pepelepolecat
Member
- Joined
- Nov 30, 2014
- Messages
- 914
- Reaction score
- 9
That's a good point and I sure wish I could talk to someone in their family. Every time I have seen Deorr's parents either on the news or on SM, they have said get his picture out there. Do whatever you can. I don't see how helping to do what they've asked, would be considered 'rogue.' I have tried reaching out to their family a dozen times over the past three weeks but they are not accepting new friends on their boards. I would love to help them. I'm sure they're being inundated with emails and phone calls and besides themselves with grief. I have been locked out of faze bots because they're asking for govt id. so that bridge has been burned. I'm certain they're being told the same thing that I was told ..let the authorities handle it.
As far as as the Center for Missing and Exploited Children (CMEC) goes...They told me to let the authorities handle it as well and not to use my personal phone number. They said I'd get a lot of crazy people calling, which I did get a couple, but mostly it was well meaning people. If I had done what the CMEC and Sheriff's office had advised (they were recommending each other) I wouldn't have found my daughter. I would love to talk with the Kunz family, but I don't know how to reach them.
How did I cope with the news my daughter was missing?? It was 3 o'clock in the morning when the boarding school called and told me she had run away. She was 2500 miles away from home. I nearly collapsed hearing the news. A primal grief wail came over me after I hung up the phone. I died a thousand deaths as I cried and grieved and imagined every horrific scenario that came to mind. I couldn't sleep or eat. I prayed A LOT! I must have made a million calls to law enforcement. Registered her with the Center for Missing & Exploited Children, The Runaway hotline, the Lost etc. I was horrified the Sheriff's office was moving so slowly. By day 3 a detective had not even been assigned to the case yet. That angered me no end and I became very proactive on my own .
I started networking cross country with the Regional Transit Authorities, Amalgamated Transit Union, the AFL-CIO and Craigslist. I got more help from those people than I did the Sheriff's department. They did what the Sheriff's department refused to do for me. They wouldn't even send out my Missing Poster they said they liked to do their own. Have you seen those? They're black and white, small blurred pictures. The Safety and Security officers at the RTA got my full color poster up at every transit center, bus station and train station within minutes. They got her poster up at every employee lunchroom, lounge and sign in window within seconds. Man, I was getting CCd' emails back from everywhere! "It's UP in Tampa, "Miami is covered, "Palm beach was just posted". 'Up at the train station, Greyhound etc.Those people moved mountains for me.
I just can't say enough about Craigslist WoW! Who would have thought? What a fantastic networking, nation wide venue that can be utilized in ways never dreamed of. I posted an ad for a tour guide in Tampa under General Labor and explained my situation. I offered 100 bucks for a weekend tour guide to show me around Florida when I arrived and searched for my daughter. I also posted in the community boards under Lost and Found/Volunteers. First in Tampa, then in Palm beach. My phone was ringing off the hook from good. honest people wanting to help. There were retired police officers, detectives, sheriff's, youth pastors and countless others that wanted to volunteer. I even got a call from a local reporter who wanted to track me tracking her. I was choking back the tears, I was so touched so many people came out of nowhere to help. The really heartwarming part was they didn't want my money I had offered. They were just good decent people.
After I got off the plane in Tampa I received a call from a bus driver who worked at Palm Tran. He had just seen her in Palm Beach and saw her poster when he got back to the base. It was the first really solid lead I had and went for it. I rented a car and drove straight to Palm Beach on the Florida turn pike. It took hours to get there, I hadn't slept in days. I pulled into Palm Beach at 2:30 a.m. and got a room.
The following morning I met a couple of the detectives and 20 other craigslist volunteers wanting to pass out fliers. We went everywhere, we hit the malls, the beaches, teen hang outs, bus stops, truck stops, grocery and drug stores, convenience stores, planned parenthoods, youth hostels, hotels, food banks etc.
The detectives drove me around sleazy neighborhoods where they had known runaways to land. I found my daughter at 8 p.m. in the lobby of the Days Inn in Palm Beach. The clerk at the desk had recognized her from the poster. OMG I nearly fainted finding her. Someone had rented her a room because she had been raped the night before. A newly acquired friend had taken her to a drug dealers house and dropped her off. She was slipped a date rape drug. She could have been killed. I was so relieved to find her it was an absolute miracle. I thank God for riding shotgun with me the whole way.
This is the short version of the story. You asked how I found her. It took all of this and about three more pages I don't have time to write. It took a tremendous amount of determination and stamina once I figured out what I needed to do. Networking is key, and I can help. I'm good at it and I'd really like to help.
If their family is just following the standard protocol these organizations advise If I could, I would tell them to break all the rules and go with their gut instincts. If they're following for some other reason, pertaining to investigative strategy, then yes, I would be hesitant. I would love to hear from somebody in their family, or someone who is a friend of a friend who can get a message to them there are faster, more effective ways to get little Deorr's photo's out there and get people looking for him.
Thank you for sharing this. I can't even imagine how difficult this must have been for you and must still be for DeOrr's family.