helped form Team HOPE, a peer-support program that provides mentoring and resources to families of children who are missing or sexually exploited.

“I never tell people my story, because my story scares people,” Colleen said. “They don’t want to be my story.  They don’t want to entertain the possibility that their child might not be found. When in fact, most children are found. And are safely recovered and brought home. So, I say to a family that I’m on the phone with, we have a lot of different kinds of volunteers and a lot of different cases and everybody is different so let’s talk about your child. And I make it about them and their child because this phone call is not about me, it’s not about my child.”

One of Colleen’s greatest struggles over the past 20 years is seeing Morgan’s new age progression every few years. Age progressions are a resource for families of long-term missing children. The idea is to help the public imagine what the child looks like now, not what the child looked like when he or she went missing. The process involves a NCMEC forensic artist using photos of the child’s parents and relatives when they were the age the child would be now and merging their physical features to create a likeness of what the child might look like. Photographs remain the single most powerful tool for finding missing children.

“NCMEC has been doing age progressions for the past 26 years and in that time we have done approximately 6,000 age progressions,” said Steve Loftin, supervisor of the Forensic Imaging Unit. “During the past 26 years, over 1,300 long-term missing children have been recovered wherein an age progression image was done.

Each year on the day of Morgan’s disappearance, the family releases pink balloons, her favorite color, as a reminder that they have not given up hope. On social media, they ask people to take some time catching fireflies with their children and to talk to them about safety.

“You know kids grow up, people go to college, lives change, but for our family, we’re still stuck in that moment of not having Morgan here, of having an empty seat at our dinner table every night,” Colleen said. “I still get up every day with that goal is to do everything that I can do today to find Morgan and to bring her home.”

Anyone with information about Morgan Nick is urged to call 1-800-THE-LOST. (1-800-843-5678)