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CNN Live Today

Cases of Kidnapped, Missing Children Dominate Headlines

Aired August 29, 2002 - 11:13   ET

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

LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Cases of kidnapped and missing children have dominated the headlines quite a bit this summer. Family abductions and domestic kidnappings are among the major categories cited by the law enforcement officials who break these case, as well as child advocates. Joining to this morning to talk more about the stories behind these statistic is our law enforcement analyst Mike Brooks.
Good to see you again this morning. Have you heard anything new about this case.

MIKE BROOKS, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: No, nothing absolutely new. They are still looking for the mother, the child's still missing. Most likely, there is a possibility they probably still may be in the area, but that is unknown.

HARRIS: Let me ask you about the mother. News coming out about restraining orders, a number of them, being issued against her, one by this boy's father. You say these kind of things do factor into these domestic cases quite bit.

BROOKS: Quite a bit. Many times -- in this particular case, she had two restraining orders on her. That would lead me to believe maybe there was some violence in the relationship, physical relationship. If there was a relationship, and a custody dispute and the husband or the wife gives a restraining order, sometimes that exacerbates the situation.

But in this particular case she may be the one who was edging him on. It's hard to say. But I still think she's probably involved in the kidnapping of this child.

HARRIS: We've talked about these cases, but there is a difference in this one. Now that this domestic angle has been introduced. How does that make the investigation process different, or does it?

BROOKS: It doesn't make it any different. It's still is a crime. Whether she's doing it by herself or with someone else, it's still a crime. And law enforcement are going to treat it as a kidnapping, whether it be a family member, a friend, you know, her accomplices, they're still criminals, and they're going to lock them up.

HARRIS: There you go, accomplices key word here. We have not had a case this summer yet where they have been accomplices involved at all. Does that complicate the process of the investigation, if we're talking about a case where someone has actually hired someone to abduct a child?

BROOKS: Someone that can lead you to more clues, more leads, because a lot of people like to run their mouth. People get out and they talk about it, and someone else knows something, someone else knows that they're involved in this, and it may lead them an arrests and help solve the case.

HARRIS: How would you classify this? We've been talking about child abductions by strangers. We're going to put up a graphic here. How would classify one that's actually maybe the parent is involved or it may be a family matter, but the execution of the abduction itself is being done by a stranger here.

BROOKS: Yes, well, if she's involved, and it sounds like she most likely is, that would be classified as a family abduction. You know, even though it's sounds like a fairly dysfunctional family at best, it still will be classified as a family abduction.

HARRIS: You see the numbers.

BROOKS: You look at the numbers. Family abductions, 354,100. You know, that's amazing. You figure, every year there are 840,000 missing persons. In 2001, 840,279. That is a combination of adults and juveniles, and 85 to 95 percent of them were juveniles under the age of 18. So that's almost an average of 2000 people, kids missing everyday that the parents felt was serious enough that they called the police. That's an amazing number to me.

HARRIS: Now, again, though, we have been saying and trying to remind folks, that even though his has been in the headlines quite a bit, the actual numbers for abductions by strangers is actually down a bit.

BROOKS: That's the lowest number. Non-family abductions for which we've seen most of this year, they are the lowest number. The highest number...

HARRIS: A stat about that.

BROOKS: Large number ever missing children are, number one, runaways, then lost, family abductions and non-family abductions are the smallest percentage of those groups.

HARRIS: But let me ask you this, for those who may be in throes right now of custody problems. If you are a father or mother in a case, what kind of a -- are there any kind of signs you might be looking for to whether or not it might happen or might be coming down the road.

BROOKS: There are a number of different signs. The best thing is to keep communication open between the parents, one parent to another, and the children. You know, the children are the victims here. They are the ones who are the real victims. They are the ones who are going to suffer the most trauma down the road, and the long- lasting effects it has on the kids, it's just unbelievable.

HARRIS: And statistically, any idea about how many cases actually get resolved and child returned unharmed?

BROOKS: The majority of them, usually the kids are returned unharmed, because you know, again, the parents don't want to hurt the children. They want the children. They want to have the children hurt. You look at father, he was beat up a little bit yesterday, but you know, it may be if she is involved yes, I want my kid, but don't kill my husband, because they left weapons in the house. There is report from the sheriff's department they lift the weapons in the house yesterday.

HARRIS: Thanks, Mike.

BROOKS: Thank you, Leon.

HARRIS: Mike Brooks, our law enforcement analyst.

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