WHEN 6-YEAR-OLD ADAM WALSH WENT MISSING from a mall in Hollywood, Florida, in 1981, local police didn't immediately start a search, the National Crime Information Center didn't track missing children and it took the FBI seven days before they showed up to tell the boy's parents that the agency wasn't "in the kid business." "No one helped us in 1981, when Adam was kidnapped," his father, John Walsh, told Newsweek. "The little Hollywood, Florida, police had no idea what they were doing...They didn't search for Adam that night. I was so worried when it got dark." Walsh ended up designing his own missing persons flyer and took up residence at the local police department as he launched his own search effort for his son. But it was too late. Adam Walsh's severed head was found two weeks after he disappeared, in a drainage canal in Indian River County, Florida.
The search for America's missing has evolved since then-and changes in technology, law enforcement approaches and involvement of civilian investigators are making a difference. Yet, as the United States marked National Missing Persons Day on February 3, the challenge remains enormous. Each year, more than 600,000 people are reported missing in America, according to the Department of Justice's National Missing and Unidentified Persons (NamUs) database.
"With the changes that we're seeing today, the needle has moved," said John Bischoff, vice president of the missing children division at the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.
"It has moved certainly in a positive direction in terms of the speed in which we're able to engage with the public, the speed at which we're able to pull in lead information... And we're seeing faster turnarounds in how quickly we are able to find missing children and get that information to law enforcement. Get that child back to a safe place." he told Newsweek.
Denne historien er fra February 23, 2024-utgaven av Newsweek Europe.
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Denne historien er fra February 23, 2024-utgaven av Newsweek Europe.
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Falling for Romance
A new book, Nora Ephron at the Movies, celebrates the writer/director best known for her iconic rom-coms and strong female characters
Cracking the Norse Code
Walrus DNA has shown that Vikings were likely the first to have encountered Indigenous North Americans
Monumental Shift
The discovery of 165-million-year-old crystals Easter Island has upended the longheld notion of how the Earth's \"conveyor belt\" moves
'OUR FOREIGN POLICY AND DOMESTIC REFORMS ARE TWO SIDES OF THE SAME COIN'
It is a well-known fact across the globe that the North Korean regime is irrational and unpredictable, but we have been consistent in strengthening our defense posture against the threat from North Korea since the Korean War, and I believe that their conventional capability is much inferior to that of the Korean military.
'They Read My Eulogy As I Lay in an Open Grave'
Like Paris Hilton, Natasia Pelowski claims she was subjected to abuse at a teenage therapy program
Russian Economy Faces 'Burnout'
Vladimir Putin admits difficulties” as the country’s key interest rate reaches a historic high
China's 'Silent Chemical War'
The U.S. must investigate Beijing's role in the manufacturing of fentanyl that is killing Americans, says one mom whose daughter died after accidentally taking the illicit substance
HARSH HEADWINDS
President Yoon Suk Yeol's BATTLE to reform a South Korea beset with structural problems under the specter of an increasingly aggressive neighbor to THE NORTH
Bridget Everett
BRIDGET EVERETT NEVER THOUGHT SHE'D BE THE LEAD OF A TV SHOW. \"I come from the downtown world in New York, a cabaret singer, and these things just don't happen, you don't find yourself with three seasons of HBO.
Amber Ruffin
A LATE-NIGHT COMEDY SHOW ON CNN? YES, and it's a game show, too.
