Try to remain calm, but do not delay. The first three hours are the most critical in recovering a child safely.
Check with your child’s friends, school, neighbors, relatives, or anyone else who may have clues about your child’s whereabouts. Ask them to notify you if they hear from your child. Do not overlook past boyfriends or girlfriends or friends who live out of town.
Have an officer come to your home to take a report. Write down the officer’s name, badge number, phone number, and the report number.
If your child has computer access, check email. It may shed light on a planned meeting between your child and someone he or she “met” online.
Keep a notebook and record all the people you've called about your child and what they've told you.
Law-enforcement agencies across the country have access to National Crime Information Center (NCIC) computers, so make sure your law-enforcement agency enters your child’s information. The NCIC is for missing children under the age of 18.
If your police department has a waiting period, you can circumvent that and report your child missing directly to the FBI and have them enter the child's information directly into the NCIC computer.
Provide law enforcement with a recent photograph of your child. Make fingerprints, DNA sample and dental records available to law enforcement. Make a chart that contains a photo as well as pertinent information : height, weight, hair color, eye color, age, physical characteristics (glasses, braces, pierced ears, scars, marks).
Call or visit local spots that your child may frequent (e.g., work, church, social groups, friends' homes).
Have posters or fliers made, and place them in store windows, truck stops, youth hangouts, hospitals, etc.
Do not disturb or remove any of your child's items before police arrive. Doing so could destroy key clues.
(After the police have come) search for clues in your child's room or locker, looking for a journal, notes, letters, email, computer files, telephone records, bank records, credit card bills.
If your child has your car, consider reporting your car as stolen.
Call the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children at 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678). There you can see if a runaway has left a message or leave a message in case your runaway checks in.
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There are also some cool ideas about making a "just in case" kit that contains the child's personal information, a picture and physical description that is updated every six months, dentist and doctor names and numbers (so medical/dental records can be retrieved quickly), DNA in the form of an air-dried used toothbrush that is sealed in an envelope which your child has licked, even a makeshift dental record made by having your child bite into a thin piece of styrofoam (updated for dental changes, like losing teeth). You can also have a fingerprint card of your child made for free at the local police station. (We did this with our Cub Scouts a few years ago, and they thought it was great.)
I think you have a great idea here, in putting together a comprehensive plan of action that will give panicking parents some direction on what they can do to help, especially if the police don't seem terribly helpful or efficient in the case.
Christina is on her way home as I type this. I went to the home where the party was held, only to discover that her car WAS in fact parked across the street. I called the police to have them meet me there and they went inside and immediately started upstairs and into all the rooms of the house. The mother (I use that term loosely) seemed to have no problem with underage kids drinking in her home while she worked last night, claiming that "everyone left here with a designated driver." Lovely.....at that point the officers asked me to leave before I got MYSELF in trouble and informed me that the Vice Squad would handle it from there.
I started banging on parent's doors from that point until I found the Mom of the girl she had left with. One call to her cell phone and we had them located. They had spent the night at another girlfriend's house and should be home any minute. I have a feeling from the way she sounded that she won't be trying alcohol again. I want to thank you all for your love and support and brainstorming throughout this ordeal. I will pray extra hard tonight for all of you, and for those whose outcomes were less fortunate.