Dear Friend,
We know how difficult this will be for you and your family, and how it can become overwhelming very quickly. We have walked in your shoes in our search for our own missing children. There is a lot of information in this Guide. If you need to, ask others to help you get through it. Don’t feel like you are in this alone. Many people and resources are available to help you. Use this document as a tool to get what you need when you need it.
In 1998, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention brought together parents of missing children to talk about our personal and collective experiences. For those of us who attended that meeting, it was the first time we met parents facing similar situations, experiencing the same anguish, and wading through the vast maze and confusion of figuring out how to find our missing children.
At that time, information and knowledge on how we could work with law enforcement, the media, and volunteers was nonexistent. The same was true for how to manage donations, rewards, and even our lives. Fax machines and pagers were the tools used for the fastest communication.
But as we talked and shared our stories, we realized we had much we could offer to help others. Thus, we helped create When Your Child Is Missing: A Family Survival Guide. The first of its kind, it quickly became the go-to source for people who, like us, “speak the language of missing” – not only in this country, but around the world. And for that we are proud. But a lot has changed since 1998 when the first edition of this Guide was published – much of it for the betterment of our cause.
Technology now allows us to reach greater numbers of people in targeted areas via social media and the wireless emergency alerts that activate cell phones during AMBER Alerts. More training opportunities are helping law enforcement better understand how to effectively respond to and search for different types of missing children – from those abducted by a noncustodial parent to teens lured into sex trafficking. Additionally, scores of Child Abduction Response Teams are now ready to activate at a moment’s notice to search for our missing children, and Internet Crimes Against Children task forces, which also began in 1998, have become a force in the fight against technology-facilitated child sexual exploitation and crimes against children that are perpetrated online.
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) has also expanded and increased its offerings. The one that resonates most with us is Team Hope — perhaps because many of us volunteer to help parents of missing children navigate some of the same tumultuous experiences we have endured.
NCMEC can deploy experienced, retired law enforcement professionals and utilize a variety of sophisticated, modern forensic tools to help solve decades-old cold cases. As a result, some criminals have confessed to wrongdoings after many years of eluding justice.
In 2016, a Minnesota man finally admitted to abducting and killing 11-year-old Jacob Wetterling, the son of one of this Guide’s founding advisors, Patty Wetterling. While the news brought the search for her son to a close, it did not end the tireless work that Patty and so many others do to educate the public, law enforcement, and other child protection professionals about endangered missing children.
We recognize that every family is unique, and everyone’s missing child story is different — as are their interactions with law enforcement and volunteers. Our main goal was to update this Guide to ensure it continues to be of value and support to you, whether you are reading it in print, reading it online, or interacting with the array of resources found here.
We have seen so many positive changes to help us search for our missing children. Our hope is that you will soon be safely reunited with your child. In the meantime, know that we understand what you are going through and are with you always — in spirit, and in these pages.
— The Parents