Where Have All the Children Gone? - Nikki Lorenzini

Isabella Ruth Miller-Jenkins has been missing since January 1, 2010. She is from Bedford, Maryland, and since disappearing she has turned 8. This was a possible family abduction and she could be with her mother.

Jozlynn Mari Martinez is currently 2 years old and has been missing since February 22, 2010. She is from Grand Rapids, Michigan and is listed as a “non family abduction.”

These are just two of the many missing children that are listed as missing on the Website for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Where I live, we get flyers in the mail that we regard as junk mail. I see them when I stand in line while waiting at the site-to-store at Wal-Mart. My question is: where are these children’s news stories at?

Currently it is Kyron Horman’s turn. Natalee Holloway has been in and out of the news for the past 5 years. Laci Peterson and her unborn child dominated airwaves and print for months back in 2005. These missing people got their share of national media coverage. Back in 2009, a Bucks County woman, Bonnie Sweeten, tried to kidnap her children and take them to Florida. This case made a big splash in the Philadelphia area. It makes me wonder how or why these cases get such national coverage while other children to missing -- are currently missing -- and there hasn’t been a peep.

About 797,500 children under 18 were reported missing within a one-year period. One child goes missing every 40 seconds. When I hear stories like this, it makes me think: Where’s the justice for these kids? Where are their nationwide news stories? There are programs like the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which have helped recover more than 151,000 children since 1984. But what about the remaining children that are missing? Is it because certain children are born into the “right” families who have the money or are clever enough to get on the news? Who are willing to take the time and keep on pushing the police, the news crews, etc., to keep a search going? There were about 203,000 children that were the victims of family abductions. Why would a parent not push the courts for better custody terms? To have the courts become more strict with custody?

These are probably just the questions of a naïve 27-year-old who doesn’t have any children. But my heart breaks every time I see those missing children pictures when I am in Wal-Mart and I wonder where their nationwide coverage went.