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Missing a year... Hailey Elizabeth Burns
FBI
Recovering Missing
Kids
FBI’s Role Part of a Coordinated Response
An investigator with the FBI's Violent Crimes Against Children Unit at
a workstation at a command center in Maryland.
An investigator in the FBI's Violent Crimes Against Children Unit works
at a command post in Maryland during a rescue operation last summer.
The disappearance of a Virginia teenager—and her successful rescue,
within days, hundreds of miles away—provides a glimpse into the FBI’s
role when kids go missing and are believed to be in danger.
Police were called when the girl was believed missing, setting in
motion an intense process that relies on the resources, expertise, and
partnerships of local, state, and federal agencies, including the FBI.
Also alerted was the non-profit National Center for Missing &
Exploited Children (NCMEC), which last year assisted with more than
20,500 cases of missing children—90 percent of them endangered runaways.
Having determined the girl might be endangered—susceptible to human
trafficking, child prostitution, or possibly the victim of
abduction—local police referred the case to special agents in the FBI’s
Washington Field Office (WFO). It was a smooth transition because the
agencies work cases together on the region’s Child Exploitation and
Human Trafficking Task Force.
“We have a robust task force that includes most of the local agencies,”
said Ray Duncan, assistant special agent in charge of the WFO Criminal
Division.
Once reported, the missing girl’s description was entered into the
FBI’s National Crime Information Center (NCIC), an index of criminal
justice information available to every law enforcement agency in the
country. Last year, there were 465,676 reports of missing kids,
according to NCIC, which automatically notifies NCMEC when kids go
missing. While not all NCIC reports necessitate federal involvement,
the FBI is the lead investigative agency if a missing juvenile is in
danger or when children 12 or under disappear.
“Then we will try to step in as soon as possible because we believe
those kids are clearly endangered,” said Special Agent Rob Bornstein,
who supervises WFO’s Crimes Against Children squad. “Timing is
critical. The earlier we get involved the better.”
In the Virginia case, agents and analysts traced the juvenile’s actions
from the moment she arrived home from school, dropped off her backpack,
and left the house again. Investigators coordinated with local and
regional public transit agencies to collect video footage of the girl’s
movements across the region, and then out of the state. They were able
to determine that the girl had been sent a bus ticket, which revealed
her destination—more than 1,000 miles away from home. The ticket
ultimately led to the identity and location of a subject. Using other
sophisticated techniques, the FBI was able to locate the subject that
led to the missing child.
WFO investigators, including one of the Bureau’s specialized Child
Abduction Rapid Deployment Teams, reached out to FBI agents in the
field, as well as local authorities, to rescue the girl and make the
arrest.
“We leverage our 56 field offices across the country—and our 64 legal
attachés around the world—to work as a force multiplier.”
Timothy Slater, Criminal Division, Washington Field Office
“That’s why this worked so well,” said Timothy Slater, special agent in
charge of the Criminal Division at WFO. “We leverage our 56 field
offices across the country—and our 64 legal attachés around the
world—to work as a force multiplier. The amount of resources we bring
to bear is intrinsic to solving these cases quickly. If we develop
information that is outside our area of responsibility, we can contact
our agents there to assist.”
The number of reports of missing kids last year rose by about 5,000,
according to NCIC figures. Investigators said the confluence of kids
using cell phones and their easy access to social media has made them
more susceptible to predators.
The number of children reported missing has declined significantly
since NCMEC was established in 1984 following the 1981 abduction of
Adam Walsh, founder John Walsh’s 6-year-old son. Robert Lowery, vice
president of the Virginia-based agency’s Missing Children Division,
said reports of brazen abductions have gone down significantly over the
years, largely replaced by online predators.
“Offenders are still there and the threat still exists,” said Lowery.
“Now they’re online enticing children.”
“There are bad people out there trying to prey on children,” said
Bornstein, adding that advances in technology, including encryption,
are making it harder to find the bad guys. Parents, meanwhile, just
want to keep their kids safe while “there are more and more ways for
parents not to know what their children are up to,” Bornstein said.
This underscores the importance for parents to know who their children
are communicating with, what they are posting, and what they are
looking at on the Internet.
NCMEC encourages responsible use of social media—rather than fully
restricting it, which may have a counter-effect—and honest
communication between parents and their kids.
“The key to that is we want parents to not be judgmental with their
children if they bring something to their attention,” Lowery said.
“Sometimes there’s a propensity for parents to be judgmental and blame
the child for inappropriate conversation when, in fact, these offenders
have set the stage for that conversation.”
Investigators say resolve and relationships with law enforcement
partners play a big role in the Washington Field Office’s success rate
in recovering missing kids. “We have a lot of priorities in the
Criminal Division,” said Slater. “But crimes against children are among
our highest priorities because these crimes play on the moral fabric of
our society.”
Many kids, however, remain missing. According to NCMEC, which assists
law enforcement and families with missing child cases, about 18,500 of
the missing children in 2016 were runaways, who may not want to be
found. Posters featuring images and descriptions of missing kids can be
found on the FBI website and at missingkids.org, NCMEC’s website. If
you think you have seen a missing child, contact NCMEC at
1-800-843-5678 or contact your local FBI field office.
Seeking Information
It’s been a year almost to the day since a 16-year-old North Carolina
girl walked out of her home and disappeared.
Hailey Elizabeth Burns, of Charlotte, left her house on May 23, 2016
between midnight and 6 a.m., and was last seen wearing blue jeans, a
black long-sleeved T-shirt with Marilyn Monroe on it, and Converse
tennis shoes.
Burns has several conditions that require medication, and she did not
take her medications with her. She has curly hair that she may wear in
pigtails. Burns may be carrying a blue book bag with flowers on it.
Anyone with information concerning the whereabouts of Hailey Elizabeth
Burns should contact the FBI's Charlotte Field Office at (704)
672-6100, or the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Crime Stoppers tip line at (704)
334-1600.
National Missing
Children's Day
May 25 is National Missing Children’s Day, which was established after
the May 25, 1979 disappearance of Etan Patz, a 6-year-old New York City
boy. His disappearance on the way to school drew national attention to
the problem of child abductions. The case remained unsolved for years.
His confessed killer, Pedro Hernandez, was found guilty on murder and
kidnapping charges earlier this year and sentenced last month to life
in prison.
National Missing Children’s Day was established by presidential
proclamation in 1983 to promote awareness. In 1998, the effort expanded
globally when the U.S. and 22 other countries recognized May 25 as
International Missing Children’s Day.
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