HOW TO RESPOND WHEN YOUR CHILD IS MISSING

BEFORE YOUR CHILD IS MISSING

1. Always keep a recent photograph of your child available.

2. Have a set of finger prints available.

3. Know your child’s friends AND their parents. Keep a notebook of information that includes friends names, parents’ names, addresses and telephone numbers. If possible have the work numbers of the parents. Make it a policy that your child cannot visit a friends’ home unless this information is on file with you.

4. Know your child’s schedule. What time does he leave school. What is his normal travel route and how long does it take.

5. Create a special ID card for your child. Have it laminated and insist that they always carry that card (or “dog tags” that can be worn.)

6. Determine your child’s blood type and class. Keep something that can produce a DNA sample if it is ever needed. A possible way is to take an old medicine bottle, clean it, and place a hair sample in the bottle. Label it with the child’s name and the date the sample was taken.

7. Make sure your child knows how to contact you. This can be part of the information on their ID tag.

8. NEVER USE THE EXCUSE THAT NOTHING WILL HAPPEN TO ME OR MY CHILD .

WHEN YOUR CHILD IS FIRST THOUGHT TO BE MISSING

1. Check with the parents of your child’s friends and let them know you are looking for your child.

2. Inform the school or day care facility used by that child.

3. Check with siblings and immediate neighbors.

4. If none of these has produced effective results, call the police. Insist on a report and a case number. The case number will be critical to everything here after.

5. If available, provide the police with a copy of the Emergency Response Disk from the Find My Child package.

6. Re-check your list of your child’s friends and parents. See who last saw your child and when and where. A search should be started from the location where the child was last seen. Have full face photographs available to display.

7. Know what your child was last wearing.

8. Assume that almost any child is old enough to use the telephone or that someone may call for the child. Contact the Telephone Company Security office, either through the local business office or the local carriers long distance operator. All carriers have this office and someone is available 24 hours a day. YOU WILL NEED THE POLICE CASE NUMBER!! Ask to have TRACE turned on for your number and be sure they explain how it works in your area. ALL TELEPHONE COMPANIES HAVE THIS ABILITY though some local staff may not be aware. Push until you talk to someone who can assist you. This will enable the police to know the origin of any call made to your number.

9. If you have older or teen siblings, enlist their help in contacting the friends of your younger child.

10. Don’t wait until tomorrow for anything you can reasonably do today.

11. Ask the police to confirm to you the steps they have taken. Look for a local BOLO (be on look out) followed by a county wide and then state and national BOLO. Ask that the BOLO be repeated for each shift for each involved agency.

12. Re-check the parents on your list of your child’s friends.

13. Notify local community service groups such as amateur radio operators or citizens band radio clubs. Often they have the ability to quickly mobilize a large search group of organized persons that can aid in a local area search.

14. Keep someone at your home telephone available to answer all incoming calls. Use a second or neighbors telephone for outgoing calls.

15. You don’t need to be ashamed or hesitant in asking for help. This can happen to the most careful and attentive parents.

UNDERSTANDING WHY CAN HELP FIND THE CHILD

1. Depending on the age of your child their can be a variety of reasons why your child is missing. These fall into groups that include (A) criminal activity; (B) childhood curiosity. (C) anger or rebellion, (D) drugs and/or peer pressure.

This document is not intended to be a discussion of psychology and behavior however, professionals in those areas can often be of assistance if other causes have been ruled out.

A. Criminal activity can include abduction, kidnapping, parental kidnapping, a sexual preditor or any related activity where there is the intent to commit a crime and the child becomes involved. In this circumstance, having complete data on your child becomes crucial. Pictures, voice, behavior, medical information, physical information are all elements that professionals will need to find your child. The speed and completeness of this information’s availability and the speed of dissimination become paramount. Preparation for contact, having TRACE turned on, is also important as police agencies may take a day or more to do this, if they do it.

B. Childhood curiosity is typical of small young children. They can easily become lost within a block of home and may not be able to accurately tell an adult where they live or who they are. Having knowledge of the neighborhood and the neighbors becomes invaluable. This cause may also result from the creation of a fort or tunnel or other hiding place, such as an abandon house or building, that becomes an element of your child’s imagination. Other children in your child’s play group may well know about such a place but desire to keep it secret.

C. Anger and rebellion in adolescent and pre-adolescent children may result in running away. This is most frequently a group activity or will involve contact with a friend or even another adult. Very frequently the child will call home to be sure you know they have run away and to impart “hurt” and worry. Having TRACE in place early will allow you to identify where a call came from. [ NOTE: This will work even when *69 caller ID will not] Again, knowing who your child’s friends are and who their parents are may help find your child. A teen may enlist the cooperation of a parent telling them that their own parents are out of town or that there was some other family emergency that makes parents unavailable. The “rescuing” parents think they are helping out. In other situations, teens will sneak a friend into their room and hide them. Where a teen has indeed run away, independently, they will often contact aunts, uncles or cousins or friends from past home locations. Check for missing credit cards or cash. Cut off access to any fund source and make sure someone is watching your home if you will be away. Teens will often break into their own homes to recover “things” or stuff for their use or to sell for cash. If you receive an operator assisted collect call, tell the operator you need “TIME AND CHARGES” BEFORE you accept the call. She will then call you back at the end of the call allowing you to recover all of the needed information that can identify where the call came from. Contact is very likely as your child usually will want to know they are making you feel bad.

D. Drugs, which include alcohol and negative peer pressure often overlap with elements of item C except there will usually be more theft of family or personal property associated with the disappearance of the child. The child will also look for ways to manipulate you and use your “love”, “compassion” ,and “sympathy” against you. Recovery of the child depends on your taking a strong controlling position that does not give in to threats or demands or promises, no matter how they are framed or presented. You cannot control the child in this sort of circumstance, no matter how you may like to. You can seek the help of the legal or criminal justice system if the child is under the age of 18 (in Florida)

2. With the answer to the “why” question you are able to focus on who or which agencies can do the most in finding your child. In every case, having current, accurate and complete information, before it is needed, can be the difference.

3. Where the “why” involves juvenile or small children, a rapid area search is indicated with rapid production of pictures and contact with other parents. THE CASE NUMBER IS CRITICAL!

4. Where the “why” involves teens, knowing friends, addresses, who has a car, telephone numbers, all become very important along with the CASE NUMBER that will enable the use of the TRACE from the telephone company.

5. When the “why” involves drugs and alcohol, professional help is always indicated. This is particularly true when the parents do not want to admit or accept the drug or alcohol involvement; Chemical dependency is, in the majority of cases, a terminal illness requiring professional intervention.

FIND MY CHILD software by Family Software and Claysoft, Inc. is a positive and effective tool for parents to use BEFORE the child is missing. All of the critical data is compiled in a format that is tailored to what police and investigators need to find your child. This program can produce the posters, pictures, web notification and police reports.

For more information on this invaluable product contact Joe Clayton at wizard@claysoft.com

The information contained in this document is provided by Tiger Investigations as a service to the public. It is not intended to include every possible action that may need to be taken as every circumstance is different. It is intended to assist parents in being prepared before a need arises and to provide a minimum of direction, based on the experiences of the writer. The staff at Tiger has had many years of experience in locating missing persons including missing children and teens where the “why” involved all of the items listed. Please feel free to contact Tiger Investigations, before or after the need arises. We can be found on the Internet at cyberchute.com/tiger/ or our E-MAIL address is spyguy@TigerInvestigations.com We are located at 879 No. Volusia Ave. in Orange City, Fla. 32763 (904)774-7843 or (800)-929-7848 FAX (904)775-9229