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American Morning

Interview with Marc Klaas

Aired June 06, 2002 - 07:24   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Joining us right now is Marc Klaas who knows the pain the Smart family is feeling this morning. His 12-year- old daughter, Polly, was kidnapped and murdered in 1993. Since then, he has devoted his life to preventing crimes against children through the Klaas Kids Foundation. He joins us now from San Francisco this morning.

Welcome back.

MARC KLAAS, KLAAS KIDS FOUNDATION: Hi.

ZAHN: I know now that you're involved with these missing kids cases it breaks your heart over and over again to hear stories like this. What was your first reaction when you heard about Elizabeth's kidnapping?

KLAAS: Well, Paula, it's here we go again. And the similarities between what happened to Elizabeth and what happened to Polly are rather stunning. It's -- it sends a chill up my spine.

The thing, though, that really stands out is that once law enforcement was notified, everything went according to plan. They initiated the Rachel Alert, otherwise known as the Amber Alert. They brought in the FBI. They got multi-jurisdictional task forces, search and rescue operations. The media jumped right on it. It's everything that one would hope for in a response.

ZAHN: I know that police are looking at a bunch of different angles right now. Is there any strain of this that makes sense to you so far? The house was on the market. This, by all accounts, was an extremely well liked child.

KLAAS: They all are. I mean these are just beautiful young ladies and young men that have so much to offer the world.

This whole idea of the house being on the market and somebody using that as an opportunity to case the joint, I've never heard of that before but it makes sense when you think about it.

It looks to me like somebody had targeted this young lady. The brazen nature of the act, knowing exactly who it was they were after and going after her like that. There's very little that can be done to stop a determined predator. If they want to get their hands on one of these kids, they're going to do it. We almost have to stop them at the front end because once they've -- once they've gotten this into their mind, they move very swiftly and they move very professionally, unfortunately.

ZAHN: It is obviously such a raw experience for the Smart's to have to talk about this, but how critical was it for the Smart's to come on television and describe their daughter and get the word out that she's missing?

KLAAS: Well, Paula, you understand as well as I do that most of these cases are local cases. But if you don't have the people behind you and you don't have the press behind you and you don't have the law enforcement behind you, you're not going to get the children back. It's incumbent upon the parents to humanize their child so that people will be able to invest personally in the recovery of that child.

And it's also important, I believe, in this war for our children's future that every time one of these events happens the parents really have to become the field marshals. Law enforcement can do so much, media can do so much, but somebody's going to have to be out there every day trying to instill hope and trying to get people to rally behind them and to move forward to bring the children back. If they see the parents working very hard, they'll work very hard. If the parents give up hope, hope disappears.

ZAHN: Well you deserve tremendous credit for making us all focus on those first 24, 48 hours after children go missing. Thank you, Marc, for joining us. I know we got you up in the middle of the night to talk to us.

KLAAS: You're welcome, Paula, thank you.

ZAHN: Good luck to you.

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