Between 1979 and 1981 a series of high-profile missing-children cases quickly pierced the national consciousness and created an overall feeling of shock and dismay. They brought significant attention to the seriousness of child victimization and forever changed the response by law-enforcement agencies to reports of missing children. The most notable and influential case involved the disappearance of Etan Patz on May 25, 1979.
Etan Patz disappeared from a New York City street on his way to school. His father, a professional photographer, disseminated black-and-white photographs of Etan in an effort to find him. The massive search and media attention that followed focused the nation’s attention on the problem of child abduction and lack of plans to address it.
For three years in Atlanta, Georgia, the bodies of young boys and girls were discovered in lakes, marshes, and ponds along roadside trails. By the time a suspect was arrested and identified in 1981, 29 bodies were recovered. The suspect was apprehended, convicted, and now serves a life sentence in prison. However, there was no coordinated effort among law enforcement to search for missing children on a state or national level, and no organization to help parents in their desperation.
The momentum that began with the disappearance of Etan, Adam, and the 29 missing and murdered children of Atlanta led to photographs of missing children on milk cartons and, ultimately, a nationwide movement. Etan Patz was the first missing child to have a photograph published on the back panel of a milk carton. In 1983 President Ronald Regan proclaimed May 25 National Missing Children’s Day.
The use of milk cartons to locate missing children has dwindled over the years. As a result, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children is using an updated, more tech savvy take on milk carton advertising a downloadable computer screensaver that flips through photographs of missing kids. Rotating screens display a missing child’s picture and profile, specifically customized according to the region of the United States where the computer user is located. The hope is that the screensaver will be a great way to get more people involved in finding kids.
The success of the screensaver initiative depends solely on the number of people who download the application. There is no cost and it could make a tremendous difference in the lives of missing children in their families.
Another means of bolstering the search for missing children is the Amber Alert Program a voluntary partnership between law-enforcement agencies, broadcasters, transportation agencies, and the wireless industry, to activate an urgent bulletin in the most serious child-abduction cases. These alerts have been highly effective in galvanizing an entire community to assist in the search and eventual safe recovery of a missing child.
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