Six Missed Children

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The first step in protecting your child from potential abductors is to know what you're dealing with. Here are some important -- and potentially surprising -- facts about child abductions in the United States:

Every 40 seconds in the United States, a child becomes missing or is abducted.
In 2001, 840,279 people (adults and children) were reported missing to the FBI's National Crime Information Center (NCIC). The FBI estimates that 85 to 90 percent of those (roughly 750,000 people or 2,000 per day) reported missing were children. The vast majority of these cases are resolved within hours.
Based on the identity of the perpetrator, there are three distinct types of kidnapping: kidnapping by a relative of the victim or "family kidnapping" (49 percent), kidnapping by an acquaintance of the victim or "acquaintance kidnapping" (27 percent), and kidnapping by a stranger to the victim or "stranger kidnapping" (24 percent).
Family kidnapping is committed primarily by parents, involves a larger percentage of female perpetrators (43 percent) than other types of kidnapping offenses, occurs more frequently to children under 6, equally victimizes juveniles of both sexes, and most often originates in the home.
Acquaintance kidnapping involves a comparatively high percentage of juvenile perpetrators, has the largest percentage of female and teenage victims, is more often associated with other crimes (especially sexual and physical assault), occurs at homes and residences, and has the highest percentage of injured victims.
Stranger kidnapping victimizes more females than males, occurs primarily at outdoor locations, victimizes both teenagers and school-age children, is associated with sexual assaults in the case of girl victims and robberies in the case of boy victims (although not exclusively so), and is the type of kidnapping most likely to involve the use of a firearm.
Only about one child out of each 10,000 missing children reported to the local police is not found alive. However, about 20 percent of the children reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in nonfamily abductions are not found alive.
In 80 percent of abductions by strangers, the first contact between the child and the abductor occurs within a quarter mile of the child's home.
Most potential abductors grab their victims on the street or try to lure them into their vehicles.
About 74 percent of the victims of nonfamily child abduction are girls.
Acting quickly is critical. Seventy-four percent of abducted children who are ultimately murdered are dead within three hours of the abduction.
One in five children 10 to 17 years old receive unwanted sexual solicitations online.
In a 1998 study of parents' worries by pediatricians at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, nearly three-quarters of parents said they feared their children might be abducted. One-third of parents said this was a frequent worry -- a degree of fear greater than that held for any other concern, including car accidents, sports injuries, or drug addiction.

Sources: Federal Bureau of Investigation; National Crime Information Center; U.S. Justice Dept.; Vanished Children's Alliance; Redbook, February 1998; State of Washington's Office of the Attorney General; United States Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention Juvenile Justice Bulletin, June 2000

A tragic tale about the six kids who were kidnapped on a Halloween night, preludes the trick or treat in the street were Halloween was going to be celebrated after twenty years of the disapparition of a group of three girls and three boys of the same house between the ages of 8 to 11 years. For first time, they were going to trick or treat without parents supervision. It was 1996 in the Fern Street. Kids started to prepare their costume after returning from school. Night rose in the dark sky. Since it was a safe and peaceful neighborhood, their parents left them to went alone to a party costume in the same street. Safety rules were reviewed with them before leaving from the house. While walking in the street, appeared a solitary old man that lived in an abandoned wood house, to offer them candies. The oldest kids distrusted the man, and told to the youngest ones, to continue walking. The man grabbed two of the kids to their house. The other four kids ran behind him, instead of warn to their fathers about the kidnapping. It was too late for the six children. After the kids did not show up to the party, the hosts called their parents to let them know that their kids never arrived to their home. Police was called and quickly a kidnapping alert was posted in the media and in their neighborhood. All the neighbors were interviewed including the solitary old man. Since their bodies were never found, the case was filed as missing children. The residents of Fern Street decided to not celebrate Halloween night anymore. After two years, the mother of the missing children was blessed with two fraternal twins. Years passed by, and they heard for first time the story of their missing brothers and sisters. They decided to investigate what happened in the Halloween night of 1996. As a part of their investigation, they walked the route the children were supposed to follow to arrive to the Halloween party. When they were walking in front of the abandoned house, a blood curling scream was heard. The old man was found hanging in a tree ten years ago. Something unknown motivated them to call the police to reopen the missing children case. The police officers requested a search warrant to enter the house and see it was a connection between the old man and the children disapparition. He was interviewed twenty years ago, but he was not found as suspect of the case, since he was not seen talking with the children that fatidic night. The twins went to the tree when the old man was found hanging, and saw a carved arrow signing to the tree roots. They told to their police about that strange mark. Machinery was sent to the place, to start digging in the tree roots. Six skeletons were found with a note. The note was written by the old man describing that he killed the six children by poisoning them with a poison. He was a severely mental patient who was never diagnosed. The note also said that he felt an evil impulse to realize that horrible crime. He was practicer of witchcraft and satanism. Since that day he lived tormented by the voices, he supposedly heard in his mind from the six children. He decided to suicide to end his guilt. The six children were buried in a holy cemetery. Finally, they would rest in peace. The case was refiled by the police as kidnapping and murder by a mentally insane killer. Their parents and twin brothers felt great relief to finally know what happened that dreadful night. Since the Halloween night was not related directly to their children tragedy, they decided to bring a Halloween party to the children and parents of the Fern Street in honor to their six angels in heaven. The End