Early one morning, a little boy by the name of Etan Patz grabbed his school books, donned his Future Flight Captain’s Cap and gave his mother a goodbye kiss before leaving to catch the bus to school. The sight of her blonde-haired, blue-eyed son playfully making his way up Prince Street in New York, New York was to be Julia’s last. He was six years old.
Etan’s disappearance, still unsolved, is just one of many horrifying stories of children who seemingly vanish without a trace. For the families of these children, the years can go by without any answers and hope begins to fade. That’s why the anniversary of Etan’s disappearance. May 25, has been named National Missing Children’s Day in recognition of all missing children. Throughout Canada and the USA, it is a special day, symbolic of renewed hope and remembrance of those still missing.
According to Lindsay Lobb, Senior Support Services Manager at C3P, “Timing is paramount when locating missing kids, and community participation is the key to help bring children home as soon as possible.”
As 95 per cent of the located children in the MissingKids.ca database were found in their own city, today, on Missing Children’s Day, the Canadian Centre for Child Protection (C3P) is underscoring the integral role community engagement plays in bringing missing and abducted children home. At MissingKids.ca, Canada’s missing children resource centre, nearly 30,000 Canadian children are reported missing to police each year. For every call to the public to help find missing children, there are hundreds that are solved behind the scenes.
If a law enforcement agency does release a public advisory about a missing kid, it’s because they truly believe that the public can assist in finding their location. Spreading the word about missing children is the easiest way to contribute to the search; repost missing children posters online, share news articles and podcasts about missing kids, and engage with local law enforcement on social media.
Deputy Commissioner Chuck Cox, Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) says,“The OPP’s partnership with C3P is vital in supporting the most vulnerable in our communities: the children. This Missing Children’s Day, the OPP encourages members of the public to be aware of the missing children in their community by following their local police service’s social media platforms and regularly checking MissingKids.ca. It is with our partners and the community’s support that we can bring much needed resolution to missing children’s loved ones.”
To review the list of missing Canadian children, visit MissingKids.ca/missing-children-database. For more information and educational resources to help prevent children from going missing, visit MissingKids.ca
