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I'm sorry, but I really don't understand why it is abnormal to call 911 when your child is missing from her room. They did go outside the house, but not knocking on doors---they got the police to help. When the police arrived Damon was driving around the block. I would have done the same because I know my child and she would NOT be out of the house at a neighbor's without permission. And if she had snuck out (if you care to cite the time Danielle when over the fence), then a little visit from the police would make sure she never did it again.

I am NOT saying it is not OK to go ahead and do your own search first of neighbors and such if you feel comfortable doing that, but I know without a doubt I'd be on the phone immediately in this situation.

...I really don't understand why it is abnormal to call 911 when your child is missing from her room

In the middle of the night, I'd agree. But this was at NINE O'CLOCK on a Saturday morning. And inspite of the claims by the Van Dams that they keep a close eye on their children there were at least two mentions in testimony by two different neighbors that one of the Van Dam children had to be rescued and another one of the Van Dam children had to be helped accross the street after chasing a ball. So the Van Dam children appear to run off by themselves unsupervised -- much like all children do periodically.

According to testimony there was a 10 minute interval between discovering Danielle was not in her bedroom (a seven year old sleeping at 9AM on a Saturday morning is completely unbelievable but that's an aside.) and the 911 call. Ten minutes ? That's a very short amount of time. In fact, its a suspiciously short period of time, in my opinion.

I'm sorry, but I really don't understand why it is abnormal to call 911 when your child is missing from her room.

Not just the room..THE ENTIRE HOUSE AND YARD. It's NOT abnormal. If a child, especially 7yrs old is missing from the house..at that age, and the yards and garage are checked... it's time to get help. Time is of the essence, especially in the big cities. Not only do you have to ''wait'' for the cops to get there..but THEN you have to wait for them to do their routine before they declare the child missing themselves. That takes precious time. IF the child is found, everyone's happy, alert or call is over and the police are HAPPY that they don't have to find a missing child. We have alerts that go out over radio, tv news..so people can be on the look out..extra eyes looking for the missing child. So far, the child the record's been great. Mostly runaways over age 12