Update - Volume 12, Number 10, 1999

At the Hands of a Stranger: Child Abduction

by Susan S. Kreston, Senior Attorney
National Center for Prosecution of Child Abuse
Child Abduction/Sexual Exploitation Unit

Every year there are estimated to be over 100,000 attempted abductions of children by non-family members in the United States.¹   The National Incidence Study of Missing, Abducted, Runaway and Thrownaway Children indicates the number of successful attempts by non-family members to be between 3,200 and 4,600.²  Some of these children are victims of an acquaintance abduction while others fall prey to stranger abduction.   Acquaintance abductions are perpetrated by individuals known to the child (friends, neighbors, etc.) but where the abductor has no legal relationship to the child.   These abductions involve the coerced and/or unauthorized taking of a child into a building or vehicle, or for a distance of more than 20 feet; the detention of a child for more than one hour; or the luring of a child for purposes of committing another crime.³  Many short term abductions that take place in the course of a sexual assault are counted in this group.  It is believed that this number is an underestimation, as many sexual assaults are not reported to law enforcement, thereby lowering the number of reported kidnappings attendant to the assault.⁴

Stranger abductions are perpetrated by individuals completely unknown to the child.  Stranger abductions account for only 200-300 of all non-family abductions.⁵   These cases are defined as those in which the child is:  (1) taken by a stranger and (2) killed; or ransomed; or kept overnight; or transported more than 50 miles; or taken with the intent to permanently retain.⁶   According to the most recent study, approximately half the children abducted by a stranger are murdered and, of those, the vast majority (74%) are dead within three hours of the abduction.⁷ The primary motive in the child abduction murder is sexual assault.⁸

All victims of non-family attempted or actualized abductions were "average" children, leading normal lives and were typically low-risk victims.⁹   Seventy-six per cent were girls and the median age was slightly over eleven.   In 80% of the cases, the initial contact between the killer and the victim was within 1/4 mile of the victim's residence and the majority of cases (57%) were based solely on opportunity.¹⁰

The most common device used in attempted kidnappings was inviting a child to get into a car.¹¹ Other lures that are commonly used involve requests for assistance, invitations to see pets or requests to help look for them, claiming that an emergency has happened, name recognition of the victim, an authority figure (such as a police officer or firefighter) telling the child to accompany him/her, and computer solicitation for meetings.¹²

While the number of successful stereotypical kidnappings is relatively low, the number of attempts reflects the continuing need to educate children on the dangers of going anywhere with anyone without the knowledge and permission of their parents.  It also reflects the need to educate parents on the false sense of security they may feel because their child is close to home.   Over half of the abductions that led to murder occurred within three city blocks of the child's home.  Approximately one-third occurred within one-half block.¹³

Due to their rarity, the investigation of cases where  the child has been abducted/murdered by a non-family member is extremely difficult.  In 1997 the Department of Justice and the Washington Attorney General's Office released a study on stranger abductions.¹⁴   The following suggestions for investigative techniques and strategies are based on the information in that study and are offered to assist in improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the criminal investigation and the apprehension rate in child abduction/homicide cases.¹⁵

1.  Assess the case and take all missing children reports seriously.  Speed is of the essence.   Remember the victim has a three hour life expectancy in a stranger abduction case, and that there is typically a two hour delay before the police are informed that the child is missing.  Use the child's age, zone of safety (how far form home is normal and appropriate) for his or her developmental age, circumstances surrounding the child's disappearance, and the child's history to help determine whether this is a kidnapping or runaway situation.  The following questions may help in making this assessment:

Has the child ever run away or threatened to run away from home before?

Are any of the child's clothes or favorite possessions missing?

Is money missing?

Has the child recently been depressed or withdrawn?

Have the child's grades in school recently fallen?

Are there unhappy circumstances at home?

Does the child have new friends of whom the parent(s) don't approve?

If the answers are generally negative, proceed under the assumption it is a kidnapping.

It should be stressed that while the extreme youth of a child should always act as an accelerant to action, even teenagers are kidnapped.  Age of the child is not determinant of the type of event that has occurred.

2. Interview the parent(s) or person who made the initial report. Interview the individuals who last had contact with the child.  Get a recent photo of the child, along with a physical description and a description of the clothes the child was last wearing.  Any special, identifying marks on the child and the vicinity in which the child was last seen should also be provided. 

3.  In 80% of the cases, the initial contact site is within 1/4 mile of the victim's last known location.   Conduct a thorough neighborhood and vehicle canvass and search of the area of last sighting to locate the initial contact point.¹⁶ Witness sightings, items belonging to the child or physical evidence of scuffle may point to the initial contact point.

4.  Once the initial contact point has been discerned, the search needs to be expanded to more than a 1/4 mile radius, as the likelihood is greatest that the child will be located at a distance of more than 1/4 mile from the point of initial contact.¹⁷    The kidnapper will usually want to take the child from the immediate vicinity to a more secure location.

5.  Interview everyone who was at or near the scene of initial contact.  Based on the Department of Justice study, the abductor is usually (66%) at the initial contact site for a legitimate reason.  As the abductor often lived in the area (29%), a thorough, separate interview of all those who live in the neighborhood is essential.  Merely taking one household member's work for the whereabouts of another is not acceptable.   Alternatively, the abductor may have been engaged in some normal activity immediately prior to the kidnapping and been noticed by someone in the area.  Within a week of the investigation beginning, the abductor's name is known to the police in 74% of the cases.¹⁸

6.  Enter the child's name into the NCIC Missing Person File (involuntary category) along with a detailed description of the child and relevant medical/dental information.  These records may then be used to alert authorities who find the child as to any special medical problems (e.g. diabetes) that need to be addressed immediately or to assist in identifying the child's body, if necessary.

7.  Activate established fugitive search plans (prearranged plans among participating police agencies to apprehend fleeing fugitives) if necessary.

8.  Broadcast known details on all police communication channels to local patrol units and local law enforcement agencies and use the National Law Enforcement Telecommunications System (NLETS)¹⁹ network to alert state, regional and federal law enforcement agencies.

9.  Compile a list of known sex offenders in the region.  Thirty-one per cent of the abductor/murderers had prior histories of raping children, while forty-five percent had previously committed other sexual assaults against children.²⁰

10.  Consider contacting the media, in accordance with previously established protocols.²¹  The media is five times more likely to help an investigation than to hinder it, as it improves the likelihood of obtaining witnesses.²²   The media may also assist in drawing out larger numbers of neighbors and concerned citizens to assist in the initial search.  Maintain media coverage throughout the entire case and consider a broadcast re-enactment of the events immediately before the kidnapping to solicit potential witnesses.

11.  If the investigation has become stalled, review the entire investigation.  Reinterview key individuals, those contacted during the initial neighborhood canvass, and then expand the interviews to include people who were at work in the area at the time of the kidnapping (e.g. delivery personnel, employees of gas, water, electric and cable companies, taxi drivers, post office personnel, garbage handlers).  Utilize rewards and crimestopper programs.

12.  When the child is found, arrange for a comprehensive physical examination of the victim.  If the child was sexually killed, the body (second only to the murder site) is the best source of physical evidence that can be connected with the killer.   Collection and preservation of forensic evidence from both the body and the murder site must be accomplished with the greatest of expertise.

Child abductions at the hands of a non-family member are rare, and in the overwhelming majority of cases the child is found or returned alive.  The murder of a child by a stranger is extremely rare, but protocols must be in place and ready to be activated should a stranger abduction/murder occur.  While it is important to stress the low incidence of these crimes, adults and children must continue to be aware of their existence and be educated on both the realities of all children being at risk of this crime and the circumstances and lures used in the majority of these abductions.  By becoming aware of the true dynamics of this crime, adults can teach children how to recognize the threat and, hopefully, avoid it.

¹ Finkelhor, Hotaling & Asdigan, Attempted Non-Family Abductions, Child Welfare Vol. LXXIV, #5, September-October, 1995.
² Finkelhor, Hotaling & Sedlak, National Incidence Study of Missing, Abducted, Runaway and Thrownaway Children (hereinafter NISMART), Washington, DC; Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse (1990).
³ Id.
⁴ Id.
⁵ Id.
⁶ Id.
⁷ Hanfland, Keppel & Weis, Case Management for Missing Children Homicide Investigation:  Executive Summary (hereinafter Case Management).   Olympia, Washington:  Office of the Attorney General of Washington and U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, May 1997.
⁸ Id.
⁹ Id; Finkelhor, supra note 1 (defining low risk as upper income, non-urban and coming from intact families).
¹⁰ Case Management, supra note 7.
¹¹ NISMART, supra note 2.
¹² For a list of the 16 most frequently used lures complied through interviewing convicted abductors/child molesters, see Ken Wooden, Rosemary Wooden Webb & Jennifer Wooden, Child Lures Family Guide, p.4 (1998).
¹³ Case Management, supra note 7.
¹⁴ Id.
¹⁵ For an excellent and comprehensive guide to case investigation see Missing and Abducted Children:  A Law Enforcement Guide To Cases Investigation and Program Management, (ed.) Stephen E. Steidel, (1994); Child Abduction Response Plan:  An Investigative Guide, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Critical Incident Response Group (2d ed. 1999).  See also Child Lures Family Guide, supra, at 12.
¹⁶ Case Management, supra note 7.
¹⁷ Id.
¹⁸ Id.
¹⁹ NLETS is the major teletype system used between law enforcement agencies.  It has the advantages of speed and official origin to assist in investigation coordination.
²⁰ Case Management, supra note 7.
²¹ See Missing and Abducted Children, supra for crisis media relations recommendations and suggestions.
²² Case Management, supra note 7 (citing a 31% positive effect of media assistance versus a 6% negative effect, with no effect whatsoever in 63% of all investigations).