Cleveland's recent mishandling of missing people further demonstrates desperate need for Billy's Law

[Sara/Peace4 Co-Founder]

And here is another most recent news article yet again further showing the desperate need for unified support of Billy's Law, HR 3695, Help Find the Missing Act and NamUs.Gov in the Missing Persons Field.



Cleveland's handling of missing people challenged
By ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS (AP) –

CLEVELAND — The discovery of 11 victims of an alleged serial killer, most of them poor, drug-addicted black women, has prompted calls for Cleveland police to respond faster and devote more resources to missing-persons cases.

Police, however, say they already have a comprehensive system for finding the lost and can't be held accountable for people they don't know are missing. Confounding the current tragedy, only three of the victims had been reported missing.





The case has raised anew the issues of how and how fast police should react when adults are reported missing — especially departments stretched thin by slashed budgets and stymied by the likelihood that many people go missing voluntarily and have not met foul play.

Encouraged by the U.S. Justice Department in 2005, some states have passed stronger laws requiring police to be more aggressive in searching for missing adults. Just Thursday, authorities in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, home to Cleveland, said they are considering creating a countywide missing-persons unit, in response to the serial killer case.

Authorities say Anthony Sowell lured women into his house in a tough Cleveland neighborhood with the promise of getting high, then strangled them and left their bodies inside or buried in the backyard.

Prosecutors have indicated they may seek the death penalty against Sowell, who remains in jail on five preliminary charges of aggravated murder.

Advocates in Cleveland say a missing-person's bureau might encourage people to come forward when someone disappears. They say some disappearances may go unreported out of a community perception that police wouldn't take seriously the disappearance of a black woman, especially a person struggling with poverty and drugs.

"Maybe black women are not the most important thing in this community to them," said Donnie Pastard of the group Black on Black Crime. "Something's wrong with the police attitude."

Cleveland police dispute such allegations and point to their detailed missing person's policy, updated in August, and say they hope to expand it to a countywide system.
Of the three women reported missing, one was reported to police in suburban Warrensville Heights.

Ohio has systems in place for quickly transmitting statewide all reports of missing children and elderly persons considered at risk.

Steve Loomis, president of the Cleveland Police Patrolman's Association, said that unless a crime is suspected, there's not a lot police can do, especially in a city that has seen dozens of officers laid off in the past few years from budget cuts.

Those cuts eliminated numerous units devoted to street crime, burglaries and community policing, all of which could potentially have helped in the Sowell case, Loomis said.

"I don't know in this world that we live in that we could, at least here in Cleveland ... devote a whole bunch more time to those very general missing-persons reports," Loomis said.

Several states have toughened laws in the last five years requiring police to do more about missing adults, among them Connecticut, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Nebraska and New Jersey.

Police sometimes resist such efforts, saying the requirement taxes already strained departments and many adults often disappear by choice.

"Some people go missing, not because they've been abducted, but because they've abandoned family members and don't wish further contact," said Douglas Dortenzio, chief of the Wallingford Police Department and president of the Connecticut Police Chiefs Association.

Nationwide, mandates range from compelling departments to take reports immediately to requiring timely DNA testing on family members and any material from the missing, such as hair.

The new laws grew in part from a 2005 Justice Department conference aimed at creating common missing-persons procedures for all states.

Drew Kesse of Bradenton, Fla., ran into police resistance after his daughter Jennifer, 24, disappeared in Orlando three years ago. The responding officer said it was likely she'd just had a fight with her boyfriend.

That didn't sit well with Kesse, who pushed for a 2008 law requiring departments to take missing-persons reports on adults between 18 and 25 and submit to police databases within two hours.

"Everyone is someone's child — I don't care what age you are," said Kesse, 52.

Jennifer Kesse has never been found and Kesse says he has to assume she's dead.
Advocates for stronger laws are also pushing legislation in several more states, including Alabama, Louisiana, Virginia, Wisconsin and South Dakota, according to Kelly Jolkowski, founder of Nebraska-based Project Jason, named for her missing son.

In July, Minnesota began compelling police and sheriffs to start searching right away when adults disappear under suspicious circumstances. Some law enforcement agencies in Minnesota had waited 24 or 48 hours to look into such cases.

The law is named for Brandon Swanson, 19, who disappeared in May 2008 after his car ran off a rural road in western Minnesota. He remains missing.

About 55,000 adults are missing at any one time, with two in three eventually accounted for, according to the Arkansas-based Let's Bring Them Home/National Center for Missing Adults.

In Cleveland, Barbara Carmichael filed a missing-person's report Dec. 2, 2008 on her daughter, 52-year-old Tonia Carmichael, with suburban Warrensville Heights police. She told police her daughter was a crack cocaine addict; her family claims that police didn't pursue her disappearance because of her drug history.

Police conducted follow-up searches on Dec. 4, Dec. 23, Feb. 9 and Feb. 10, including checks at several houses, bars and motels, according to a Warrensville Heights police report. Chief Frank Bova said he's satisfied the agency took Tonia Carmichael's case seriously.

[Sara/Peace4 Co-Founder]

Every year tens of thousands of Americans go missing, never to be seen by their loved ones again. Additionally, there are also an estimated 40,000 sets of unidentified human remains that are being held or disposed of across the country. Sadly, because of gaps in the nation's missing persons systems, missing persons and unidentified remains are rarely matched. The Help Find the Missing Act (Billy's Law) is an effort to fix these gaps. We want to help families to have the resources so that we can lessen the burden on the system as well as bringing loved ones home for a proper burial.

or, Create a Petition

Change.org

[Lorena Jones]

Texas needs to be added to this. They didn't even bother to search for the missing girls in 1987 until the family members began a protest. All because they thought the same of these girls: drug addicts, prostitutes, or just ran away. Some of these girls were kids. It's a shame, it really is. And now Melissa has been missing for over 20 years...how can we as a society let even one person slip through the cracks? It doesn't make sense.

[Sara/Peace4 Co-Founder]

Lorena, contact your Congressman of Texas and ask them to co-sponsor Billy's Law...you can make this happen!

It's time for us all to FIGHT for the change we so desperately need!

So glad to have you as a part of Peace4!

[Robert]

Regardless of the racial characterizations, I would suggest that once someone is found to be missing by that person's family or a concerned individual, the police should be immediately contacted. If nothing else, the police now have a data sheet to refer to, even if they want to wait 24 hours to begin investigating. That way, in the event there is an incident involving the missing person, they have a ready resource to look to for verification purposes. With today's communication technology, things could happen a lot quicker relieving the police from scant resources. Just my two cents...

[John Quinn]

The police need an attitude check ! This could have been prevented.If the police agressively persuded the 3 missing person reports maybe some of the others wouldn't have been killed ! Why do police nonchantly blow missing adults off ? If it was one of their family members the whole state would be looking for them.I hope "Billy's Law" becomes fact soon !!!Love Always...john

[Jan Smolinski]

ONE LIFE LOST IS TO MANY!
How could a police officer make the asumption that an adult just walks off and leaves their family? Sure it does happen, there are always exceptions, but it is to common of an excuse some law enforcement use. I am sorry but that disturbs me. Evaluate every situation, listen to the families and follow the proper protocol. How hard is it to take DNA, enter it into CODIS and enter information into NamUs? www.namus.gov Learn the process, have some compassion. Please take senitivity training and learn how to talk to the families. If it were a law enforcement or coroner/medical examiner family member it would have been immediately entered to the fullest. If the investigations are done properly at the beginning and ALL entries made ~~families will have the peace of knowing Law enforcement was their friend and cared, someone to go to when an extra kind word to a family member when needed could make all the difference in the world. They then have nothing to say. If the proper protocol is followed than the price tag on that investigation could be significantly lower, it may solve the case or make an easier investigation for the department involved.
When a person goes missing, police have a tentency to say "no Body, No Case" which was said in my sons case, how many are murdered and hidden with cases going as cold as the artic? There are serial killers out there and some law enforcement tend to look the other way with every excuse in the book.
A missing persons family goes through helll over and over again. Only those that continually hound, knock on doors, make phone calls, visit the media (when they will listen to you) make flyers, create websites, network, speak up and check on information entered into databases to make sure it was created correctly may get some answers. It becomes a full time job for many, other families split up, turn to substance abuse, have health problems and go broke because of this heartache that never goes away. Life does throw punches but the blow in the stomach certainly does not have to happen over and over again.
This is life altering, what could be worse than a murder, a person wondering about not knowing who they are, a druggie crying for someone to care or a prostitute looking for direction, lost and afraid.
How is it some of our society evaluate who is important enough to search for and others are ignored and pushed aside. Are we not ALL Gods children?
By passing H.R.3695 HELP FIND THE MISSING ACT (Billy's Law) will be a beginning to create a sort of system to help connect the dots and give families some reprieve.
God knows there are good caring authorities in this country but their hands are tied by egos and beauocracy God bless those individuals you are our life line and sense of sanity.
By creating a system to connect the dots and utilize technology maybe families can be able to reason with a loss of a loved one that sociey tends to push aside unless this tragedy happens to them. With the increase in crime, criminals are getting smarter, NO ONE IS EXEMPT! The answers are within reach lets make it happen. We need everyone's cooperation, it takes a village, please get support, contact your Federal Congress person from the state you live in and ask them to to co sponsor H.R. HELP FIND THE MISSING ACT (Billy's Law)

[Delilah]

Most excellently said, Jan. I hope you don't mind, but I am going to use your comment as a blog post on our Peace4 the Missing Blog. This statement needs to be repeated time and time again until people "get it."

You have laid it all out here, with a solution. There should be no reason for anyone to have to "blame" if Billy's Law is in place. These kind of atrocities can be prevented, but until everything is working together, as Billy's Law will accomplish, we will continue to read and our hearts will break over other missing adults.

[Jan Smolinski]

Yes Delilah, thank you, there is a solution that will help the families it does need to be said over and over again. Maybe in tiime the authorities will actually see how families are devistated and help to the best of their ability. By passing this bill into law HOPE will be something to reach out and strive for, but it takes committment and everyone to participate
then it will happen.

[Maureen]

Jan,

I left a comment at the following link:

http://abcnews.go.com/US/WireStory?id=9061978&page=1

I think it's important that we leave comments on all articles pertaining to the missing and if a good article to thank the writer or a bad article, chew them out. :)

Alot of the comments left online on these articles are by total wierdos or people who absolutely don't understand so it's important we all get our comments out there. The public reads those comments so it is a good way to educate the public on just what happens, or doesn't happen, in missing person's cases and what the families face.

Maureen

[Jan Smolinski]

Thanks Maureen I added a comment like you suggested. You are doing great work.

Hug & Always Hope,
Jan

[Delilah]

Mistrust of Police Hinders Identification of Victims

CLEVELAND —

Police say there's only one way for the families of missing women to know for sure if their loved ones are among the victims found in suspected serial killer Anthony Sowell's house: Give DNA samples. But relatives with checkered pasts in the hardscrabble neighborhood seem reluctant to come forward.

Area pastors are urging families to provide DNA samples that could help the coroner's office identify the remains of eight black women, saying that nearly two dozen others are still missing in southeast Cleveland. The coroner's office, meanwhile, tried to calm concerns by promising the samples would not be shared with police......

Read complete article at link.

[Findmywayhome]

Ok I am really so amazed at all that goes on in this area. I am looking from a totally different angel and have not shared some of my struggles here in order to continue to keep my patience and try to work with the system but some days and seeing all of this I just LOOSE it!

I have personally gone to the police for more than 20 yrs telling them about the people I saw my abductor/abuser kill and still to no avail. You would be amazed at some of the things the LE have said to me. Now they seem to use the excuse that my abductor/abuser has gotten OLD! I feel like saying to them that YOU let him age and continue and still you will NOT do anything! Do you know that they will not even ask permission of the home owner to go on the property where I there are bodies buried? SOME days I just cant believe my ears and eyes with this crazy system!!!! If only victims families knew of half of the reports that the LE got that they ignored which might lead to putting these people away before they do soooooooooo much damage to our loved ones!!! I cant deal with it some days! When I think of how long I have been doing this it makes me CRAZY!!! How can any one agency be so unaccountable to the public for their actions or lack of actions!

Im sorry but Before more people will speak out the ones that do need to be listened to more so that they can spread the word that speaking out is a positive experience!

Cudos to the MO police who got a report from a 26yr old victim of child abuse in August and arrested a group of men 5 from one family and one non family member and taken them off the street! OK MA police how about stepping up like the MO police did!!!!

Sorry this blog was not totally about this side but could not hold back...

Thanks
Findmywayhome