Group items tagged

Good to know!

One of the challenges of being a responsible parent is to teach your child to be cautious without filling them with fear and anxiety. Dangers do exist, and the more aware your children are of them, the safer they will be.

3 yr old Briant Rodriguez was abducted from his home 48 hours ago at gunpoint. Abductors were thin, light-skinned Latinos. One is about 18 years old, 5 feet, 8 inches tall and was wearing blue jeans, a green T-shirt and a black baseball cap. Another about 24 years old, 5 feet, 10 inches tall and was wearing a black shirt, black pants, boots and a white bandanna. Briant is 3 feet tall, 40 pounds, with brown, curly hair. Last seen wearing a yellow shirt, blue sleeves, blue striped shorts/sandals.

There are several child safety products that seek to help authorities identify your child in the case of their abduction. From DNA kits to ID Cards and USB drives, many experts agree that in the case your child goes missing, these kits could be crucial to recovering your son or daughter.

While on holiday with her parents and twin siblings in southern Portugal, Madeleine McCann went missing from an apartment in the middle of the Praia da Luz resort. Initial investigations by the Policia Judiciaria concluded that the girl had been abducted. From that moment, Portuguese police began a nationwide manhunt. They carried out a search with sniffer dogs, examined photographs taken by vacationers, and searched the coast including area caves to see if any suspects could be identified. None were found. On June 17th, the Policia Judiciaria noted that the presence of so many people in the McCann's apartment may have destroyed all the evidence and could have proved fatal to the case.

KMBC's Peggy Breit reported that the case is drawing attention to flaws in the state's Amber Alert system. Some law enforcement agencies are issuing their own alerts that the state doesn't recognize, including the one issued by Independence police. Independence asked the Missouri Highway Patrol to ask for a statewide alert, but the patrol declined, because the case didn't meet the Amber Alert guidelines, the patrol said. The guidelines include that a child was abducted and is at risk for serious harm or death. As of a year ago, law enforcement departments can call their own Amber Alerts without approval from an Amber Alert board.

Another true story of a child abduction...

In November 2001, Lois Smart met a clean and well kept homeless man on the streets of downtown Salt Lake City, Utah. The man called himself "Emmanuel" and claimed his calling was to be a minister to the homeless. Feeling a sense of sympathy for him, Lois Smart invited him to her home to do odd jobs.