Where are the children?

More than 2,000 children are reported missing every day in the U.S., an annual estimate of more than 750,000 minors. About 200,000 are abducted by family members. Of the 58,000 abducted by strangers, 115 children are murdered, held for ransom, or held hostage with an intent to keep. The disappearance of Etan Patz, a six-year old student who vanished between his New York home and the one-block walk to the school bus stop in 1979, prompted President Ronald Regan four years later to proclaim May 25 as National Missing Children’s Day. The following year, congress designated the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, a nonprofit organization, as the main source of information.

Fast forward more than a quarter-century to March 16, 2012. Sierra LaMar, 15, disappeared on her way to a rural school bus stop in Morgan Hill, California. A tip about a red Volkswagen Jetta with black hood and Sierra's clothes in a Juicy Couture bag sparked the arrest of Antolin Garcia-Torres two months later. Volunteers still search for Sierra.

On the eve of National Missing Children’s Day, May 24, 2012, Pedro Hernandez, a former Manhattan stock clerk who once lived in the same neighborhood as Etan Patz, confessed and was arrested.  

In all the positive results from Ethan’s disappearance, from his face on milk cartons to a 24-hour toll free number to report missing children, to an arrest more than three decades after he went missing, one vital deterrent remains untouched—unsupervised bus stops. If parents or neighbors had formed a volunteer watch group to watch for Etan Patz, he might have been found. If Sierra LaMar’s bus stop had a monitor, her morning absence would have been questioned and an amber alert issued. The red Volkswagen Jetta with a black hood would have been traced sooner. Volunteers wouldn't be searching for her today. 

We cannot turn back the clock, but we can change the future.