(Van Dam) Abduction Rare Outside Family: Did San Diego Cops Lack Of Interest Lead To Unsolved Cases?

Union Tribune ^ | February 10, 2002 | Anne Krueger

[FresnoDA]

Rarity of abductions outside family raises interest in such cases

Did San Diego authorities lack of interest lead to unsolved cases?

By Anne Krueger
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

February 10, 2002

The apparent kidnapping of 7-year-old Danielle van Dam from her bed has been featured on national news shows, detailed in newspapers across the nation and around the world, and sparked countless discussions on the Internet, around water coolers and over kitchen tables.

That's largely because it is so rare.

The abduction of a child by someone outside the family – an acquaintance or stranger – made up less than 1 percent of the 800,000 cases of children reported missing in the United States last year.

A national study of child abductions found that 200 to 300 children each year are snatched by a nonfamily member in a foul-play situation, said David Finkelhor, one of the authors of the study.

In San Diego County, of the 6,342 children reported missing in 2000, two were kidnapped by strangers, according to state Department of Justice figures.

"The number of these kind of serious, more-than-overnight abductions are relatively few," said Finkelhor, director of the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire.

When a child is missing under suspicious circumstances, it becomes big news. Danielle's case has attracted national attention, and her parents have appeared on network talk shows pleading for help in finding their daughter.

San Diego police investigating Danielle's disappearance from her Sabre Springs home have focused their attention on David Westerfield, a neighbor, but have yet to make an arrest. Danielle last was seen Feb. 1, when her father put her to bed.

Will C. Kennedy, a sociology professor at San Diego State University, said Danielle's disappearance is the type of story that gets lots of media attention.

"It strikes at your fears," Kennedy said. "When you have children, you worry about them and supposedly this child is taken from her house. When are you ever safe? The media and people seem to get off on the fear.

"People don't like to think it would happen. If she was at a mall or camping, why maybe it wouldn't be quite so horrible. To be taken out of your own home is really scary. The media love to play with anything that gets people excited."

Yet Jenni Thompson of The Polly Klaas Foundation said the media is a great help in finding an abducted child.

"It's vital that they have this kind of media attention," Thompson said. "The only way that Danielle's picture can be seen is through the media."

The Polly Klaas Foundation was created after a widely reported abduction of a young girl.

Polly, 12, was taken at knifepoint from her bedroom as she played with two other girls during a slumber party in 1993 in the Northern California community of Petaluma. She later was killed.

Her kidnapper, Richard Allen Davis, was convicted and sentenced to death. Davis had had many brushes with the law. In 1985, he was sentenced to 16 years in state prison for the kidnap, robbery and assault of a Redwood City woman. He was paroled eight years later.

The nonprofit organization that bears Polly's name assists families in abduction cases. Widespread outrage that Polly was killed by a repeat offender led to the passage of California's three-strikes law.

The law allows judges to sentence defendants to 25 years-to-life for any felony conviction if they have already been convicted of two serious or violent felonies.

The foundation has been assisting the van Dam family, along with the Laura Recovery Center Foundation. That organization was created after the April 1997 disappearance of 12-year-old Laura Kate Smither, who was abducted near her home in Friendswood, Texas. Laura's body was found 17 days later, and the case remains unsolved.

In San Diego, the disappearance of 9-year-old Amanda Gaeke from her North Park neighborhood shook the community in October 1991. Her body was found after 11 days, but the crime remained unsolved for more than five years.

A tip led police to David Allan Webb, who lived a few blocks from Amanda's home. Webb pleaded guilty to her torture and murder, and was sentenced to life in prison.

The chances that a child reported missing will be slain are remote: about one in 10,000.

Some cases are like that of the 8-year-old Vallejo girl who was able to flee her kidnapper in summer 2000 when she escaped from his vehicle and was rescued by a passing truck driver.

Finkelhor said most child abductions involve a family member, often a divorced parent involved in a custody dispute. Nationally, about 350,000 children are taken by family members each year, he said.

A 2000 study of child abductions for the U.S. Department of Justice found that family members were responsible for 49 percent of the kidnappings, and acquaintances were responsible for 27 percent. Strangers committed 24 percent of the kidnappings.

The study found differences in kidnappings that were committed by acquaintances, such as a neighbor or a boyfriend, and a stranger.

Acquaintance kidnappings more often involved female and teen-age victims, and more often were associated with crimes such as sexual or physical assault. They often occurred at home, and a high percentage of the victims were injured. Kidnappings by a stranger occurred primarily outdoors, and more often occurred in the evening or at night.

Despite the popular conception that kidnap victims most often are young children, it is teen-age girls who face the greatest risk, said Ben Ermini of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

"At that age they have more freedom, they're out on their own," Ermini said. "They go to the malls without other people, so they are vulnerable to abduction."

Static - Missing kid plan on back burner

Randy Dotinga
North County Times
In the fall of 1999, KSON morning hosts Kris Rochester and Tony Randall had an inspiration. Why not get all local radio and TV stations together to immediately alert the public when a child is reported missing?

It would be easy and cheap, considering that the stations could use their existing emergency broadcast system to spread the word. And it had been done before, to great success, in Dallas.

More than a year later, despite support from police and politicians, no program is in place.

"I don't know why this is stalled," said John Dimick, operations manager of country station KSON. It's not that anyone doubts whether the project will work. It's proven to be a lifesaver elsewhere.

The idea of using broadcast outlets to help find missing kids was born in Dallas after a young girl named Amber Hagerman was kidnapped and murdered in 1996. A call from a listener inspired radio executives to design the "Amber Plan," which is activated in a limited number of missing-child cases. The emergency broadcast system, which normally spreads the word about bad weather, interrupts radio and TV broadcasts with brief alerts. In Dallas, the Amber Plan has been credited with the safe return of a half-dozen children. In one case, parents told police that their baby sitter had kidnapped their child and driven away in a unique-looking pickup truck.

Five minutes after the broadcast, a motorist spotted the truck and reported it to police. The child was safe. Houston just adopted its own version of the Amber Plan. Florida and Oklahoma have statewide alert programs, and Arkansas is considering one. "It's going to save a lot of kids when it gets implemented throughout the country," said Ben Ermini of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. "It's just a logical plan that costs very little."

Back in San Diego, KSON's Randall and Rochester got the high-profile support of Susan Golding, then the mayor of San Diego, who mentioned the project in her 2000 State of the City address.

The Amber Plan became the "Amanda Plan," named after 9-year-old Amanda Gaeke, a San Diego girl who was kidnapped and murdered in 1991. And radio stations set up fax machines in their studios to accept emergency messages. Then, nothing happened. Nothing is still happening.

Part of the problem is that Golding was distracted by the ballpark fiasco and is now out of office, said Mark Larson, general manager of KPRZ and KCBQ and president of the San Diego Radio Broadcasters Association.

Larson said radio stations are ready to go.

"Any time we can bring the stations together to save some lives, that rises above all the different formats and who's playing 12 songs in a row or who's doing hot topics on talk shows," he said.

Even so, radio stations shouldn't wait for politicians to act to get the Amanda Plan in place. Broadcasters should meet with police and get things rolling on their own. Something this simple shouldn't be this hard.

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[FresnoDA]

The San Diego community needs to have a priority check....Baseball stadiums more important than kids????