Child Pictured On Police Car Recovered
July 12, 2008
FORT SMITH - Graciella S. Pinckney's picture was displayed on a Fort Smith police patrol car Tuesday - and she and her two siblings were found and went home Tuesday, police Sgt. Adam "Buddha" Holland and a National Center for Missing and Exploited Children representative said Friday.
Pinckney, now 7, and her siblings, Jasmine Joy-Lynn Harmon, now 8, and Alexis Aaron Harmon, now 13, were abducted from Collegedale, Tenn., by their noncustodial grandmother, Maria Magdalena Mendez, on Dec. 3, 2004, said D'Ann Taflin, a communication manager for the Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
They were recovered in Alabama, Holland said, "thanks to some keen citizens catching discrepancies in info about the kids."
"It does not appear at this time it is in direct relationship to her image on the squad car, but it is proof that children can and do come home," Holland said. Holland heads the department's Cyber Investigation Division.
Taflin said the children are fine. "It's a happy ending," she said.
On Tuesday, the Fort Smith department became the second police department in the country to post missing children's pictures on their patrol cars.
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Four Fort Smith squad cars were unveiled Tuesday. Twenty of the 30-car fleet are destined to each display pictures of children reported missing from the region. Eighteen will feature two children. Two cars each carry pictures of two local missing children - Morgan Nick who was abducted from an Alma ballpark in June 1995 at age 6, and
Tony Allen, a Southside High School sophomore who disappeared from his Fort Smith home in 1978. Their pictures depict them as they looked at the time of they went missing and as they would look now, using age-progression technology.
The Clarksville Police Department was the first law enforcement agency to team with nonprofit Alma-based Morgan Nick Foundation and the Center for Missing and Exploited Children in the "Picture Them Home" campaign. That department unveiled its cars May 2, and within 24 hours, 16-year-old Dixie Rogers, a runaway from Conway was recovered in Conway and reunited with her family.
The Clarksville department placed a "recovered" sticker over Rogers' photo. The Fort Smith department will do the same with Pinckney's photo, Holland said.
Clarksville's effort was funded through the Clarksville City Council. Rheem Air Conditioning Division, which operates a Fort Smith manufacturing plant, provided the funding for the Fort Smith department's effort.
Another local law enforcement agency - the Sequoyah County Sheriff's Department - will be the third in the nation and the first in Oklahoma to do likewise with 12 of its vehicles. That unveiling is planned for July 21.
Taflin said the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children provided the photos to all three agencies.
"This is good. We're getting a lot of good publicity, and that's how these children are found," Taflin said.
The campaign has placed children's pictures on business vehicles, billboards and the like, Holland said.
"The options are limitless as to how anyone can help, even if it is simply putting up a poster in your business," Holland said.
http://www.nwaonline.net/articles/2008/07/12/news/071308trchildrecovered.txt
DOB: Feb 7, 1962
Missing: Oct 1, 1978
Age Now: 44
Sex: Male
Race: White
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Brown
Height: 6'1" (185 cm)
Weight: 135 lbs (61 kg)
Missing From:
FORT SMITH
AR
United States
Age Progressed
Anthony's photo is shown age-progressed to 43 years. He was last seen at home on October 1, 1978, wearing jeans and a western shirt. Anthony has a mole under his left eye. He may go by the nickname Tony.
ANYONE HAVING INFORMATION SHOULD CONTACT
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
1-800-843-5678 (1-800-THE-LOST)
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Fort Smith Police Department (Arkansas) 1-479-709-5100
http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/PubCaseSearchServlet?act=viewPoster&caseNum=1006737&orgPrefix=NCMC&searchLang=en_US