Local Man Devotes Time to Finding Missing Children
Local Man Devotes Time to Finding Missing Children As part of National Missing Children's Day, parents are encouraged to talk to their kids about safety. Almost 800,000 children are reported missing each year, and KMEG 14's Dena Richardson tells us about one hometown man who's making it his personal mission to help bring those children back home. For almost 20 years, Ed Williams has helped parents find missing children. From runaways to kidnappings, he continues to search for kids even after the police stop. When Ed Williams isn't raising horses, he's hitting the streets, searching for missing children. “It might take us a couple of days, it might take us a week, but we stay on them all the time,” says Williams. The issue hits close to home for Ed. In 1989, his own niece was abducted, raped and murdered. “Nobody wanted to help us look for her. She was found 30 days later in a corncrib down by Hornick.” So Ed started helping others who are forced to handle the same crisis. In a year, he has searched for up to 350 missing kids. “We go get a report from the parents, get all the information we can and hit the streets, try to find them,” He says many times parents don't know enough about their children—who their friends are, where they hang out, what's bothering them. “Kids have problems. They might seem little to you, but they're big to these kids. Talk to them,” he says. Those conversations could mean the difference between knowing and wondering what happened to your child. Before September 11, state funds helped Ed cover the costs of searching for missing children. Those funds were cut, and now he pays for everything out of his own pocket, but Ed says he'll never accept money from any of the families that he helps. http://www.kmeg14.com/news/local/7710517.html