When A Child Goes Missing....

This entry is dedicated to the National Missing Children's Day 2009

....A Child goes missing every forty seconds in the USA, over 2,100 every day.
800 000 are reported missing every year.
500 000 go missing without being reported.....

While I'm reading the various statistics on International missing children, it's hard to believe the numbers. The truth is that they're based on children "reported missing", but when you look at the number of children that 'staid missing', they are even more scary and unbelievable.

When a child goes missing everything will be turned upside down. Family will be questioned, in lots of cases they become suspects; no secret will remain hidden; no stone will be left unturned.
Even if every case where a child, thirteen or younger, goes missing, is considered critical, most of the time the children will not be found.

What happened to them? How come nobody ever sees them again? Did they really fall off the face of the Earth? Too many questions, never enough answers.

In some cases abducted children show up several years later, more often then not they are never found.

Personally, I'd rather find my child's body, then have to live without any knowledge. Some parents might feel the same, though others no doubt prefer to hang on to that last bit of hope.

Why that child? Why at that moment. Often its a matter of availability. For child molesters, the preferred victim also needs to fit his or hers personal profile, though they don't see the child as human. It could also be an estranged family member, or a person who lost a child and tries to replace a void inside.

These numbers only tell us about America, what about the rest of the world? How many children go missing every day in countries that do not have the resources to even start a minimal search. How many of those children are even registered as lost?

We need to find better ways to keep our children save, even from each other. Because if we can't save our little ones, then who are we living for?
Cat & Kris