Millions of parents across the nation are struggling with the devastating pain of a child gone missing. Some of these children are abducted, some run away, others are found alive, many turn up dead, and
worst of all - never found.
Can you imagine life without being able to locate your child? Would you have the strength to laugh, work or eat?
My childhood friend Cynteria Phillips was missing for seven months before she was murdered. I had contact with her nearly every day during those seven months but I had no idea that she was a
missing child. Now I know that for every missing child there is someone, somewhere who knows where they are. Many people would keep it a secret, while some have no idea that the child is wanted by police.
Most kidnappers have motives. These motives range from rape to monetary reasons to revenge. They rarely abduct kids for fun. Many abductions, such as the Alexis Patterson case, are clueless and have
no apparent motive. Alexis Patterson, a seven-year-old year old black female from Milwaukee disappeared after she was dropped off at her school in May 2002. She hasn't been seen or heard from since.
Non-family abductions normally involve a single child. A highly unusual case is the case of Diamond and Tionda Bradley. Both girls disappeared after their mother went to work at 6:00 a.m in July
2001. When their mother returned home, she found a note stating that the girls had gone to a nearby store. Tionda Bradley was 10 years-old (now 13) at the time of her disappearance. She is a black/bi-racial child with light skin and long dark brown hair. Diamond Bradley who was three-years-old at the time (now six), is black with a medium complexion and black medium length hair.
They have not been seen or heard from again.
How long must parents and other family members wait wait? There have been hundreds of leads but none have moved the case forward. Detectives can't discover a motive or put themselves in the mindset of the criminal or criminals who took the children so it's hard for them to track down suspects.
Change in appearance
I believe the main reason missing kids go un-noticed is because their looks change over time. These changes includes, loss of hair, a jump in height, loss of weight, skin discoloration, change of body figure, acne problems and more.
Another reason why missing kids cases are often times unsolved is because of police mistakes in estimating ages. The body of "Precious Doe" found in Missouri was estimated to be that of a 4 year old female and approximately 4 feet. Have you ever seen a four-year- old stand at 4 feet tall?
Body decomposition could also be a problem when trying to identify a corpse. A female Jane Doe who was found in Florida a few years ago was evaluated by medical examiners and was thought to be black or Hispanic and between the ages 11 and 13. She was later identified as a 15 year old white American female.
Kids remain missing, parents cope with sorrow and the police try to do the best they can with a dearth of clues.
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