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.

Chowchilla Kidnapped Bus Driver Dies

Chowchilla Memorial

Ed Ray, 91, died almost 36 years after he assisted twenty six children to safety from a quarry in Livermore, kidnapped by James and Richard Schoenfield and Fred Woods. The kidnap occurred when Ray stopped on a country road near Chowchilla, California for a disabled vehicle. That event propelled him into the limelight which he refused.

Sure, I knew him—or at least I knew of him. Chowchilla was a small town when I lived there when Ed Ray was younger, years before this incident. Students in town walked to school. Country kids rode the bus. At school, at church, at parades and fairs, around town, everybody knew everybody. All by sight. Most by name. Some by reputation. A few by character.

Goodbye Mr. Ray. May your humble character shine through the ages.

Here are great photos from the Huffington Post. 

Chowchilla schoolbus kidnap 35th anniversary 1976-2011

Two weeks after twenty-six summer school children and their bus driver from my hometown of Chowchilla, California had celebrated Independence day, they lost that freedom. The terrifying July 15, 1976 event was not a random act, but a premeditated crime. Three affluent young men, James "Jim" Schoenfeld, Richard Schoenfeld and  Fred Woods had planned the kidnapping for eighteen months. They executed it when they drove their captives to Livermore after wandering for hours to conceal the 100-mile journey to imprisonment in a moving van in a rock quarry. Like a heavy San Joaquin valley fog that refuses to allow sunshine, this event hovers over the survivors.  A few made their way toward a measure of normalcy. For others, the trauma became an impenetrable barrier that altered their destinies. Thirty-five years after that indelible day, I applaud those who’ve soared above the struggles. I offer prayers for those whose happily-ever-after dreams have turned to endless nightmares.

Chowchilla children 1976 bus kidnappers seek parole

A bus full of summer school children from Dairyland, near Chowchilla, California were abducted in 1976 by three men who planned the detailed hijack kidnap for eighteen months. They drove their captives to Livermore, first wandering for hours, then sealed them in a moving van buried in a cave at a rock quarry. All three men were sentenced to life in prison. Today, more than thirty years later, they want to be set free.

News archives confirm that Richard (Rick) Schoenfeld and his brother James (Jim) were sons of a wealthy Atherton podiatrist. The third abductor, Fred Woods, was from a wealthy Woodside family. These three men, all in their twenties, planned the imprisonment of twenty-six innocent children and an adult bus driver for the purpose of demanding five million dollars ransom for safe exchange. Case files mention the bravery of bus driver Ed Ray who helped students escape. 


Would there have been fatalities without that escape? We don’t know. We do know that July 15, 1976 is indelibly stamped in the minds of these children, their parents, guardians and other relatives, school mates and staff, and the community. The sentencing judge and Dale Fore, former chief investigator, say these prisoners should be released after serving more than thirty years of a life-time sentence. Thirty years confinement is a long time, but is it long enough to compensate for emotional damage to the children? Yes, say the imprisoned men and supporters. For the children and their families, what do they say?

No! No! No! A thousand times NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Related articles:


http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_17463289?source=rss


http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2011/02/23/notorious-76-chowchilla-kidnappers-up-for-parole/


http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2011/02/23/judge-lawyers-urge-parole-in-chowchilla-school-bus-kidnap/

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110224/ap_on_re_us/us_chowchilla_busnapping_parole_2

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/gangsters_outlaws/outlaws/chowchilla_kidnap/9.html

Nancy Grace enters search for Juliani Cardenas

Nancy Grace, noted television crime commentator, enters the hunt for missing Juliani Cardenas, 4, allegedly kidnapped from his grandmother’s arms by Jose Esteban Rodriguez, 27, near Patterson, California. Nancy Grace’s tenacity and fervor equals a southern hunting dog following a scent and brings global attention to this missing boy.


Mr. Rodriguez, authorities are searching the Delta-Mendota canal for your Toyota Corolla. If you’re alive, somewhere far away from this canal, please listen to Tabitha, Juliani’s mother, and drop him off at the nearest fire station. If you want the world to know your side of this story, call Nancy Grace.


UPDATE: Friday, January 21, 2011


Authorities say a third car has been pulled from Delta-Mendota canal, but it's red. This canal is beginning to look like a repository for stolen vehicles.