I-Team finds 16 missing kids using Facebook

TAMPA - Tonight, there are
missing children out on the streets who may never be found. The National
Center for Missing and Exploited Children lists 285 Florida children as
currently missing and endangered.
The I-Team has been able to
locate 16 missing children as part of an ongoing investigation. It
didn’t take private investigators, hours of combing through public
records, or interviews with friends and family.
We found them
when we discovered that many missing children have active Facebook
pages. Many post where they are living, who they are with, photos, and
even phone numbers. All of that information provides clues that could
help bring the child to safety.
By reaching out to them
on Facebook, I-Team investigator Michael George has been able to
interview several missing children on the phone, online, and in person.
The stories they told us raise questions about how much is being done to
find them, and why they are still considered missing even after we
found them so easily.
Alisha Lollis is one of Florida’s missing
runaways. She was reported missing in July of 2010 after she ran from a
group home. St. Petersburg Police say they had contact with her earlier
this year, but she is still considered missing and endangered by the
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
We found her hiding in plain sight, living with a friend in Pinellas Park.
“What did you think when you heard from us?” asked investigator Michael George.
“I was like, wow. They found me after all this time? It was amazing,” Lollis said.
Lollis
recently turned 18. Because her whereabouts and safety are unknown to
the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, she is still
considered an endangered runaway.
She told us she was safe and
doing well. She bounced from house to house, never staying in one place
for too long. She says she’s overcome drug abuse, and she’s working to
get her GED. But the road has been difficult.
“Let’s put it this way. I’ve been to like 13 different schools,” Lollis said.
A 15-year old runaway from Clearwater spoke with us online.
“Are you ok? Not in any danger?” George asked.
“yes
im fine not in any danger i got the street smarts to keep myself safe,”
she wrote back. She also told us she’s not in school and doesn’t have a
job.
The children we located have been missing for months, and
in some cases, years. We found them in just minutes by searching for
them on Facebook. Some of the missing children wouldn’t speak with us,
but the ones who did all told us no one had tried to locate them through
Facebook before.
We passed along the information we found to FDLE, police departments and sheriff’s offices across Florida.
The
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) say they do
use Facebook to try and locate missing teens, as do local law
enforcement agencies. But they add that teens who run away over and over
again aren’t always a top priority for overworked police departments.
“That’s
reality. You have agencies that have homicides, they have shootings,
they have armed robberies, lots of priorities in the community,” said
Robert Lowery, executive director of the missing child division of
NCMEC.
Every law enforcement agency we spoke with insisted
finding runaways is a priority and they use Facebook to find them. But
they don’t contact them through their page, knowing that many runaways
would simply block the page if they didn’t want to be found.
Authorities also argue that just because we found their Facebook pages doesn’t mean they’ll find the child.
“What
we’ve found is a lot of times, the information kids post is not always
current, or, they’re smart about it. If it’s a case where they don’t
want to be found, maybe they’re not posting exactly the correct
information,” said Clearwater Police Department spokeswoman Elizabeth
Watts.
So why haven’t police made contact with the children we found? The answer may come from why they ran in the first place.
Many
of the missing teens who spoke with Michael George said they’re running
away from abuse, even rape. They said in no uncertain terms that they
didn’t want to be found. They believed they were better off on their
own.
Alisha Lollis said she’s been in hiding since facing
physical abuse in her group home. A 16-year old runaway agreed to talk
with us online, in the hopes that it would help us locate other missing
kids.
But she also told us, “I know you’re a reporter, but if you
get the cops involved you’re going to do a story on a 16-year old who
died because you told the cops.”
She wouldn’t reveal her exact location. Lollis says she knows what the teen is going through.
“Is there any advice that you would have for them?” asked George.
“Go public. Don’t be scared about what people could say about you or what you’re going to go through,” Lollis said.
Lollis believes law enforcement could do more to locate repeat runaways.
“I know that when I ran away, I wanted someone to find me. I wanted someone to care enough to go looking for me. But that never happened,” Lollis said.
The I-Team is working to contact the
parents of the children we located. But in some cases, the parents are
harder to find than their missing children. Law enforcement tells us in
at least some of the cases we uncovered, the parents lost custody of
their children.

Read more: http://www.abcactionnews.com/dpp/news/local_news/investigations/i-team-finds-16-missing-kids-on-facebook#ixzz1dJlfiNiu