My Child Is Missing!
HONOLULU, HAWAII
Mari Reid was going through a difficult divorce when her husband took their 5-year-old son Devon and disappeared without a trace.
Discovering that Hawaii had no program dedicated to recovering missing children, she joined with other parents to create the Hawaii State Clearinghouse for Missing Children. Seven years later, the clearinghouse helped reunite mother and son. "We’ve had a lot of catching up to do," Reid says. "But we are fortunate to have found each other again."
The Hawaii Government Employees Association (HGEA)/AFSCME Local 152 has helped the clearinghouse become even more effective.
INSTANT ACCESS. HGEA information systems manager Michael Miller realized that efforts to publicize missing children in stores, mailers and milk cartons could not compare to the power of the Internet. By putting the clearinghouse on the Internet, he thought, information about Devon Reid and other missing children from Hawaii could be sent around the world quickly.
HGEA leaders recognized that the effort would be a natural extension of the union’s popular Internet access program which enables members to hook up to the information superhighway for a small fee.
"We were looking for a way to provide a community service with this new program," says Miller. "The clearinghouse was a perfect fit."
Using the Internet access provided by HGEA, the clearinghouse has more tools at its disposal. Clearinghouse Coordinator Anne Clarkin reports that this year her organization will be hooked up with their liaisons in all the law enforcement offices on the outer islands. Private contributors are providing the computers, scanners and printers and HGEA will link the entire system to the Internet free of charge.
FIGHTING TIME. When children are abducted, time is of the essence. Using the Internet, a child’s photo and details of the abduction can be sent to law enforcement officials as soon as he or she is officially declared missing. Armed with this information, police can stop abductors as they step off a plane.
That’s pretty much what happened in the case of Debra Kraft Chang. Her ex-husband liquidated the couple’s assets and took off with their money and their 7-year-old son Desmond. Father and son flew to Seattle, Canada, New Zealand, Hong Kong, then to England. The clearinghouse tracked them down at each stop but was always a step behind.
Finally, the father called Chang to say he would give back their son if she met him in Hong Kong. Chang feared for her safety, but Clarkin told her to agree to the meeting so he wouldn’t get suspicious. Clarkin alerted Interpol, the international police information service, and police stopped Desmond and his father in England as they were about to board a plane for Hong Kong. Chang flew to London to bring Desmond home.
"It was only two months," says Chang, "but my son has had a lot of therapy because of it.
"The clearinghouse did everything," she says. "Anne was able to make connections on the computer. I had a lot of information, and she was able to work with it really well. She knew everybody. She was able to tell me what was going on. They worked day and night at the end."
When time is the enemy, HGEA’s Internet link may be the most powerful weapon the clearinghouse — and distraught parents — can have.
