Since the launch of Missing in Kansas, KAKE News has featured nearly 700 cases of people who are unaccounted for in the state. We’ve audited the stories we’ve shared and found that about 90 percent of them are cleared, with a majority of those adults and children being found safe.
The series has helped give families a voice.
“That’s why, when you talk to them it means so much because it lets them know that somebody does care, so we appreciate that everything you’re doing that your station is doing, because this is amplifying our method is finding cases — and — it’s helping families,” said Angeline Hartmann, a spokesperson with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.
In 2020, KAKE News has noticed an uptick in tips on cases in the community. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children is seeing this trend too. In 2019, people sent 16.9 million reports to its tip line, and this year, it’s believed there are more. Folks want to help, Hartmann said.
“Social media has changed everything,” Hartmann said. “Because, before you had to rely on physical posters, right? Now, right in your hands, you can see the children in your community, you can see the children, you know from far away. You can share with people you know and who you don’t know. So, it is really really a game changer for us.”
SAVING A SEX TRAFFICKING VICTIM
Earlier this year, online, a few people sent tips to KAKE News about a child, from Wichita, who was possibly being sex trafficked across the country. We were able to verify and pinpoint where that child was, contacted authorities and recover the child.
FINDING AN AT-RISK CHILD
In another instance, a family asked us to help share the story of their at-risk child who was missing from Andover. Within hours of releasing our report, the Andover Police Chief said the department had tips that broke the case.
“We received three different phone calls from three different individuals all that worked out at the airport, that told us that they had seen that person, that child earlier that day at the airport,” Chief Mike Keller said. “That was pretty much what broke it for us from there. We were able to put everything together, gather, very quickly and were able to locate the missing child within a couple hours, about four or five states away.”
Keller said he was grateful for how people were willing to share the story with others. The tips helped steer the case in a specific direction. The department was able to get other agencies involved. Everyone was a tremendous help.
“I just wish the people that called in and reported that…I just wish they could have been there at the table when we told the parents that their child was found safely and see the expression on the parents face: the happiness, the relief is something that you, you just can’t explain,” Keller said.