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American Morning

Interview with Maggie Bish, Marc Klaas

Aired June 18, 2002 - 08:09   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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: The question again today, where is Elizabeth Smart? The media has clearly been focusing on the search for the missing 14-year-old in Salt Lake, but what about other missing children?

Look at these numbers. According to the FBI, there were more than 840,000 missing persons in the U.S. in 2001, last year. And 85 to 90 percent of them were children.

Why is it, then, that some missing children, like Elizabeth Smart, get so much attention, and others get very little?

Let's talk about it now. From San Francisco, Marc Klaas, Founder of the KlaasKids Foundation.

Marc, good to see you again. Good morning to you.

MARC KLAAS, KLAASKIDS FOUNDATION: Good morning.

HEMMER: Also, from Springfield, Massachusetts, Maggie Bish, whose daughter, Molly, has been missing for two years' time. She was 16 years old when she disappeared in the summer, two years ago. Morning to you as well.

MAGGIE BISH, MOTHER OF MISSING CHILD: Good morning.

HEMMER: Marc, there are 2,000 children reported missing every day in this country. Fortunately, the greater majority of them show up again.

Why is it, then, that some cases get so much attention? Others are strictly -- for the sake of argument -- unnoticed?

KLAAS: Well, when you have cases like Elizabeth Smart, or Danielle van Dam, or Polly, my daughter -- and these children are stolen from their homes, from their bedrooms, that really taps into people's most fundamental fears. You then cross the ultimate line by going into the -- into the sanctity of the home, and taking the little children.

But beyond that, in all three of these cases, there were things that were initiated in the immediate aftermath. There were searches that were initiated. Families were more than willing to come out and talk to the media. Law enforcement was working very, very hard for the recovery of these children, and the community really rose for these families, my family included.

And that, then, creates a very visual context with which the media can work. And certainly that, I think, plays into it very strongly.

And I think you also have to realize that for the vast majority of the cases that seem to get the attention, they're cases of missing girls.

HEMMER: There are others who question the motives in a lot of cases such as these, and I just want to point out a few examples here. Some question the issue of race, some question the issue of class.

A few examples: Jahi Turner -- remember him, back in April -- disappeared in a park in San Diego, two years of age?

KLAAS: Right.

HEMMER: At the same time, Danielle van Dam's case was very public across the country. Jahi's case came to national attention for about two or three days' time.

Tionda and Diamond Bradley, Chicago, disappeared about a year ago, July 6; another case of a minority disappearing in this country and getting very little attention. There, the picture of the two girls there.

Now a question of class; go to the state of Oregon.

Amanda (ph) Pond and Miranda Gaddis, 13 years old. Their case was in the public's knowledge, and they did get attention for about a week's time.

The question here is this, Marc: Is there evidence that suggests that class and race play a role in this?

KLAAS: Well, first of all, the two little girls in Oregon were the cover of "People" magazine just a couple of weeks ago. They've been featured on "America's Most Wanted" four times.

Probably the most high-profile case of a missing person before Elizabeth Smart -- which, quite frankly, has created a new benchmark for attention -- was Rilya Wilson, the little black girl in Florida. Now, that got an enormous amount of attention, despite the fact that all of the players wanted it to totally disappear off the face of the earth. No, it doesn't make anybody look good.

But I think that if people are paying this attention to the kind of national focus these cases are getting, they're really missing the point, because the vast majority of kidnapings are local situations. You're not going to find Rilya Wilson in Seattle, Washington, and you're not going to find Miranda Gaddis in Miami, Florida. They're going to be much, much closer to home.

Listen, Bill, we worked the case of a little girl that was ethnically challenged, so to speak, and from poverty, in Vallejo, California. And we never got national attention for this girl, but we were able to generate enough publicity locally so that we were able to mount a very credible and formidable search effort on her behalf.

HEMMER: Interesting answer.

KLAAS: And it ultimately resulted in her being brought home.

HEMMER: I want to go to the other end of the country, Marc, and talk with Maggie about this.

At the very beginning, when your 16-year-old daughter disappeared, Maggie, you got a pretty good amount of attention. But since then, it's my understanding that the attention has been less, considerably less. Has that hurt your chances?

BISH: Well, I think that locally, we have always been in the -- in the community's eyes. People have not stopped looking for Molly out in Massachusetts.

And we, too, have been on the cover of "People" magazine, with Chandra Levy. We have been in the "Globe" newspaper. We have been on several talk TV shows.

And I think it's just a difficult process for any parent to keep the story out there. The news of the day kind of takes over.

What I do believe is that all children are important, and if we truly believe that, that we have to act nationally and react, and have some kind of a unified way to look for these children, no matter what race, what ethnic background, what neighborhood you are brought up in.

And I do think the people that are in our community, that do continue -- two years have gone by, and we have worked diligently. We are Molly's voice.

So I do believe that it does come a lot from the home, to keep the story out there, to keep working, so that others don't forget her, and what has happened to her. We still want to bring Molly home.

As you said, we're approaching our two-year anniversary next week, and our hearts are broken. Molly still has not come home.

HEMMER: Any new leads -- any new leads, Maggie?

BISH: Sadly to say, there are over 5,000 leads, but there's not the missing piece to the puzzle. And she still wants to come home, and we need her to come home. We miss her terrible, as all these families do. We anguish every time we hear about another child being missing.

HEMMER: Yes.

Well listen, Maggie, it's interesting you mention the Chandra Levy matter. Because all last year, it was drilled into our brains, essentially, that as long as the Levy parents kept coming in front of cameras, they kept the story of their daughter out there, which gave them hope in the end.

Marc, quickly to you again. I don't mean to switch topics so abruptly here.

But now, as we look at the Elizabeth Smart case -- you believe this past week, the Smart family has not done something very smart. What is your take on what's happening in Salt Lake?

KLAAS: Well, I believe that this new idea of theirs -- this phase two about decentralizing the search and moving it into neighborhoods -- is probably the germ of a good idea, but it needs an awful lot of development.

What's going to happen with this is that they're no longer going to be able to dispatch volunteers who want to come in and help, so individuals are going to be kind of left hanging, as far as the central search goes.

HEMMER: Marc, are you saying that they've shut down headquarters? And obviously, that has an impact on the search, I would think, yes?

KLAAS: Well, it has an impact on everything, Bill. How are the media going to be able to -- what are the media going to be able to do with something like this? It seems to me that if they're not going to have a search center to go to, they're going to have to park in front of the family's home, and they don't want to do that.

But beyond that, they're putting this in the hands of politicians, who should never be in charge of searches.

And the guy that was -- the fellow that was talking about it yesterday was saying that they would do things like send Boy Scouts out to look for the girl. Well, you don't send children out to look for a missing person like that. You have to be able to monitor and control, and find out where you've searched, and where you've not searched.

This is not a game. This is a very, very serious business.

HEMMER: Not a game at all.

Marc, thank you.

KLAAS: Sure.

HEMMER: Marc Klaas in San Francisco.

Maggie Bish, best of luck, OK? I know you're about nine days away from the two-year anniversary, June 27. Hang in there, OK?

BISH: Thank you, again, for giving us a chance to share our story.

HEMMER: You are most welcome. Thanks, Maggie.

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