It sounds like she was gone a little over 24 hours, which fits the general mold for a successful return - I tried finding the exact stats, but IIRC either 24 or 48 hours is considered to be the best time frame for a return. A quick search of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children shows that over 58,000 kids are abducted by strangers every year - that's almost 160 kids a day. There's one happy family in Missouri right now, I can guarantee; the most fitting bookend to this would be to find the SOB who grabbed Alisa and get him behind bars (ideally after taking a swing at a couple really big cops...)(CNN) -- Authorities have found a missing 4-year-old Missouri girl and are searching for a mysterious dark-colored car with a loud muffler that may be connected to the case, police said early Wednesday.
Alisa Maier, whose disappearance prompted an Amber Alert, was found in Fenton, Missouri, about 10:15 p.m. Tuesday (11:15 p.m. ET) at a car wash and taken to a hospital, the St. Louis County police department said.
I think abduction has to rank right up there with cancer in "shit parents worry about a lot". You never know if that kindly old guy down the street that watches your 5 year old with a little too much interest is simply a grandpa with kids far away or a sicko; in busy places like a shopping mall or even the supermarket there's so much going on that it's a full time job just keeping track of where the kids are. Losing sight of your kid - even for a couple of seconds - is a heart-stopping flash of fear. Situational awareness is king - even for the parents of older kids (maybe even moreso).
It's great to read one of these stories that doesn't end badly, that's for certain.
That is all.
3 comments:
I think you have your facts wrong. Abductions by strangers is a very rare event (if I remember the stats correctly, it is on the order of 1,000 a year). By far (somewhere in the neighborhood of 80%)child abductions are almost always a parent (i.e. non-custodial parent) taking the child or some other relative. A much smaller percentage is neighbors or friends and then at the bottom is strangers. So don't lose sleep at night about that guy at the park. It is more than likely a grandfather out on a date with his granddaughter.
I took my numbers from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children site here.
Their number was 58,200 children abducted by non-family members per year. That's out of 797,500 children reported missing, or less than 10%, so your point stands.
Still. 58K is WAY too damn many.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/07/07/missouri.abducted.child/index.html?video=true&hpt=T2
But the search went on for the man who abducted her, who was seen driving a dark-colored, four-door sedan with missing wheel covers and a loud muffler. A tip led police to the town of Hawk Point, about 45 miles south of Louisiana, where police found a car oparked outside a home that roughly matched that description, Missouri Highway Patrol Sgt. Al Nothum said.
Before police could speak to the man, "He pulled out a gun and shot himself." Nothum said.
"We are not saying this is our suspect," he added. "We are saying he is a person of interest." Investigators are still treating the case as open, and will continue to take tips until the facts are nailed down, he said.
There were preliminary reports after the shooting that the man had died, but Nothum said Wednesday night that the man was in critical condition. Nothum would not provide any more information about the man or his condition.
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