On Thursdays I always post pictures of missing children but today I’ve chosen to to let you read of two success stories and how getting involved makes all the difference. So many of these kids can be found if we keep our eyes open and be aware.

10-Year-Old Returned to Mother Thanks to Poster in Wal-Mart

NCMEC’s Call Center received a call on June 13, 2007 from a mother who feared her 10-year-old son was abducted by his non-custodial father. The father failed to return the child following a scheduled visit. A felony warrant was issued for the abductor on June 26, 2007.

A case manager in NCMEC’s National Missing Children’s Division worked with the child’s mother to obtain photos of the child and abductor. A poster was created and distributed to targeted areas in California, Colorado and Texas, where the mother believed the abductor may take the child.

Working with an investigator from the Orange County District Attorney’s Office and local law enforcement in California and Colorado, NCMEC continued to distribute posters of the child and abductor to targeted areas through its national photo partners, including Wal-Mart stores.

Nearly 3 months after the child was reported missing, a pastor in Colorado Springs, Colo. contacted local law enforcement when he recognized the child and abductor from a NCMEC poster in a Wal-Mart store. The pair had been attending his church using alias names. Local law enforcement was able to recover the child and arrest the abductor.

ChoicePoint’s ADAM Broadcast Fax Program Prompts Recovery of 16-Year-Old

NCMEC’s Call Center received a call on August 3, 2007 from a father who reported that his 16-year-old son had run away. The family had recently moved from New York to Florida and the child was upset about the move. The father believed the child could be traveling back to New York.

NCMEC’s National Missing Children’s Division worked with the child’s father to gather additional information and obtain a recent photo of the child to create a poster. The poster was then distributed to targeted locations in Florida and New York.

The child’s father received information on September 4, 2007 that the child had taken a bus to the Smithtown, N.Y. area. He informed NCMEC’s case manager and posters were distributed via ChoicePoint’s ADAM Broadcast Fax Program within a 30-mile radius of Smithtown, N.Y. on September 11, 2007.

A realtor who was selling the child’s former home in Smithtown received the ChoicePoint fax of the child’s poster. After seeing the child at this former residence, she contacted local law enforcement. Law enforcement responded and safely recovered the child.