"Will you post the article that you sent me?"
Very glad to! I've got posting the article links down, but fonts, colors and pictures still elude me.
http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/local/4127129.htm
The article from the above link has information and quotes from Valleygal's connection in Phoenix:
Posted on Sun, Sep. 22, 2002
Getting community involved early is crucial
By RODDIE BURRIS
Staff Writer
The faster a family can get the community involved in a search for a missing loved one, the better the chances of finding that person, activists say.
When people in the community put up posters, attend vigils, go on hunts, talk about the missing person around the water cooler and support the family -- it all makes a difference, say people who devote their lives to finding missing people.
Most of all, family and friends must tell police what they know about the missing person and what they've seen.
Little things can be a big help to police, the experts say.
"It could be something as simple as, 'I saw something in the .‘.‘. parking lot,'" said Jack Rinehart, who runs a missing-persons organization in Sumter. "It could seem insignificant, but it could be just the link that police need."
Police use "normal, run-of-the-mill things" to find people, said a former Phoenix police officer who directs a national center for missing adults in Arizona.
"Any piece of information could be something police could use," said Bob White, director of The Nation's Missing Children Organization and Center for Missing Adults. White retired after 26 years with the Phoenix police, including 10 years running that city's missing-persons department.
His center, established to help search for missing children, is one of the few national clearinghouses for missing adults.
In July, the U.S. Justice Department gave White's Phoenix group $5.6 million to add missing adults to its program. In 2001, 200,000 people 18 and older were reported missing, the FBI said.
Rinehart and his wife help families and police from South Carolina and around the world by posting photos of missing people on the Web.
Every day, they put photos and information on their Web site about missing children and adults.
They've been working with police to post photos of Candacy Sanders, 24, and Darcel Sanders who vanished Aug. 26 from Columbia.
But clearinghouses can only do so much, White and Rinehart say.
Sustained help from communities offers the best hope for the safe return of missing people, experts say.
"In the beginning, families have a lot of support, but it dries up quickly," said Kym Pasqualini, president of the Phoenix center. "No family is ever given a handbook on how to handle a missing loved one. You wake up daily with it. And you go to bed nightly with it."
But, Rinehart said, patience is just as important as vigilance. "It takes a lot of time to verify a missing persons case, especially an adult."
That's why he tells families to give police as much information as possible about the missing person. "Convince them you need their help."
Cases of missing adults often are difficult for police to handle, Pasqualini said. When police are deliberate, it may look to many families as though they're not doing enough, she said.
If a missing person is older than 18, police tend to wait longer before investigating than they would with missing children. Adults have the right to leave, activists for the missing note.
"You can't second-guess your law enforcement because you're not going to know everything they're doing and the media's not going to know everything they're doing," White said.
"These are extremely complex cases. Each case is different. Rarely do two show the same patterns."
Continued prayers for Alice, Samantha and their families and wishes for a nice Thanksgiving to you all.