Laura Kate Smither was 12 years old when she was abducted near her home in Friendswood, Texas. More than 6,000 volunteers set out nationwide in a search for her, but the case ended in tragedy when her body was found 17 days later.
The volunteers never gave up and moved on to form the Laura Recover Center in her memory. The nonprofit organization compiles the lessons learned in the search for Laura and others, gives training to communities, and provides tools needed to find missing children.
"When we first started searching, none of us really knew what we were doing. We had never searched for a missing child," said Dawn Davis, senior case manager at the Laura Recover Center.
She added, "We learned a lot of lessons that we were hoping other communities would not have to face."
Davis participated in the search for Laura. When the search began, the community came together—some answered phones, some searched on foot, and others called in tips for the case. The challenge at the start was that they did not know how to map or store records of information.
"We learned there was a way to organize, a way to keep track, and a way to keep records," Davis said. "So the actual search itself would [not only] be organized, but would also return information that would help in an investigation and that can also help later on down the road, should that child not be found."
A photograph of Laura, an aspiring ballerina with a glowing smile on her face, is placed as a memorial on the Laura Recovery Center's website—a reminder to the organization's volunteers of the innocence they aim to save with each day's work.
Statistics
There were an estimated 115 "stereotypical kidnappings" in 2002, in which 40 percent of the children were killed and several children were not recovered, according to a Department of Justice (DOJ) report.
In 1999, there were an estimated 1,315,600 cases of missing children, of whom an estimated 99.8 percent were returned home alive or were located. Much of the remaining 0.2 percent are thought to be runaways from institutions or were part of juvenile residential facilities, states the DOJ report.
Davis noted, however, that she is not a fan of statistics. "After doing this for as long as I have, you come to recognize that there’s a lot of kids out there who are missing. … They’re either classified as runaways, or they’re classified as endangered missing. Many of those kids, I don’t believe are runaways," she said.
Every second counts while searching for a missing child. Emotions run high, and everyone is a suspect. They need to keep track of everyone on the case, and they need to act fast.
When a child disappears, they are said to move at a "mile a minute" as the perpetrator tries to put space between themselves and search teams, according to Davis.
However, due to legal limits within law enforcement, there is often a gap between when a missing child report is filed and the time a search begins. By working closely with law enforcement, the Laura Recovery Center is able to fill some of these gaps.
"Law enforcement is limited in the number of hands, and eyes, and feet that can be on the ground looking for that child," Davis said. "But when you open it up to the community and you give them direction, and give them the way to do an organized search, then you can have infinite numbers of people out there searching."
Sometimes an officer on a case is changed. Other times, a case can even be closed due to a lack of leads.
"A family will get frustrated and it’s hard, because they don’t want to give up on their child," Davis said, who also explained that family members will then search through investigation records, looking for clues that may have gone unnoticed. The clues can “re-energize the search” or be given to a private investigator.
According to data from the Laura Recovery Center, the first 72 hours is a window in which a missing child is most likely to be recovered safely.
Davis notes, however, that she still receives calls where people tell her they waited 24 hours before calling the polcie. "There is no 24-hour rule, she said. "If your child is missing do not wait, call 911. Law enforcement is required to respond in a timely manner."
