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American Morning

Mother, President of National Center for Missing and Exploited Children Discuss Child Abduction

Aired June 19, 2001 - 09:37   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: On the topic of missing children, federal authorities say that hundreds of thousands of people, many of them children, are reported missing each year. One agency that helps track them down is the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. It has investigated more than 75,000 cases and it's been successful in recovering more than 58,000 children.

The center's forensic imaging technology is credited with much of that success and today the center is dedicating that unit to Melissa Brannen, she a Fairfax, Virginia girl who was abducted from a neighborhood party in 1989 when she was five years old.

Joining us from Washington is Tammy Brannen Graybill. She is Melissa's mother. Also, Ernie Allen, the president and CEO of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Good morning to both of you. Thanks for joining us today.

ERNIE ALLEN, CENTER FOR MISSING CHILDREN: Good morning, Daryn.

TAMMY GRAYBILL, MOTHER OF MISSING CHILD: Good morning.

KAGAN: Tammy, I want to start with you. Can you tell me Melissa's story, how she was abducted and how much you know about her case?

GRAYBILL: Well, she was taken from a Christmas party, a community Christmas party in December of '89. She was abducted by a grounds keeper there and he was convicted and charged with 50 years. But she was never recovered. We've never found my daughter.

KAGAN: So the man that authorities believe abducted her is in custody and is serving time?

GRAYBILL: That's correct.

KAGAN: Does he refuse to answer any questions or does he just deny having anything to do with your daughter's disappearance?

GRAYBILL: No, he just refuses to assist.

KAGAN: That must be so frustrating. Let's look at a picture of Melissa as she was when she was abducted. You said she was five years old. GRAYBILL: Yes.

KAGAN: And this was in 1989. So using the center's technology, I understand they've put together pictures -- this is what you believe she would look like today if she was 16 years old.

GRAYBILL: That's correct.

KAGAN: Do you believe, Tammy, that your daughter is still alive?

GRAYBILL: Well, I think you lose a little bit of that hope every year. Every circumstance is different. If she is, this is the best means to recover her.

KAGAN: And so you think that this would help if she is out there, if something happened to her in terms of she was given to another family or who even knows what could have happened, that there might be somebody out there who might see her picture and bring information to you and your family?

GRAYBILL: Yes. That -- I believe that's the only way that that could happen. I don't think very many people have the creative imagination to look at a five-year-old's picture and...

KAGAN: Yeah, and try to figure out...

GRAYBILL: ... and tell me what they'd look like now.

KAGAN: Ernie, let's bring you in here. The center, unfortunately and yet fortunately at the same time, helping thousands of families like the Brannens.

ALLEN: Well, Daryn, that's absolutely right and thousands of families have children who have been missing for long periods of time. One of the problems is that the media spotlight dims, police run out of leads to investigate and the world forgets. And what we're trying to do is to keep those long-term cases alive, generate new leads, new hope for families and bring children home.

KAGAN: Besides, I guess we're putting them up right now, besides Melissa, we have other examples of what some of these age progressions would look like. As we look at them, Ernie, explain to us how this technology works. How do you know that if you have a picture of somebody who is five years old or, in this case, well, there is Sarah Avon. When she was abducted, she was just a little girl. Now she'd be 26 years old. How does that technology work that would tell you what she would look like if she was 25?

KAGAN: Well, Daryn, it's half art and half science. We're using forensic artists who are using these imaging tools, leaning heavily on the inherited traits, the family traits. We use photos of parents at the same age of the child, of older siblings to try to identify those unique traits. We use the imaging software to simulate cranial facial growth and then we create a likeness of what we think the child looks like today.

In about 300 cases, we've been successful so far and have been able to find children missing for as long as 12 years.

KAGAN: Really?

ALLEN: And when we find those children, then that's sort of a validation of the basic technique.

KAGAN: Now, where are these pictures going to be posted? I know you have a Web site.

ALLEN: Well, they're on our Web site at www.missingkids.com and we're circulating them through our network; through our photo partners; ADVO; and in Wal-Mart Stores and across America. So we want people to look at the pictures of missing children and to realize that many of these kids are still out there. They're in somebody's neighborhood, they're in somebody's classroom.

KAGAN: And on that note, Tammy, I want to bring you back in here. You know, we all get so busy and people get cynical and we see pictures like this on milk cartons or you get those fliers in the post office and people just toss it. As a mom who still wonders this many years later what happened to her daughter, what's the plea you put out there for people just to look at least once?

GRAYBILL: It doesn't take very long to look. You get a lot of junk mail in the mail, but it doesn't take very long to just take a second, look at it, think about it. If you have children that would be that age in school perhaps have them look at it and see if there's someone in their classroom that closely resembles. You can make a mistake, but it'd be better to make a mistake than not to recognize someone.

KAGAN: I appreciate that. Tammy Brannen Graybill, also, Ernie Allen, good luck with the center. Tammy, continued good luck with finding out what has happened to your daughter and thank you for sharing your story with us today.

GRAYBILL: Thank you for having me.

KAGAN: And as we go to break, we're asking you don't turn away from the television set just yet. We're going to put up more of those pictures. For parents like Tammy, it's so important that you take a look and wonder if you know where these children are.

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