KRISTEN'S LAW SIGNED
November , 2000
WASHINGTONA national clearinghouse for information on missing adults will be established under legislation that was signed into law on Thursday.
The measure authorizes the attorney general to make grants of up to $1 million for each of the next four years to public agencies and non-profit private organizations that help find missing adults.
Senator John Edwards sponsored the Senate version of the bill. Representative Sue Myrick of Charlotte introduced the legislation in the House.
The measure was named for Kristen Modafferi, a North Carolina State University student who was last seen during the summer of 1997 in San Francisco just three weeks after her 18th birthday.
The Charlotte woman's disappearance has been the subject of nationwide publicity. Many other cases involving the disappearance of young adults are reported to authorities without generating headlines. In Mecklenburg County, for example, the sheriff's office last year received reports of 132 missing persons from 18 through 21 years old.
"We want to make sure that if a child disappears that a family has a place to go and knows where to go to get assistance in locating them. What happens oftentimes is that there is no coordination between law enforcement agencies," Senator Edwards said. "Secondly, we want parents of children who have gone away to college my child just went away to college to know and feel secure that if something does happen to their child there is something in place to help them."
Senator Edwards credited Kristen's parents, who pressed for enactment of a law to help other families. "I also am grateful to Representative Myrick for her tireless efforts toward ensuring that Kristen's Act becomes law," Senator Edwards said. "Our legislation will help public agencies and nonprofit organizations provide desperately needed assistance to law enforcement and families in locating involuntarily missing adults.
"Kristen's Act will not only provide some comfort to the millions of parents who send their children to college every year and worry about their safety, but it will help ensure that when an adult of any age is missing due to foul play a national effort will be mobilized to help," the senator concluded.
http://edwards.senate.gov/press/2000/nov09-pr.html