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CNN Live Today

Interview with President of BeyondMissing.Com

Aired February 04, 2004 - 11:35   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.


DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: It was 10 years ago a kidnapper took 12-year-old Polly Klaas from her home and killed her. Today Polly's father, Marc Klaas, is President of BeyondMissing.com, the organization that helps police get the word out about missing children. And Marc Klaas joins us from San Francisco this morning.
Marc, good morning.

MARC KLAAS, PRESIDENT, BEYONDMISSING.COM: Morning -- Daryn.

KAGAN: It's got to be difficult for you to look at any missing children type of case, but especially one that involved a young girl so close to Polly's age.

KLAAS: Yes, there's some -- the -- little girls being taken by these characters probably angers me as much as anything in my life. Fortunately, in this case though, they have a videotaped eyewitness. And I don't think you can do much better than that. Let's just hope that the NASA enhancement will give them the information they need to put a name on this guy and bring him in.

KAGAN: And you understand exactly what these parents are going through. Do you think they're handling themselves in the right way, going to media and pleading for help?

KLAAS: The three things that parents can do in a situation like this are fully cooperate with media, fully cooperate with law enforcement and rally the community behind them so that they have the resources they need to launch their own search effort, if that's what they want to do. So, yes, absolutely, they seem to be doing a wonderful job under desperate circumstances.

KAGAN: How difficult is it to do the second part of what you talk about and fully cooperate with police, when often the eye of suspicion is going to go right to that family?

KLAAS: Well, it's the easiest thing in the world. You really have no choice. You're in total and complete fear for the life of your child. And you know that one of the easiest ways to put police on the right track is to eliminate yourself as a suspect. So you do the interrogations, you do the polygraphs and you hope things work as they should.

I had no problem with it. I mean it was difficult to have to go through it. But understanding that it would help law enforcement to go in the right direction by eliminating myself, I had no hesitancy about doing that whatsoever, nor did anybody else in my family. KAGAN: And finally, if you had any word, not necessarily of encouragement, but of hope, of faith for the family, what would they be?

KLAAS: Well, certainly to continue to cooperate with all of the -- all of the relevant parties and certainly never give up hope. But if I might just add on to that a little bit, there are a couple of things that we should be telling our children or that we should be doing for our children. This little girl, obviously, went with this guy and it didn't look like she was under duress. Children should never go with anybody without permission from their parents. And certainly children this age, and I have advocated this for years, should probably have their own cell phone as well.

KAGAN: Thank you for that -- Marc Klaas.

KLAAS: Sure.

KAGAN: Appreciate you being with us this morning.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired February 4, 2004 - 11:35   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: It was 10 years ago a kidnapper took 12-year-old Polly Klaas from her home and killed her. Today Polly's father, Marc Klaas, is President of BeyondMissing.com, the organization that helps police get the word out about missing children. And Marc Klaas joins us from San Francisco this morning.
Marc, good morning.

MARC KLAAS, PRESIDENT, BEYONDMISSING.COM: Morning -- Daryn.

KAGAN: It's got to be difficult for you to look at any missing children type of case, but especially one that involved a young girl so close to Polly's age.

KLAAS: Yes, there's some -- the -- little girls being taken by these characters probably angers me as much as anything in my life. Fortunately, in this case though, they have a videotaped eyewitness. And I don't think you can do much better than that. Let's just hope that the NASA enhancement will give them the information they need to put a name on this guy and bring him in.

KAGAN: And you understand exactly what these parents are going through. Do you think they're handling themselves in the right way, going to media and pleading for help?

KLAAS: The three things that parents can do in a situation like this are fully cooperate with media, fully cooperate with law enforcement and rally the community behind them so that they have the resources they need to launch their own search effort, if that's what they want to do. So, yes, absolutely, they seem to be doing a wonderful job under desperate circumstances.

KAGAN: How difficult is it to do the second part of what you talk about and fully cooperate with police, when often the eye of suspicion is going to go right to that family?

KLAAS: Well, it's the easiest thing in the world. You really have no choice. You're in total and complete fear for the life of your child. And you know that one of the easiest ways to put police on the right track is to eliminate yourself as a suspect. So you do the interrogations, you do the polygraphs and you hope things work as they should.

I had no problem with it. I mean it was difficult to have to go through it. But understanding that it would help law enforcement to go in the right direction by eliminating myself, I had no hesitancy about doing that whatsoever, nor did anybody else in my family. KAGAN: And finally, if you had any word, not necessarily of encouragement, but of hope, of faith for the family, what would they be?

KLAAS: Well, certainly to continue to cooperate with all of the -- all of the relevant parties and certainly never give up hope. But if I might just add on to that a little bit, there are a couple of things that we should be telling our children or that we should be doing for our children. This little girl, obviously, went with this guy and it didn't look like she was under duress. Children should never go with anybody without permission from their parents. And certainly children this age, and I have advocated this for years, should probably have their own cell phone as well.

KAGAN: Thank you for that -- Marc Klaas.

KLAAS: Sure.

KAGAN: Appreciate you being with us this morning.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com