Turning a Negative into a Positive

There is no doubt that the feel-good story thus far in 2007 is the safe return home of Shawn Hornbeck, the Missouri teen who was missing for more than four years. Not since Utah teen Elizabeth Smart was located alive and well nine months after her 2002 kidnapping has there been such hope for the countless parents dealing with the nightmare of child abduction.

And now that he is safely home and slowly resuming to his pre-abduction life, Shawn has decided to use his ordeal to help other families going through similar circumstances. Working through the The Shawn Hornbeck Foundation, the non-profit organization started by his parents shortly after his own abduction, Shawn intends to offer support and advice to other children and their families.

Certainly, there is nothing good about abduction, particularly when it involves a child. And even if the story has a happy ending as Shawn’s did, the happy reunion usually is followed by a lifetime of emotional pain, anguish and confusion. Clearly, it is far too early to know what the long-term effects on Shawn will be, but based on the wide-spread media coverage, it seems as though this young man has an excellent support system that will help him overcome as many of these obstacles as possible.

That said, if we have to take one positive thing away from Shawn Hornbeck’s ordeal, it would be the hard work that his parents did – and continue to do – on behalf of missing children.

A Team of Their Own

In the months following Shawn’s abduction, his parents, Craig and Pamela Akers, formed the Shawn Hornbeck Search and Rescue Team, a highly skilled group of volunteers who are trained in search techniques, ground and K-9 tracking, communications, wilderness and urban search and rescue, and search management. While the team was originally formed to supplement the efforts of the entities assigned to the case, the FBI and the Missouri State Highway Patrol Division of Drug and Crime Control, it soon expanded its scope and currently offers its services in seven states: Missouri, Illinois, Arkansas, Indiana, Tennessee, Kentucky and Iowa. In addition, the team does not limit its efforts to locating missing children; a quick look at the list of ongoing searches tells us that they are equally involved in locating missing adults.

In addition to a extensive roster of volunteers, the Shawn Hornbeck Search and Rescue Team includes at least thirteen K-9 “members” that are highly disciplined in various levels of trailing and tracking. In addition, the team can staff command center operations for existing searches and offers tools such as search management software, access to sexual offender databases, coordination of volunteer search efforts, mapping systems, web site hosting and the distribution of flyers and other types of bulletins.

A Virtual Presence

In addition to the Shawn Hornbeck Search and Rescue Team, the Foundation maintains A Lost Child, a web site that attempts to gather and present data and information regarding missing children from the numerous other similar sites that exist all around the world wide web. Similar to the Search and Rescue Team, this site appears to be regionally focused; a look through the information regarding the 144 children currently tracked on the site, it appears that it is limited to three states: Iowa, Illinois and Missouri.

Interestingly enough, however, it appears as though the site has not been updated in the last week as Shawn is still listed among those that are missing. Even so, the site is a terrific resource for those confronted with the nightmare of a missing child as it contains valuable information regarding the steps that should be taken when a child is first feared to be missing and provides the ability to immediately upload information regarding the child and the circumstances surrounding their disappearance, to the Internet.

The site also provides a service referred to as a “ShawnAlert”, a notification system that is used to disseminate information regarding a lost or missing child, particularly when the case does not meet the criteria for an AMBER Alert. (While the criteria vary, in general, in order to qualify for an AMBER alert, law enforcement must confirm that the child has been abducted, the circumstances regarding the abduction indicate that the child is in danger of serious harm, and enough information regarding the suspected abductor exists to believe that immediate notification will lead to their apprehension.

The criteria for a ShawnAlert, are much less limiting. In general, the child must have gone missing within the last thirty days, and the case must be one of the following: missing, endangered missing, and non-family abduction or family abduction. Runaway children are not eligible for this type of alert.

A ShawnAlert can be issued in two forms: a ticker that can be placed on participating member web sites and email notification.

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