The Forest of Missing Children
Ethan's Story and The Truth Behind the Sinister Lies
As you are reading this, start planning for when your child goes missing. Not if. People who plan for things that may or may not happen often aren't prepared for when they do. If you plan for when your child goes missing, it may be the very thing that brings them back home safely.
Your child is more important than your 'go bag.' Take the time to keep him or her safe.
WARNING: This article shows and links to some graphic material. Please be advised that you might find some of the subject matter disturbing.
Let’s begin…
Introduction
Part urban legend, part conspiracy theory, and part horrific reality, the Forest of Missing Children is known by many names, such as the Forest of Vanished Children and the Forest of Disappearing Children. Most people know it as the Angeles National Forest in California.
Located through Los Angeles County, Ventura County, and San Bernardino County, this stretch of wilderness includes the San Gabriel mountains, the San Bernardino mountains and the Sierra Paloma mountains. The total area spans over 700,000 square acres or over 1,000 square miles of breathless views and rugged terrain and has been dubbed 'LA's Backyard Playground'.
The Vanishing Children
Brenda Howell (12) and Donald Baker (12)
On August 6, 1956, two friends Brenda Howell and Donald Baker, both age 12, rode their bicycles to the San Gabriel Canyon area and disappeared. The only trace of them was Donald's jacket and Brenda's bicycle which were found a few days later squirreled away not too far from where they disappeared. A month later, Donald's bicycle was also located. But neither one of them were seen ever again.
This is the start of the legend that would become known as the Forest of Missing Children.
Thomas Bowman (8)
On March 23, 1957, Thomas Bowman, age 8, was walking along a trail in Arroyo Cinco Canyon in Altadena, California. The boy ran ahead of his family to get to the car. His family lost sight of him for only minutes. When they arrived at their car, Thomas was nowhere to be found.
Thomas' family was further tormented by a letter that arrived at their house a week letter. An unidentified person said that Thomas was alive and well and being cared for. A newspaper received another letter regarding Thomas stating that he was living in Oklahoma. Despite extensive searches for the missing boy, he was never seen again.
Bruce Kremen (6)
On July 12, 1960, Bruce Kremen, age 6, was at a YMCA campsite. He was playing with two other children about 300 yards from the campsite grounds when he became separated from them and disappeared. Despite a massive search for the missing child, he was never seen again.
Karen Tompkins (11)
On August 18, 1961, Karen Tompkins, age 11, was attending a summer arts and crafts class, along with her eight-year-old brother, at Halldale Avenue Elementary School. Karen's brother left the class early in order to return their family dog back home. Karen stayed behind. Despite a friend accompanying her part of the way during her 4 block walk home, Karen was never seen again.
Ramona Price (7)
On September 2, 1961, Ramona Price's parents were distracted while in the process of moving from their home near Angeles National Forest. Ramona Price, age 7, told her parents that she was going for a walk and would see them at their new home. After about 30 minutes, her parents realized she was missing. Ramona was seen by several witnesses walking along the road. The last witness remembers seeing her climb into a faded blue Plymouth.
Ramona was never seen again.
Dorothy Brown (11)
In July of 1962, Dorothy Brown, age 11, went for a bicycle ride and never returned home. She was kidnapped just a few blocks away from where Karen Tompkins had previously disappeared from. Her nude body, however, was found the next day in the ocean off of Marina Del Rey, California. She had been sexually molested and drowned.
Roger Madison (15)
On December 16, 1968, Roger Madison, age 15, got in a fight with his father regarding smoking cigarettes. He rode away from his house on his motorcycle. Roger never returned home. He was never heard from again.
The Conspiracy Theory
If you look up 'The Forest of Missing Children', you will find a few of the names of the children previously listed, tales of many more missing persons, and rumors of Sasquatch. At least that was my experience.
One such article titled The Forest of Disappearing Children comes from the Sasquatch Chronicles Blog. It tells the story much like I just did of Brenda Howell, Donald Baker, Thomas Bowman, and Bruce Kremen. The article mentions these children's disappearances but never follows up on the investigations that came after the fact. It only leaves the reader guessing with the following statement:
In the years following, the area became known as The Forest Of Disappearing Children.
An article printed by Creepy LA titled The Forest of Disappearing Children did a little better. They at least warn parents to keep any eye on their children.
In the years following, the area became known as The Forest Of Disappearing Children. If you take your little ones into the woods there, hold on to their hands tightly.
Even Mysterious Universe got in on the story with an article titled The Mysterious Forest of Vanished Children.
There are places in this world which seem to harbor ominous secrets and reverberate with the echoes of a dark history. Here unsolved mysteries, vanishings, and deaths haunt the landscape and hold evasive clues that continue to perplex and baffle. One such location is a stretch of rough wilderness and rugged mountains just outside of the city of Los Angeles, California, in the United States, which was ground zero for a series of bizarre, chilling vanishings of young children that have remained unsolved to this day and continue to stir discussion and debate.
Where others failed to do even basic research, Mysterious Universe did not. They at least searched the names of the four children (Brenda Howell, Donald Baker, Thomas Bowman, and Bruce Kremen) and found out their fate.
These cases would remain complete enigmas, with no new leads or evidence turned up until March 6, 1970, when a man named Mack Ray Edwards, 51, walked into the Los Angeles Police Department’s Foothill Station and calmly confessed to sexually abusing and killing 6 children between the years of 1953 and 1970, with two of the names he mentioned being the missing Brenda Howell and Donald Baker. When startled police saw an end to these long cold cases, they asked Edwards to take them to where he had stashed the bodies, which he agreed to. However, when he directed them to the site, off Mount Baldy Road, there was no sign that any bodies had ever been there at all, and he would not be charged with the disappearances of Brenda and Donald.
Nevertheless, they totally failed to find and include the other four missing children whose names were also linked to this forest. Those would be the names of Karen Tompkins, Ramona Price, Dorothy Brown, and Roger Madison. These children weren't only murder victims. They were also raped.
When I started searching the names, what I found was something much more sinister than children getting lost in the woods or fanciful rumors of Sasquatch to help people sleep better at night. It was a bloody trail that led to organized criminal activity, mass murders, and a community who seemed to want to sweep it under the rug in the name of conspiracy. There are no sinister plots here. No persons who engage in the disappearance and trafficking of children. No one who would dare commit criminal acts for their own benefit. These are the thoughts of lunatics and fringe thinkers. Children do not just get taken, abused, and murdered. Adults don't go missing. Violence is the thing of video games and movies. There is a whole government system who loves us and protects us from such dark things.
These are the comfortable lies we tell ourselves.
More Than Just Children
Mount Baldy John Does (16-22)
On March 28, 1979, the headless decomposed remains of a young male, between the ages of 16 and 22, were found in Mount Baldy, California. Cause of death was undetermined, however investigators are treating the case as a homicide.
A second headless body was found shortly after within a ten mile radius of where the first body was found.
On May 22, 1979, one of the skulls was finally found. The other has never been located to my knowledge.
Newhall John Doe (16-25)
On December 8, 1980, the body of a young man, between the ages of 16 and 25, was found in the Angeles National Forest in Newhall, California. It was determined that he was murdered the day before. The gunshot wound to his head made identification impossible. He also suffered 4 more gunshot wounds to his chest.
Nicholas Carter (25)
Nicholas Carter, age 25, went missing sometime between January 4, 2013 and January 7, 2013. His body was found in a shallow grave on January 19, 2013 by a hiker who was hiking along Big Tujunga Canyon Road in the Angeles National Forest. The shallow grave was found near a large amount of blood.
Unknown Doe
In August 2016, a highway crew worker found skid marks on the Angeles Crest Highway. The sheriff's department responded and found an SUV which appeared to have been there for quite some time. Human remains from an unknown person was found shortly after. The vehicle was connected to a 2014 missing person investigation.
Narineh Avakian (37)
In March, 2021, 37-year-old Narineh Avakian went for a one day hike alone near Buckhorn Day Use Area along the Angeles Crest Highway of the Angeles National Forest. She was never seen alive by family or friends again. Her body was found a week later. The cause of death wasn't determined but no foul play was suspected.
The Horrific Reality
Not all of the cases listed above are from foul play. Some are truly people who get lost and/or succumb to nature and its forces, such as in the case of Narineh Avakian.
However, that isn't the case for all the names previously listed. We have tales of headless bodies, shallow graves, and gunshot wounds.
For instance, in the case of Nicholas Carter, Erik Thomas Pearson (age 21) and Donald Thurman (age 26) were later charged with one count each of capital murder with the special circumstances of robbery and lying in wait. Unfortunately we don't have the cause of death or the parties responsible for all those bodies previously listed.
In other stories, we have wholesale murder sprees in connection to the Angeles National Forest.
Between 1977 and 1979, Angelo Buono Jr. and Kenneth Bianchi allegedly raped and killed 10 women and girls. The ages of their victims ranged from 12 years old to 28. They would approach the girls, flash fake badges, take them to a house in Glendale, California which they referred to as a satellite police station, rape, and kill them. Their bodies would be dumped in the hills of Los Angeles thus earning the pair of killers the name the Hillside Strangler. That hillside was the Angeles National Forest.
Rob Levin was living the high life wearing Armani suits and driving nice cars as a member of the Billionaire Boys Club, a social and investment fraternity. In 1984, he disappeared. It was later discovered that the Billionaire Boys Club was a high-stakes investment scam with Rob Levin at the center of the con. His body was never recovered. Joe Hunt and Jim Pittman admitted to handcuffing Rob Levin, forcing him to sign over his assets, shooting him numerous times, and then dumping the body in Soledad Canyon in the Angeles National Forest.
In March 1993, two gold miners found the bones of some human remains in the Angeles National Forest. Near that location, a pair of handcuffs, a black bra, and panties were also found. They belonged to bathing suit model, Kimberly Pandelios, age 20, who disappeared on February 27, 1992. She had been sexually assaulted (sodomized by some reports) and drowned in a shallow stream by David Rademaker.
In November 1995, the body of former Raiders cheerleader and current swimsuit model Linda Sobek, age 27, was found in a dry lake bed in the Angeles National Forest. Charles Rathbun lured Linda Sobek to the Angeles National Forest. She was raped and then strangled to death.
During the courtroom trial in autumn 1996, the prosecution presented evidence that Sobek had been raped at the time of her death and that her strangulation was intentional. The defence claimed Sobek was accidentally asphyxiated after she enticed Rathbun into having sex while drunk on tequila.
Prosecution countered with forensic evidence that Sobek had been anally raped with a handgun at some point prior to the sex strangling. In the end, Rathbun was found guilty of first degree murder and rape and sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole.
"The amount of excruciating pain Linda Sobek must have suffered . . . defies comprehension," prosecutor Steve Kay told the court.
Also in 1995, the body of 3 year old Perla Valencia was discovered in a trash bag at the bottom of a hill near San Gabriel Canyon Road in the Angeles National Forest. Her sister, 33 year old Elvira Valnecia had beaten her to death while punishing the child.
“She had been disciplining the girl and she got carried away,” Spear said. “There was some blunt force trauma.”
Elvira Valencia had originally told law enforcement that her little sister was abducted from a Target parking lot.
Victims of drug deals gone awry, romances gone sour and robberies turned deadly have also ended up in the giant Angeles National Forest above Los Angeles.
Although the 1,000-square-mile forest is increasingly viewed as a repository for some of the worst urban horrors, the number of people murdered and then discarded there is not staggering. However, their stories often are.
But, [Detective Gerry Biehn of the Sheriff’s Department’s Homicide Bureau] noted, criminals see the forest as the ideal spot to hide their victims. “It is close to the Los Angeles metropolitan area, which gives access to somebody who needs to get rid of remains,” Biehn said. “It’s remote and there’s not a lot of people around, so it supplies the seclusion these people are looking for.”
“When you want to hide something, you go where there’s not a lot of people around to see you hide it,” said Sgt. Jack Barnes of the Crescenta Valley sheriff’s station.
The majority of the cases I have listed include rape. Sometimes the victim was an adult. Other times, they were not.
Where do you think these people’s intentions lie? Do you think something positive is being implied here? Do you think this is being said in the best interest of children? Or will this only leave another trail of unidentified broken bodies in some lost forgotten forest?
The Road to Nowhere
"When you want to hide something, you go where there’s not a lot of people around to see you hide it..."
There are two abandoned nuclear escape tunnels that run through the mountains. However, the Shoemaker Canyon Road which the is the road that goes through those tunnels (dubbed the Road to Nowhere, Armageddon Highway, and Convict Road) is narrow, hard to traverse, and doesn't make much sense as an escape route for the entire city of Los Angeles, California. Not even with the population that was living there in 1961. They are not much more than fire roads.
Cold War era leaders determined Los Angeles residents needed an escape route through the San Gabriel Mountains in case of a nuclear attack. Construction work began on Shoemaker Canyon Road. The 25-mile escape route would have connected the San Gabriel East Fork Road with Largo Vista in the Mojave Desert.
Work started in 1956, but only four miles was finished. Construction officially stopped in 1969.
For when first under construction in 1956, this highway pointed to Largo Vista and the Mojave Desert and was blueprinted in part as a Civil Defense escape from fallout; one route among a spiderwork of exits in all directions should Los Angeles be threatened, even executed by an atomic attack.
Los Angeles Times: From the Archives: L.A.’s Cold War Highway to Nowhere
Completed in 1961, the first tunnel extends about 400 yards. It's interior is covered in graffiti.
Completed in 1964, the second tunnel is only 250 yards long.
The foot path leads on up to Rattlesnake Peak. As you can see, this wasn't designed for a huge population to traverse.
It is more than just forgotten tunnels of a bygone era. In these mountains are everything from abandoned underground bunkers, drainage tunnels that extend for long distances tall enough for a person to walk upright through, abandoned buildings, abandoned mines, and caves.
What this means is there are many places that aren't on a map. Places in which a person or a group of people can move through the terrain. Places things can stay hidden. And all of them have graffiti marking their interiors and exteriors. All of them are known by people who work outside the boundaries of the law. All of them are removed from the sprawling city of lights, hopes, and dreams which lies below its foothills.
I wonder where all the grafitti comes from.
Nine additional MS-13 gang members have been charged in a spate of killings in California, including five victims who were hacked to death in the Los Angeles National Forest.
Federal prosecutors unsealed a grand jury indictment on Tuesday bringing the total number of defendants named to 31 after four more arrests were made this week in the case that has focused on the gang’s more extreme “Fulton clique” subset.
Prosecutors say the group has broken away from the traditional MS-13 — also known as Mara Salvatrucha — in Los Angeles, instead emulating the violent membership requirements of their Central American brothers.
NY Post: Members of MS-13 Subset Charged in Brutal Los Angeles Murders
The phenomena of people who go missing in the woods isn't just isolated to the Angeles National Forest.
Forests (Plural) of Missing Children
Every year, hundreds of men, women, and children go missing in national parks and forests. Some are eventually found. If we are lucky, this means they are found alive. Some are not.
David Paulides discovered more than 400 cases of people who wandered into the wilderness and never came back. He has mapped out what appear to be more than 30 clusters of vanishings in forests and national parks across the county.
“Every month in almost every state people go into the wilderness and don’t come out,” Paulides said. “There are so many missing kids in Oregon, it’s ridiculous.”
What is interesting can be found in this statement from an article written in 2021:
There is no database of how many people go missing in national parks every year but the National Parks Service has at least 29 cold cases of people who have gone missing and have yet to be found, with the oldest case dating back to 1958.
The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System reported that more than 600,000 people go missing in the US every year, but the majority are quickly found, "alive and well," but there are tens of thousands of cold cases, where someone is missing for over a year.
As of Saturday, there were 20,685 open missing person cases across the US.
Insider: Several People Have Gone Missing in National Parks Across the Country in the Past Week
The database for how many people go missing in national parks every year doesn't exist.
Unlikely Heroes
In 2021, emails from the family and friends of missing people were being sent to the Pacific Northwest Sasquatch Hunters, a group of people who spent their time in the woods looking for the legendary Sasquatch or Big Foot.
From the Pacific Northwest Sasquatch Hunters' website:
Each year, on average, 1,100 people get lost in the Pacific Northwest. Of those 1,100 people that get lost, approximately 90% are found alive, 8% are located deceased, and the remaining 2% seemingly vanish without a trace.
In 2021 requests from friends and family members of the missing began to appear in our inbox. Requests were simple, to keep an eye out for their loved one or their loved one's personal belongings, while we followed-up on reports of sasquatch encounters.
We hope that through our efforts we can bring awareness to these cases, keep hope alive for families of the missing, and bring closure to those who remain without answers.
In 2021, the Pacific Northwest Sasquatch Hunters formed a Missing Persons Unit. Out of the urban legend which was blamed for these disappearances came unlikely heroes — a community of hunters who rose to the occasion and decided to try and make a difference.
Human Trafficking
Human trafficking is defined by Cornell Law School as:
Human trafficking is the illegal transportation or receipt of a person with the intent to exploit or hold that person captive. The Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000 is Congress’s framework for combating human trafficking. Section 102(b) describes human trafficking as “not limited to the sex industry,” but also including forced labor. It describes how “traffickers often transport victims from their home communities to unfamiliar destinations, including foreign countries . . . leaving the victims defenseless and vulnerable.”
The Department of Justice defines human trafficking as this:
Human Trafficking is a crime involving the exploitation of a person for labor, services, or commercial sex.
The Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 and its subsequent reauthorizations recognize and define two primary forms of human trafficking:
Sex trafficking is the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, obtaining, patronizing, or soliciting of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age.
Forced labor is the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery.
While the Department of Justice does define elements of human trafficking, I would argue that it falls short of the true definition. Could there be a reason why?
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has quietly taken down a series of sections from its website related to both domestic and international child sex trafficking, including a portion that offers information about U.S. minors being “recruited and exploited” into the commercial sex industry.
According to an archived version of the website, the agency previously provided detailed information about “International Sex Trafficking of Minors,” “Domestic Sex Trafficking of Minors,” and “Child Victims of Prostitution.”
In the top section under “Child Sex Trafficking” — which is still in the updated version of the website — the DOJ also erased the following paragraph.
“After cultivating a relationship with the child and engendering a false sense of trust, the trafficker will begin engaging the child in prostitution, and use physical, emotional, and psychological abuse to keep the child trapped in a life of prostitution. It is common for traffickers to isolate victims by moving them far away from friends and family, altering their physical appearances, or continuously moving them to new locations. Victims are heavily conditioned to remain loyal to the trafficker and to distrust law enforcement.”
The Epoch Times: DOJ Quietly Removes Child Sex Trafficking Information From Its Website (Subscription Required)
Like I said, the definitions fall short. But don't worry. The government is here to help. In fact, all the world's governments and world organizations create reports and statistics on human trafficking. Disregard the fact that I have a couple of questions.
Where is the statistic that shows how many victims are murdered while being trafficked? Where is the statistic that shows how many victims die in captivity? How are you defining captivity? Where is the statistic that shows them being tortured and abused? Where is the statistic that shows their broken lives and broken mental health from what they have endured? Where are those statistics?
They don't exist. Those statistics will never exist. It doesn't fit into the agenda.
What else is slipping through the cracks?
What To Do When Your Child Goes Missing
The following is a breakdown of checklists provided by the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). The information below was taken from these 3 documents. I would highly suggest you read them.
When Your Child Is Missing: A Family Survival Guide
This provides an in-depth look into what should happen. It really is excellent and does a much better job than my rough breakdown. Read this and become familiar with the steps and procedures that should follow. Plan for when your child is missing. Not if.Missing Child Emergency Response - Quick Reference Guide
This is a basic checklist for what to do.If Your Child Is Missing
Understand the laws and procedures of law enforcement. Knowledge is power.
Your first steps:
Contact your local law-enforcement agency ASAP.
Search the local area and your house. This includes anywhere I child could hide or climb into.
Secure your child’s room for the police. No one in or out after it is searched until after the police leave.
Secure any computers and electronics used by your child for the police. Do not try to access the data on them until after the police leave.
Restrict access to the home.
Once law enforcement arrive:
Provide the date, time, and location where your child was last seen, as well as the name and description of who last saw your child.
Provide information about your child's health and medical conditions.
Provide a description of your child, what your child was wearing, date of birth, hair and eye color, weight, complexion, and other identifying information such as glasses, braces, scars, etc.
Provide information about your child's cell phone number and social media accounts.
Provide a recent photo and/or video of your child.
Provide information regarding custody issues or court order visitations.
Provide information about any recent changes in your child’s behavior.
Provide information about any individuals who have recently shown unusual attention to or interest in your child.
Provide a DNA sample if you have one. Samples can be collected from toothbrush, hairbrush, etc.
Provide fingerprints and/or footprints.
Request that your child is reported missing to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) at 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678).
What you should ask law enforcement for:
Ask about an AMBER Alert. (This will only be issued for abductions.)
Ask for a neighborhood canvas.
Obtain the name of and contact information for the primary investigator assigned to your child’s case.
Request a Search and Rescue Team.
What to do after law enforcement leave:
Try to keep all phone lines open.
Report your child missing to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) at 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678).
Report your missing child to the missing-child clearinghouse in your state or territory. Visit www.missingkids.com to do this.
Contact the Association of Missing and Exploited Children’s Organizations (AMECO) at 1-877-263-2620 or visit www.amecoinc.org.
Prepare posters of your missing child including a recent photo and descriptive information and post them within the local community.
Contact nonprofit organizations (churches, social organizations, etc) in your area to help assist.
Verify that information about your missing child has been entered into the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) Missing Person File. Federal law 2 requires law enforcement to enter information no more than 2 hours after the receipt of the report.
Obtain your child's medical and dental records. Make available to the police.
If your child is a runaway:
Contact the National Runaway Switchboard at 1-800-RUNAWAY (1-800-786-2929) or visit www.1800runaway.org.
If your child is abducted:
Request an AMBER Alert for your child.
Provide law enforcement with detailed information about the description and characteristics of the abductor.
Provide law enforcement with the abductor’s photo, driver’s license number, credit-card numbers, cell and other phone numbers, passport numbers, and any other available information useful for tracking purposes if you have them.
Provide law enforcement with information about any vehicles involved in your child's abduction including make, model, and license plate.
Provide law enforcement with video, cell phone, or security camera footage.
Media coverage and social pressure:
Make every effort to obtain local and national media attention regarding your missing child.
Post about it on all social media platforms. Obtain the help of family and friends.
Conduct television, radio, and newspaper interviews to discuss and direct attention to your child.
Conduct periodic press conferences and plan events related to the search for your child to help keep the disappearance in the public eye.
Contact your local and state elected officials. Make them aware of the situation.
Stay in regular contact with law enforcement, the media, and local government officials.
Once your child is found, recovered, and is safe at home:
Notify law enforcement, NCMEC, other agencies, and organizations assisting in the search that you have contacted as soon as your child is located.
As a personal note, social media in my personal experience is a must. The more noise you make, the better response and social pressure will be placed on law enforcement. No one will fight as hard as you to keep your family safe. So post updates, frustrations, multiple posts, etc. Anything you can do to draw eyes on your missing child will benefit you.
What You May Not Know
What you don't know can hurt you in this situation. There are factors that may affect law enforcement's response and the amount of attention they give to your missing child.
When receiving a report of a missing child, law enforcement assesses the risk a child faces based on the information provided. Thus provide key information in the report to help law enforcement immediately assess that risk. Model law enforcement policies recommend an expedited law enforcement response if a child:
Is 13 years of age or younger
Is out of what is believed to be the zone of safety for his or her age and developmental stage
Has mental, developmental or behavioral disabilities
Is drug dependent, including prescribed medication and/or illegal substances, and the dependency is potentially life-threatening
Has been absent from home for more than 24 hours before being reported to law enforcement
Is determined to be in a life-threatening situation as based on available information
Is believed to be in the company of an individual who could endanger his or her welfare as based on available information
Is absent in a way inconsistent with his or her established patterns of behavior and the deviation cannot be readily explained
Is determined to be at risk based on other circumstances involved causing a reasonable person to conclude the child should be considered as such
There are also several federal laws regarding missing children you should be aware of. Know these and remind law enforcement of them if they should forget.
If your child is missing, federal law requires a specific, timely response from law enforcement agencies. Federal law:
Prohibits law enforcement agencies from establishing or observing a waiting period before accepting a missing child report. When a child is reported missing, law enforcement may not require the reporter to wait a certain amount of time for the child to return home before taking the report (42 U.S.C. §§ 5779 and 5780).
Requires law enforcement agencies to enter the child’s information into the FBI’s National Crime Information Center database, known as NCIC, and the state law enforcement system database within 2 hours of receiving the missing child report (42 U.S.C. §5780). You may contact the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, known as NCMEC, at 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678) to verify information about your child has been entered into NCIC.
Extends, to missing young adults ages 18, 19 and 20, some of the same reporting and investigative procedures already provided to children younger than 18 through a provision known as Suzanne’s Law in recognition of Congress’ concern for the safety of missing young adults in this age range. NCMEC immediately takes reports of all missing children younger than 18 and will take a report about children aged 18 to 20 when notified by law enforcement and when law enforcement expresses a concern of suspicious circumstances or foul play.
Authorizes NCMEC to provide free services to families as the nation’s clearinghouse for missing and sexually exploited children. Many of NCMEC’s authorized services are listed in 42 U.S.C. § 5773. After you have reported your child as missing to your local law enforcement agency, call NCMEC’s toll free telephone number at 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678) to also report your missing child.
But what happens when all these government systems we have in place to protect us fail us? What happens when the police won't help and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) won't report your child as missing? What happens when these agencies are weaponized against citizens?
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), serves as an information clearinghouse and national resource center on issues related to victims, missing and exploited children and operates a national toll-free hotline.
It isn't just a clearinghouse. It is the national database for missing children. If they won't help, there are no other options and nowhere else for you to go.
Cleveland, Ohio
Between May 2 and May 16, at least 27 children were reported missing from the Cleveland area. Their ages ranged from 12 to 17.
Newburgh Heights Police Chief John Majoy, who also serves as the board president of Cleveland Missing, told Fox News the following:
There's always peaks and valleys with missing persons, but this year it seems like an extraordinary year. For some reason, in 2023, we've seen a lot more than we normally see, which is troubling in part because we don't know what's going on with some of these kids, whether they're being trafficked or whether they're involved in gang activity or drugs. It is more likely a majority of cases are runaways versus abductions, but young teenagers are naive and susceptible to predators, who are wolves in sheep's clothing.
Their disappearances do not make the news unless there is an Amber Alert, and their stories are not being shared on social media.
It's a silent crime that happens right under our noses. The problem is where are they? Where do they go? They can be in a drug house or farmed to prostitution or caught up in drug trafficking or gangs.
What makes this issue more troubling is the lack of photos. Scrolling through Cleveland's missing persons page, there are more blank squares with the words, "Photo not available," than there are pictures of the missing person.
The article further pointed out that "if the family has photos, police can use social media and blast out messages to the public, which he said is law enforcement's greatest asset in missing persons cases, to stockpile tips and potential leads."
New York Post notes that:
To combat the surge of disappearances in Cleveland and other areas in northern Ohio, US Marshals launched “Operation We Will Find You” in May to recover 35 missing children.
Agents combed through cases in Cleveland, Toledo, Akron and other surrounding counties to find the missing minors, with some of the kids located as far as California, Arizona and West Virginia.
“The Marshals Service is fully committed to assisting federal, state, and local agencies with locating and recovering endangered missing children,” US Marshal Pete Elliott said in a statement about the operation.
“The epidemic of missing children in our country needs a spotlight, it needs our focus. We hope operations like this sharpen that focus. Every child deserves a safe environment to grow up in, and we are dedicated to helping provide that for the children and families in Northern Ohio.”
There are a few takeaways regarding this.
There is an epidemic of missing children that is taking place.
These may be taking place all over our nation in pockets.
Some appear to be runaways but may not be.
Blasting missing persons photos on social media greatly increases the chance of that person being found.
Where are these children?
Van Buren, Arkansas — Ethan's Story
Author's Note: This part of the story involves me personally. So much of this will be my own account of events and how I understood them.
On July 5, 2023 at somewhere around 10:30 AM, I received a text message.
My son is missing. Can you share this since Twitter blocked me?
Included below it was the picture of a 17 year old boy wearing glasses who had shocking blonde curly hair named Ethan. Ethan had been missing since July 3 at approximately 5:30 PM. That meant he had been gone for roughly two days already. (Not quite 48 hours.) My response was almost an automatic "Yes. I can."
Ethan's mom replied with:
Thank you so much!!!!! We are near a major child and human trafficking interstate and he is autistic so he trusts everyone. No friends. No water. No food. No anything. No phone.
I can't thank you enough. This is not normal. Running away because your mad is normal. This is not.
I reached out to big followers and they didn’t even care. Frustrating. And to know how big this goes. They still refuse to open their eyes. We know though.
Ethan's mom had a story to tell. She continued with:
I’ve called NCMEC [National Charter of Missing and Exploited Children].
Not sure why there isn’t an amber alert out.
There has been no amber alert sent out yet. I had to contact the missing child network. I can't believe this is how the police work!!!!!
After a long conversation with her, I found out some things.
The first was that Ethan was high-risk and autistic. He has never been in trouble with the law. He has never ran away. He has never spent more than a few hours away from home unless it was in the presence of other family members.
The second thing I found out was that Ethan's mom had reported her son missing two days ago. Within those two days, no police had shown up at her door. They never visited her home. They never took a report or reported her son missing. He wasn't listed in the NCMEC (National Charter for Missing and Exploited Children) database. Nor was he listed in the NCIC (National Crime Information Center) database. All we had was a Morgan Nick Foundation flyer which hadn't been posted on any social media sites except by us.
The third thing I discovered was that law enforcement flat out told Ethan's mom to stop calling regarding updates about her missing son. Several comments were made about her being overreacting. They claimed she was being dramatic. Instead, they directed all communications through an advocate with the Morgan Nick Foundation.
The fourth thing that came out during the course of all this was Ethan had multiple run-ins with law enforcement while he was missing. This information didn't really start to come out though until Ethan's mom started speaking with others in her community.
I didn't know exactly what was going on. But I knew something wasn't right. In fact, something was very wrong. And I needed to help Ethan's mother.
Everything inside me knew that being quiet wasn't an answer. Things didn't get solved by being silent. So I started posting like mad about this missing boy and what I saw as the negligent actions of a police department. Not only did I do that, I went and found an army of Digital Soldiers willing to help me make a lot of noise about Ethan's disappearance.
I was jumping into Twitter Space's and talking with anyone who would hear me. One of the biggest advocates for finding Ethan came from Twitter user QRevere and a regular Twitter Space he holds called The Pond.
In the meantime, Ethan's mom was able to regain her ability to post to Twitter. We were racing to get as much attention and eyes on Ethan as possible.
A group of researchers really took the task at hand. On the evening of July 5th, they started watching the public CCTV cameras around the Van Buren area. Others decided to start calling the Crawford Country Sheriff's Department to inquire about Ethan's disappearance. I am told that calls poured into their office. The social pressure for Crawford County Sheriff's Department to act was building.
Another Twitter user named Tim Jordan contacted Truckers Against Trafficking. We had eyes on the freeways surrounding the area.
Other Twitter users shared, commented on posts, and kept the story going. The whole community started coming together to act.
On the morning of July 6th, General Flynn quoted Ethan's mom's post about his disappearance.
By this time, Ethan's missing poster had been shared over multiple social media platforms and had been viewed millions of times. Many eyes were looking for Ethan. This is exactly the kind of attention we needed to find this missing child... and, unbeknownst to us, exactly the kind of attention that the Crawford County Sheriff's Department didn't want to have.
Crawford County Sheriff's Office was finally forced to post on Facebook on July 6 regarding Ethan's disappearance. The social pressure was too great. There were too many eyes on his disappearance. All of this was coming from Twitter and the community there.
By the evening of July 6th, there was a Search and Rescue Team put together to find Ethan. It seems that one of the Digital Soldiers who was watching the CCTV cameras spotted Ethan at a local Wal-Mart. They called the Crawford County Sheriff's Department with the tip. With this information in hand, the search was on.
There was just a few problems with this. The first was the Search and Rescue Team and effort surrounding it wasn't publicly announced until after the fact. So the turnout was low. The second was that Ethan's mom was never informed of this fact by the Crawford County Sheriff's Department or her advocate at the Morgan Nick Foundation. Instead, she found out from the mother of another missing child. She was assisting in the search and rescue efforts in the hopes of finding her own child.
River, age 16, had been missing since July 1, 2023 from Van Buren, Arkansas. Police has not listed him as missing. He was not entered into the NCIC or NCMEC databases. There are no missing posters for River. Not even from the Morgan Nick Foundation. Her son has been missing for approximately a week. The only reason we know he is missing is because of his mother's social media posts.
River's mom wouldn't be the only parent coming forward about their missing children. Apparently, Crawford County had a history of missing children and lack of support from law enforcement. This had been going on for years.
By July 7th, both Ethan's mom and myself were overwhelmed with heartache. Other parents started coming forward to tell Ethan's mom (and by proxy me) their stories. The commonality between these families is that they are all white, relatively low income in Biden's economy, and have long standing family ties to the area. They are also not very trusting and were scared to talk.
They had been watching Ethan's mom and my own social media posts. They had been watching what people were posting about in regards to Ethan. They were seeing with their own eyes the affect that we as a community were having on their local law enforcement. So some of them decided to open up.
It was also around this time that Ethan's mom started receiving direct messages like this one.
Maddy Bby: Hello! I found your kid.
Ethan's Mom: What? Did you? Where?
Maddy Bby: Are you ready to get the information? [There was a phone number here.] Message me.
Ethan's Mom: You can message me here.
Maddy Bby: Ohhh. Sounds like you are not ready for your kid.
Ethan's Mom: Excuse me!
Maddy Bby: Have you found your kid? I have the information on where your kid is.
Ethan's Mom: Where is he???
Maddy Bby: But if you wanna go to where your kid is you need to go with cops.
Ethan's Mom: What are you talking about? Where is my son???
Maddy Bby: You need to pay me though before I can tell you where your kid is for my own security safety. You need to give me some money.
NOTE: It was at this time that Ethan's mom posted these particular private DM's publicly. But don't worry. She didn't dox Maddy Bby. The phone number I blacked out wasn't a personal number. It traced back to an adult escort service located in Florida. I blocked it out because I didn't want to give them any free advertising.
Maddy Bby: Wtf! You posted me!
Ethan's Mom: You are trying to extort money to give me the location of my missing child!
If your child is ever missing and you get a message like the one about, don't pay the money. Apparently there are very evil people who will use bad situations for personal gain and take advantage of people when they are most vulnerable. Report them and move on.
On July 7th at 10:35 AM from Ethan's mom:
There’s another missing kid and the cops told the mom that since he is a bad kid they won’t allow her to list him missing. He is 16!!!!
More moms are calling me. If they have any type of record or are known to be trouble makers the cops won’t do anything to find them. What the duck is going on here?
As we heard more and more stories, other things became clear. The system was being used to threaten these parents and keep them silent. I will not be going into that at this moment in time. However, more information regarding this will be coming soon hopefully.
But just to give you an idea... Van Buren and Fort Smith are separated by the Arkansas River. Van Buren sits in Crawford County. Forth Smith resides in Sebastian County. The population of Sebastian County would have been close to approximately 127,800 people in 2018. (This number was taken from the US Census Bureau 2020 data.) On November 30, 2018, the Sebastian County Sheriff's Department made this Facebook post regarding amnesty for some of their active warrants which involved misdemeanor crimes.
It stated that there were "over 20,000 active warrants in Sebastian County." That means over 15% of their population had active warrants out on them. Does it seem a little odd to anyone else that 1 in 6 people who resided in this county in 2018 had an active warrant out on them? Do those numbers seem a little bit off to anyone else? I am sure I am just imaging things.
With mounting pressure from social media users and specifically Twitter users, more posters regarding missing children started coming out. I want you to notice that these posters weren't being created until this time. No child missing prior to Ethan had social media posts made about them. It was about this point that things started going into overdrive.
With this, we started to look into the social media accounts for the elected officials in Van Buren and Fort Smith. We wanted to get them involved. Were they aware of what was going on in their county? Unfortunately, all their social media accounts (including their professional profiles such as LinkedIn) are non-existent, shut down, or haven't been maintained in years. This, for many of us, was a huge red flag that something else was going on within that community. When lines of communication are shut down, there is usually a reason for it.
We started to widen our search. There were rumors. Rumors of these children being used to commit crimes because of their age. Rumors of up to 30 cars stolen by these children.
Watch the TikTok video of teens stealing cars here.
Rumors of sexual abuse.
A level 2 sex offender can be placed on our website IF their victim was 14 or under.
Rumors of things going on in the schools that wasn't being reported.
Parents protested outside a Van Buren middle school on Friday (Oct. 26) claiming their daughter has been sexually assaulted in school, and they want the boys responsible kept in a different classroom than their daughter.
James McDaniel says his stepdaughter has been sexually assaulted by more than four boys in her grade at school. He says he wants the Butterfield Middle School administration to protect his daughter.
5 News: Parents Protest Van Buren Middle School Over Sexual Assault Allegations
We were tracking down every lead that came our way. At this time a chilling discovery was made. Grinder and Tiktok profiles were popping up for these missing children. Ethan didn't have internet access as he didn't have a cell phone. Who made these accounts?
By the end of July 8th, Ethan's mom and I were beginning to despair. It wasn't until July 9th that our real breakthrough came. We had a tip regarding Ethan's whereabouts... that didn't pan out.
And then at approximately 11:00 PM on July 9th, Ethan's parents received a phone call. It was from Ethan. He didn't know exactly where he was. But he gave enough of a description of his location that his parents were able to find him... in a seedy motel.
Ethan has very little recollection about how long he was missing for, who he was with, what happened, or where he has been. At some point, he was in the woods with some other children. In another memory, he was possibly in a car accident with police of which he ran away from. His physical condition upon recovery included mental fatigue from insomnia, insect bites all over his legs and arms, multiple cuts on his hands and feet, and dehydration. We don't know if his memories are real or a side effect of the dehydration. We may never know.
There is one thing that is clear. Ethan is now afraid of the police. A statement from Ethan:
Everyone knows the cops don't care about us. That's why everyone runs.
What exactly did he mean by that?
TikTok video of parts of the following 911 call:
911 Fort Smith Operator: Yeah but you are going to have to shut up.
Debra Stevens: I'm scared. I have never had anything like this happen to me before.
911 Fort Smith Operator: Well this will teach you next time don't drive in the water. How you didn't see it? You had to go right over it.
This was the last phone call Debra Stevens had. She died due to flash flooding. The full audio of this 911 call can be found here. The audio is hard to listen to.
Everyone knows to be afraid of the cops.
Three Arkansas law enforcement officers have been removed from duty and are facing state and federal investigations, officials confirmed Monday, after bystander video captured at least two of them punching and kneeing a suspect during an arrest.
At one point in the 34-second video recorded Sunday, one of the officers also lifts the suspect’s head and slams it into the pavement.
The video, which was posted on social media, shows the officers restraining an individual – identified by state police as Randal Worcester, 27, of Goose Creek, South Carolina – near a curb outside a business. One officer throws punches at the person’s face and slams his head to the ground, while another knees the individual in the side and back.
A woman who is not seen on the video says, “Don’t beat him! He needs his medicine!” One officer responds, “Back the f**k up!” while another orders her to get in her car.
Damante declined to get into many specifics, emphasizing the case remains under investigation, but said the actions he saw on the video are “not indicative of the Crawford County Sheriff’s Department or any law enforcement agency in this area.”
The deputies “will be punished for what they did, if they’re found to be in violation of any rights,” the sheriff said.
Everyone knew that the police didn't care. They wouldn't help you. Including the parents of these missing children.
On August 19, 2020, Larry Eugene Price Jr., a 50-year-old developmentally disabled Black man, was suffering from an acute mental health crisis when he was arrested in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and taken to the Sebastian County Jail. Because he couldn’t afford the $1,000 bail that would’ve allowed him to remain free as he awaited his day in court, Mr. Price spent the next year in jail, not convicted of any crime, just waiting. For most of that year, despite his dire need of urgent psychiatric care, Mr. Price languished alone in solitary confinement—in a state of active psychosis—neglected by jail medical and custody staff.
Because of his unaddressed mental health needs, Mr. Price barely ate or drank. Jail medical and custody staff were aware of his grossly insufficient food and water intake.
In the last months of his pretrial confinement, Mr. Price was so visibly emaciated that he resembled a victim of famine.
In the early morning hours of August 29, 2021, just over one year after his arrest, a corrections officer found Mr. Price in his isolation cell, lying in a pool of standing water and urine, unresponsive. He was transported to Mercy Hospital by Fort Smith EMTs, where he was pronounced dead. An autopsy performed by the Arkansas State Medical Examiner’s office found that he died from acute dehydration and malnutrition.
When Mr. Price entered the jail, he was a well-nourished, 6’2” tall man who weighed 185 pounds. When EMTs transported him to the hospital, they estimated his weight to be 90 pounds.
Everyone knew. And yet everyone is still afraid to talk.
To date there were 2 other missing children that were publicly posted about.
One had a missing poster made through the Morgan Nick Foundation after the social media pressure that was being placed on Van Buren and Fort Smith, Arkansas law enforcement.
To date, 4 of these children have been recovered and returned home. The only exception is River, whose mother helped in the Search and Rescue Team effort to find Ethan.
Ethan came home on July 9th. He had been missing for 6 days. That is 6 days of his parents living through their worst nightmare. On July 13th, 4 days later, Ethan's mom finally heard back from the National Charter for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) about her missing son.
The Crawford County Sheriff's Department has not stopped by their house after Ethan was reported as being found.
This is just the beginning of this story…
Acknowledgements and Hat Tips
There are no words or list that could do justice to the amount of help that went into finding Ethan, sharing his story, and getting information that went into this article. If I were to start I would be adding hundreds, thousands, and millions of names of people who stepped up and got involved in this. I don’t even think I could start one.
So, I am going to borrow the word’s of Ethan’s mom:
Twitter saved my son!!!
To everyone across every social media who helped, thank you. This entire thing and what comes next was made possible by each and every one of you. And to answer your question… there is something coming next. It just isn’t going to be put out by just me.
This is an outstanding write up Lizzy, Happy they found thier Son and spitting mad at the police and their attitude toward missing children. This has got to change. I was almost taken as a kid but my father told me to start yelling and running from strangers that try to get close. It was close to my house. Our population needs a wake up call if we are to survive as a human race. Pulling together as the ones on twitter and other social media did, is God's work. Until the world wakes up to the evil around us the attitude will not change. Time to start putting the pressure on and make it change.
I was living out in CA not overly far from the Angeles National Forest, and some of these news stories, I remember. It made me pretty paranoid about my own two kids growing up in the next county over. Thankfully, we had a close-knit neighborhood and we looked after each others' kids all the time. I cannot even imagine Ethan's mom, worry over many days, only that I had my oldest go missing at a water park once for over an hour when she was six. Thank the Lord, we found her back at the long slide that she was sliding and happy reunion, but that day could have turned out tragic.