Know-how helps when children are missing / FLA

Posted: Sun Sep 10, 2006 8:49 am

Know-how helps when children are missing

A rash of cases puts a spotlight on how state agencies shepherd a response.

Christine Dellert | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted September 10, 2006

LEESBURG -- Two weeks ago 2-year-old Trenton Duckett was reported missing. Two days ago, the toddler's mother killed herself, bringing "an unexpected setback" to the multi-agency search for the boy, officials said Saturday.

But before the child's disappearance took a tragic turn Friday with Melinda Duckett's death, the case had already made national news, thrusting yet another missing Florida child into the high-profile glare of evening talk shows such as Nancy Grace and America's Most Wanted.

Trenton's disappearance is the latest in a recognizable litany of missing children cases -- Carlie Brucia, Jessica Lunsford, Sarah Lunde -- placing Florida among the nation's top three states in the sheer number of children reported missing, according to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

"We've had a rash of them the past few years," said Terry Thomas, coordinator of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's Crimes Against Children unit.

In fact, Trenton is just one of several thousand Florida children reported missing during the past decade. Only California and Illinois outnumber Florida's 9,521 missing-children cases reported between 1984 and 2005 to the Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

Some children -- like Trenton -- remain missing, seemingly kidnapped. Several who disappeared -- like Carlie, Jessica and Sarah -- were abducted and later found dead.

But most children reported missing to police show up several hours after wandering off, law-enforcement officials say. Others get snatched up by someone they know or a parent fighting for custody.

While the Missing & Exploited Children center typically receives the most publicized cases, it does not keep records of all children reported missing.

"We actually get a small proportion of cases reported [to law enforcement] because the vast majority of cases are resolved quickly," said Athena Ware, a spokeswoman for the organization.

Child-abduction experts, such as Thomas, predict that fewer than 3 percent of cases reported are abductions by strangers.

"Those are extremely rare," Thomas said. "But because we've had so many in Florida, the public might get the false impression that there are greater numbers."

Myriad factors in abductions

State population isn't the only factor contributing to Florida's missing-child case count, law-enforcement officials say. Its transient population and constant influx of tourists also play a role, they say.

While other heavily populated states may not report as many missing children, law-enforcement agencies here often do a better job documenting and responding to such cases, said Lee Condon, supervisor of FDLE's Missing Children Information Clearinghouse.

"It's the emphasis and the effort that the state of Florida puts on exposing [these cases] and bringing to the public's attention how serious this is," said Jay Etheridge, an FDLE assistant special agent who helped create the agency's Child Abduction Response Teams in 2003.

Made up of law-enforcement officials from city, county, state and federal agencies -- along with missing children advocacy groups -- these teams work throughout the state.

Before a child is reported missing, CART team members know their assigned jobs in an investigation and can respond quickly, Etheridge said.

If an abducted child is going to be murdered, 44 percent are killed in the first hour, Thomas said. After four hours, the death rate rises to about 70 percent. By the end of one week, 99 percent of abducted children will be killed, he said.

The hunt for Trenton

A CART team responded after Trenton was reported missing Aug. 27.

Hours after the boy's reported disappearance, law-enforcement officials also issued a statewide Amber Alert. The system immediately triggers e-mail messages to law-enforcement agencies and can interrupt commercial broadcasts with urgent notices. It also uses flashing traffic bulletins.

Unlike Trenton's, the disappearances of Jessica Lunsford in Homosassa and Sarah Lunde in Ruskin were ruled missing children -- a notch below the Amber Alerts, which are reserved for children thought to be in imminent danger and cases where police have evidence of a possible abduction and foul play.

Both girls' cases still generated national media attention.

The Trenton Duckett case, however, drew mostly local media coverage at first. Police told reporters Trenton was taken from his bedroom through a window as his mother sat in the next room of their Leesburg apartment.

But as details surfaced about Melinda Duckett's divorce from her estranged husband, Joshua Duckett, and about the restraining order she was granted against him, media scrutiny intensified.

It's not easy to predict which cases will gain national prominence, but fear and uncertainty usually help, media critics say.

"I call it the boogeyman factor," said Al Tompkins, group leader for broadcast and online journalism at The Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg. "If they don't know who did it, there is always more attention from the onset."

Melinda Duckett's family said late last week that the publicity may have added to Melinda's stress before her suicide.

Melinda left no note before shooting herself, police said. As of Saturday, police said they had no primary suspect in the investigation.

Christine Dellert can be reached at cdellert@orlandosentinel.com or 352-742-5917.

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