Fla. Model For Finding Abducted Kids to Be Used Nationwide
Fla. Model For Finding Abducted Kids To Be Used Nationwide POSTED: 10:34 am EST November 30, 2005 UPDATED: 12:27 pm EST November 30, 2005 FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Florida's model for finding abducted children will be used nationwide. The U.S. Department of Justice and Florida Department of Law Enforcement announced Wednesday that ten training sessions will be held around the country using Florida's model. It's called the Children Abduction Response Team, or CART. The model was developed after the 2004 abduction of 11-year-old Carlie Brucia from the Sarasota area. Officials said the model is for law enforcement authorities to be ready ahead of time when a child goes missing. FDLE Commissioner Guy Tunnell says since CART was developed, it has been activated 13 times, with eleven successful child recoveries. The teams include: investigators, forensic experts, crime analysts, amber alert coordinators and others from various police agencies. http://www.local6.com/news/5434453/detail.html

Communities around nation adopting Florida's plan for dealing with child abductions By Curt Anderson The Associated Press Posted December 1 2005 FORT MYERS · A Florida plan for quick, coordinated police response to child abductions -- developed after the 2004 killing of 11-year-old Carlie Brucia -- is being taken nationwide, state and federal law enforcement officials said Wednesday. The state's Child Abduction Response Teams program, devised by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, will be used as a model for training of law enforcement personnel around the country beginning in January, U.S. Department of Justice and FDLE officials said. "We're taking something that exists that has been very, very successful," said Cybele Daley, acting assistant attorney general for the Office of Justice Programs, an arm of the Justice Department. The CART concept is to put together regional law enforcement resources -- from bloodhounds to helicopters to forensics experts -- in advance so they can be deployed rapidly once a child is reported abducted. Since the initial team was created by FDLE in Orlando in early 2005, CART has been activated 13 times in Florida, with 11 successful child recoveries. "We're in synch before we arrive at the scene," said FDLE Commissioner Guy Tunnell. "In a missing child case, time is of the essence." Daley, Tunnell and other officials made the announcement at the FDLE operations center in Fort Myers, where a regional CART training session was held. Among those making presentations were Don and Claudine Ryce, parents of 9-year-old Jimmy Ryce, who in 1995 was abducted at gunpoint from outside his home in rural Miami-Dade County, sexually assaulted and murdered. Claudine Ryce said that her son was alive for more than four hours after he was abducted and was found less than a mile from the family's home. "If we'd had CART in place, Jimmy would have been found," she told officers at the training seminar. "He needed us to get to him in time. That's what CART does." Florida this year had its share of tragic child abductions, notably those of 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford in Citrus County and 13-year-old Sarah Lunde in Hillsborough County. But Tunnell said the CART initiative produced some success stories, including: >The recovery in May of an 8-year-old girl in a Lake Worth landfill who had been raped and left for dead in a trash bin, covered by heavy chunks of concrete. Her alleged assailant, 17-year-old Milagro Cunningham, has been charged as an adult with attempted first-degree murder, sexual battery, kidnapping and other counts and could be sentenced to life in prison. >In July, the recovery in Lee County of an 8-day-old baby who had been abducted from his grandmother's home by his biological parents, who have extensive drug and criminal histories and did not have custody of the baby. Police acting on a tip found the infant a day later with his mother, who was charged with a custody violation. Sun Sentinel

Team helps in searches Specialists fan out in missing child cases By MICHELLE L. START mstart@news-press.com Originally posted on December 09, 2006 It was just a few words. "I remember feeling as if the police didn't have control over the situation," Ed Smart said after his daughter Elizabeth was returned home after a nine-month abduction. "It was as if they were waiting for something to happen or somebody to come and tell them what to do. I was bothered that they weren't out looking for my daughter." Those words changed how Florida searches for missing children like Bryan Dos Santos Gomes. It was December 2003 when those words resonated with Jay Etheridge, Florida Department of Law Enforcement assistant special agent in charge, who decided no parent should ever feel that way. The Child Abduction Response Team — or CART for short — was born. The team identifies regional specialists in everything from sexual predators to experts in child interviews. When an Amber Alert is issued, the teams deploy. "The beauty of this thing is that it gives us the ability to flex manpower as you need it. If you need more people you make a phone call and you have them. You can enlarge or downsize as the case demands," Fort Myers police Sgt. Mike Carr said. "This case demonstrates how CART makes it possible to put people where you need them at the time you need them." During the past week, some 50 CART investigators have descended upon Lee County to assist in the case. The Fort Myers Police Department has 160 officers. Lee County draws CART members from Manatee, Sarasota, Glades, DeSoto, Hendry, Highlands, Okeechobee, Charlotte and Collier counties. Federal agencies such as the FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement also are team members. A profiler and a sketch artist were sent to Fort Myers last week after 1-month-old Bryan was taken from his mother at knifepoint. Carr said someone else has been designated to follow-up on leads. "In the past, everyone was self-deployed," Etheridge said. "You had agencies trying to figure out what to do when 80 extra bodies show up on their doorstep. But, we established a virtual task force. It lets us identify who these people will be so when the bat phone goes off, everybody will know what their job is." CART was launched initially in October 2004 when a Winter Garden 7-year-old was abducted from her home, raped and left for dead. Just over an hour after receiving the call, 40 officers descended upon the Central Florida town to help with the search, nearly doubling the 52-member police department. By the time the girl was found by people walking in the area two hours later, law enforcement officers had already stopped garbage trucks for searching and had the suspect in custody for questioning. The team has participated in 16 successful rescues. It has been activated more than 20 times, five in Southwest Florida. Fort Myers FDLE spokesman Larry Long said the team was last called out when Coralrose Fullwood went missing on Sept. 17 from her North Port home. Her body was found in a wooded area a few blocks away about two hours later. No one has been arrested in that case. "We try to get members together as frequently as we can to do different types of trainings," Long said. "It's actually worked out really well." http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061209/NEWS01/612090425/1075