On April, 24, 2008 a concerned father contacted NCMEC to report his children missing. After receiving proper documentation and photos of the children, a NCMEC poster was created and posted on the NCMEC website, www.missingkids.com. The poster was also disseminated through NCMEC’s corporate photo distribution program in the hope that someone would see the poster and recognize the children.
About a week later, the abductor contacted NCMEC; at which time, the Call Center took a lead on the case. Utilizing information from that lead, a search was conducted and a location was obtained. The information was passed on to law enforcement, who acted on the information and recovered the children in Colorado. The abductor was arrested and the children are in good condition.
Child Located After Three-Year Investigation
A detective with the Central Point Police Department in Central Point,OR contacted NCMEC on February 1, 2005 to report that a 17-year-old girl had run away from her foster home. After law enforcement obtained the proper documentation and a photograph of the child, a poster was created featuring the child. The poster was posted on NCMEC's website at www.missingkids.com and distributed in the areas where law enforcement believed the child may travel.
NCMEC continued to work with law enforcement over the next three years to distribute posters, run public database searches, and disseminate information received about the child. A breakthrough in the case came on December 12, 2007, when law enforcement learned the child may have been arrested, but provided an alias name at the time of her arrest. Using both the descriptive information of the child and the arrest photo, law enforcement went to NCMEC's website and compared the information to NCMEC's poster of the child. The photo of the child was then forwarded to the searching mother, who confirmed that it was in fact the missing child. The child was recovered on February 27, 2008.
15-Year-Old Recognized from NCMEC Poster in Nail Salon
A father called NCMEC’s Call Center on September 23, 2007 to report his 15-year-old daughter missing. The child left her house to walk to a high school football game and school dance but never arrived. When the child did not return home later that night, the father became concerned and contacted law enforcement and NCMEC.
NCMEC obtained a photo of the child and created a poster to distribute. Posters were disseminated through ChoicePoint’s ADAM Broadcast fax program, one of NCMEC’s Photo Partners, to various businesses within a 20-mile radius of Santa Ana, Calif.
A detective with the Garden Grove Police Department in Garden Grove, Calif. worked with NCMEC to follow up on leads received by NCMEC’s Call Center over the following two months. A break in the case came when the child was recognized by employees of a nail salon from a poster sent to the business by ChoicePoint.
The child was recovered safely by law enforcement on November 11, 2007.
Father Reunited with Daughter Missing for 25 Days
A father contacted NCMEC on October 16, 2007 for help in recovering his 10-year-old daughter. The child’s mother had abducted her from the Cayman Islands and fled to the United States, where the mother had relocated eight years earlier after leaving the child behind with her father.
Before contacting NCMEC, the child’s father obtained an emergency order from the local family court granting him full rights to the child and declaring the Cayman Islands the child's habitual residence.
Three days after receiving the case, a case manager with NCMEC's International Missing Children Division coordinated search efforts with the Cayman Police, the U.S. Secret Service, and the Virginia State Police, which ultimately led authorities to the location of the child and mother. The father worked with an attorney from NCMEC's International Child Abduction Attorney Network (ICAAN), a group of attorneys who volunteer to represent left-behind parents of children from other countries who have been wrongfully removed from or retained in the United States, to assist him in registering his Cayman order with the local U.S. court.
The father's U.S. attorney registered the Cayman custody decree under Virginia's UCCJEA (Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act) on November 3, 2007 and obtained an emergency pick up order from the local family courts. That same evening, county police officers executed the order, and upon service of the court papers, the mother agreed to return the child and not to contest the court's decision. The father was reunited with his daughter 25 days after she had been wrongfully removed, and they returned safely to the Cayman Islands.
Child Returned to Dominican Republic After Abduction to the U.S.
A father in the Dominican Republic contacted officials at the U.S. Embassy in Santo-Domingo in June 2007 to ask for help in locating his 7-year-old daughter who had been abducted to the U.S. by her mother earlier that year. Familiar with NCMEC's resources and expertise in international family abductions, the U.S. consular officer immediately contacted NCMEC's International Missing Children Division (IMCD).
Working closely with the searching-father, a case manager with NCMEC's IMCD coordinated efforts with Interpol officials in the U.S. and the Dominican Republic, as well as with agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the U.S. Secret Service, the U.S. Embassy, and the U.S. Department of State. With the help of the Georgia Clearinghouse, NCMEC located the child and the abductor through school searches.
A Dominican court awarded the father provisional custody of the child in August 2007, and an attorney from NCMEC's pro bono network, the International Child Abduction Attorney Network (ICAAN), agreed to assist the father with his case. NCMEC worked closely with the father and his attorney to coordinate travel to and court dates in the U.S.
Four months after NCMEC received the case a U.S. judge scheduled an emergency hearing and ordered the child to be picked up by the U.S. Marshals. On October 19, 2007, the court ordered the child be returned to the Dominican Republic. The father and child were happily reunited, and on October 22, 2007, they traveled safely back to their home in the Dominican Republic.
Proud Mama To
