Jackie Hay Missing 1981 KS
Girl still missing 25 years later Story by Liz Zamora 7:28 p.m. Monday, January 15, 2007 A Topeka, Kansas man is reminded of his own missing daughter after hearing the news of two missing boys reunited with their families. The father of Jackie Hay speaks out more than twenty-five years after her disappearance. "She wasn't old enough to be bad. She was a sweet kid," remembers Olen Hay. He still recalls the day his five-year-old daughter, Jackie Dene Hay, went missing. Missing Children More information on the requirements necessary for activation are available at Amber Alert in Kansas. Current information on missing children is available through the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. "I was getting ready to leave and couldn't find her," says Hay. The only information police had to go on was given to them by a Gas Service man who saw Jackie following a man. But Hay says police took nearly four hours to begin their search. "By the time that it took for the police to investigate, he could have been almost to St. Louis." Hay says he wishes the Amber Alert system would have been in place back in 1981. The system went into effect statewide in 2002. It all began when children's advocate Jim Brewer saw the alert system featured on America's Most Wanted. "I said, 'Topeka needs something like this', and my wife smiled and said, 'you are going to do this aren't you?'" Brewer worked with the Police Department and Shawnee County Sheriff and eventually the Attorney General's office to bring the Amber Alert system to the state. He believe it's effective because it gets the word out so fast. "With everybody looking, it makes it tough to hide," says Brewer. He was ecstatic to hear the news about the two boys in Missouri who were reunited with their families, especially the one missing for four years "I'm glad they found this kid cause now he has a future." Hay says twenty-five years later, the hardest part is just not knowing. And Hay hopes that by telling his story, others will remember the children still missing. http://www.49abcnews.com/news/2007/jan/15/girl_still_missing_25_years_later/

Missing college student reminds local man of daughter's disappearance Story by Marshanna Hester (Contact) 5:51 p.m. Sunday, December 2, 2007 Olen Hay says this year has been particularly tough because of his wife's death in February, but he says to stop speaking out about his daughter's disappearance would mean he's forgotten about her. And that's something he'll never do. He says nailing down one fond memory of his daughter Jackie is hard to come by. "Oh, gee. I don't know there's so many," Hay said. But there is one painful memory from 26 years ago that stands out. That day is September 12, 1981. The day his 5-year-old girl went missing. "She was just out in the neighborhood playing," said Hay. "We lived over on Colfax and she just didn't come home." Over the years, Hay says he's just dealt with the fact he'll never see her again, but the case of Kansas student Emily Sander makes it harder for him to cope. "You know, I think about her quite a bit anyway so, it's just, I feel for the people involved now because I know they've got to be suffering," he said. Sander, 18, was last seen leaving a bar November 23 with 24-year-old Isreal Mireles. Her disappearance made headlines when her friends revealed that she led a double life as an Internet porn star. But Hay says he has no reason to believe that is why the search for Sander intensified. "They said that she was always willing to help everybody out and everything, so I think that might have been the case more than the double life thin," he said. Hay doubts his daughter Jackie is still alive. She would be 31 years old today. He says he's given up on the search for her but still seeks closure. "Somebody's got to know what happened," said Hay. "I don't know whether two people do or one person does but somebody does." http://www.49abcnews.com/news/2007/dec/02/local_missing_kids/ If you have any information about the 19 missing children's cases in Kansas, please call the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at 1-800-843-5678