Strollerderby : abduction

Son of America's Most Wanted Creator, Adam Walsh, Murder Solved

JeanneSager — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 21:55:00 GMT

Before there was Caylee, there was Adam. The six-year-old boy who went missing and was later found dead spurred his distraught father, John Walsh, to create America's Most Wanted, the TV program that's been credited with getting more than one thousand dangerous fugitives off the street.

Now, twenty-seven years after Adam Walsh went missing, Florida police have announced the man responsible for killing the little boy - responsible for setting a father on a lifelong mission to rid the world of bad guys, has been positively identified. He's been dead for more than a decade.

Ottis Toole is the man John Walsh has long thought killed his little boy. Toole twice confessed to grabbing the boy in a Hollywood, Fla. mall and later dropping his head in the water - to be discovered in a canal one hundred twenty miles from where he first went missing some two weeks after his disappearance. Toole later recanted each confession, and the Walshes have long criticized police for botching the investigation.

Today, Hollywood Florida Police Chief Chadwick Wagner said it's his department's "determination and conclusion that Ottis Toole was the abductor and murderer of Adam Walsh."

If the missing Lindbergh baby was the child kidnapping that changed the way parents looked at strangers, the Adam Walsh disappearance was the one that made parents take action. It forced them to not only be more cautious, but to stand up for child security measures in schools and daycare centers, to expect others to take better care of their children.

On the Website for his TV show, John Walsh and wife Reve said today that they can finally move forward, at least knowing who killed their little boy.

"We, along with our children, Meghan, Callahan and Hayden, pray for the thousands of parents of murdered and still-missing children. We continue to fight for their safety, and to make sure that no child -- especially Adam -- died in vain."

Do you think the Adam Walsh case changed America?

Image: NBC

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Do Safety Gadgets Make For Safer Kids or Crazier Parents?

Kate Tuttle — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 18:30:00 GMT

Quick, what's more likely: getting hit by lightning or having a child fall victim to stranger abduction? If you think it's the stranger danger, chances are you've been watching too much local news and seen too many Amber alerts (it's not even close: while about 100 children are kidnapped each year by non-family members, around 1300 people are struck by lightning). Today's parents, according to an article in the Washington Times, are not only more aware of potential dangers than our parents were, we've gone off the deep end, worrying about our kids far out of proportion to the actual threats they face.

And what are the biggest culprits? Besides the popular media, blame gadgetry. From GPS devices to track down "lost" kids (what could be more fun than to run away and hide from mom and dad, especially if they've already got you in a house-arrest ankle bracelet?) to nanny cams to kneepads for crawling babies, an avalanche of safety-themed merchandise is throwing itself at parents who see their main job as just keeping little Aiden, Jayden and Hayden alive. But what's their impact on actual parenting? Do worried moms and dads instill their babies with love, or fear?

Some experts worry that fear itself is driving a smothering, restrictive parenting style that leaves kids essentially unprepared for independent adulthood. It's not as if we can turn back the clock and let our kids spend hours of each day playing without adult supervision -- if only because it would be nearly impossible to find other kids for them to play with -- and nobody would suggest ditching truly useful safety devices like carseats and sunscreen (though, yes, many of us grew up just fine without them). But relaxing a bit, letting kids grow and learn and even make mistakes without the constant presence of a hovering parent will stand them in good stead.

The article quotes Paul J. Donaghue, a psychologist who has written about parenting and fear, who says a parent's job is "not just about keeping kids safe. If they are safe but you are anxious, it is not helping them in the long run. If they are safe and independent, you are giving them tools for their whole life. They have to practice being independent, and parents have to practice managing their own anxiety."

http://www.babble.com/CS/blogs/strollerderby/archive/2008/11/12/they-say-text-messaging-can-fight-childhood-obesity.aspx

Photo: Getty Images

Kidnap dad caught

Brett Singer — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 16:20:00 GMT

Clark Rockefeller, the divorced father who kidnapped his 7-year-old daughter during a scheduled parental visit, was in a Baltimore courtroom this morning. Curious about what he was wearing? Me neither, but the Boston Herald tell us that he was "shackled at the legs and wearing a Lacoste shirt, khaki pants and loafers," which the reporter describes as "preppy."

What's unclear at the moment is just who this guy is. Baltimore prosecuting attorney Patricia Deros told the press that Rockefeller "looks like Woody Allen" (objection, counselor – relevance?), and also that they don't have a name for him other than Clark Rockefeller. Apparently he's quite wealthy, and has been described as a "fake Rockefeller," or, as the Daily News put it, Crockefeller. (Which really should be somebody's rap name, but that's a different topic.) I'm not clear on how it is that he's not a real Rockefeller but just uses the name, or if he's an unrelated Rockefeller (which, in my opinion, would sort of suck because then everyone would always expect you to pick up the tab, even though you're not really that rich.) The Boston Herald says that the allegedly kidnapping pop has "no passport or driver’s license and police have struggled to piece together his life prior to the early 1990s, before he married Boss." What I find odd is that the ex-wife hasn't provided police with more information, although of course it's possible that she did and we haven't heard about.

If you missed it, the basic details of the case appear to be that Clark Rockefeller was married to a woman named Sandra Boss, with whom he fathered a daughter named Reigh, although they called her "Snooks." They got divorced, Boss won full custody and moved to London. On a scheduled – and supervised – visit to Boston, the father jumped into a moving SUV with Red Sox stickers on the back (no comment). The social worker that was supervising the visit hung onto the vehicle as it pulled away. The drivers of the SUV were duped into helping him (I would say that this must have been easy because they were Red Sox fans, but that's going too far). In one of those details that you file under "if you wrote this in a script no one would believe it", he had purchased a house on Ploy Street in preparation for living under the name Chip Smith.

Anyway, he's been caught, and as far as I can tell the little girl is OK. If you want a timeline of articles about this case, click here. It's a weird story, and at least he's in custody.

image: NY Daily News

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Should We Let Our Kids Be "Free Range"?

Kelly Mills — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 13:32:00 GMT

You might recall the controversy that got kicked up by a New York Sun reporter's account of allowing her nine-year-old to ride the subway alone. She was both pilloried by people who compared her behavior to child abuse, and praised by people who want more freedom for their kids. In response to the whole thing, she started a blog called "Free Range Kids," to promote the idea that kids need the same independence and freedom previous generations enjoyed.

While this gets hyped as a battle between helicoptor parents and free range parents, it is true that many kids are not allowed to do the same things their parents did at the same age, like walk or bike to school or go to the park without an adult. And as the free range advocates point out, a good deal of this may just be due to the increased media attention on abductions and crime, while crime has actually dropped in most instances. I tend to fall more on the free range side, though putting theory into practice is always a different matter when my six-year-old is involved. What do you think: Are we basically stalking our kids out of their independence? Or are the risks of allowing solo activities not worth it?

Probe Uncovers Bad Behavior at Bootcamps for Kids

Kelly Mills — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 22:37:00 GMT

A federal probe has evidence of shady marketing practices at "bootcamps" for kids, also known as residential treatment facilities or behavior modification centers. These places, in case you don't know, claim they can "rehabilitate" children and teens with serious behavior problems such as violence, defiance, and drug abuse. Since no kid in his or her right mind would willingly check into one of these joints, some centers "abduct" the kids with the parents' permission. Oh, and the federal investigation began with thousands of allegations of abuse, sometimes resulting in death.

What did the probe find? The Government Accountability Office investigators, posing as parents, contacted some of these bootcamps. They found instances of deceptive marketing, including one program rep who urged the fictitious father not to tell his wife he'd be admitting their child to the program, and another facility that claimed the family could receive insurance reimbursement following treatment, but that they should not contact their insurance company in advance. Ick. This is on top of the verified claims of abuse, and the investigators plan to detail eight individual cases in which children were abused and in some cases, died, with untrained staff and horrific operating practices at a minimum contributing to the deaths and abuse. In addition, folks who went through these centers will testify. Hmm, maybe we could get these bootcamp-based treatment centers (or at minimum their abusive practices) banned?

Your Worst Maternity Ward Nightmare

Jen Chaney — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 21:30:00 GMT

We've all had this thought after delivering a baby. In that post-C-section haze, as we hand our wee one off to a nurse so he can get weighed, we fleetingly wonder: Could someone kidnap my child during these few minutes he is out of my sight? And then we think, nah.

But apparently that's exactly what happened yesterday in Sanford, Fla. The good news is that the infant was found fairly quickly and has since been reunited with the parents. Weirdly, this occurred just two days after a 10-year-old in Kansas City met the FBI agents who rescued her when she was abducted 10 years ago from a Kansas hospital.

In the Florida case, 39-year-old Jennifer Latham reportedly changed into hospital scrubs, posed as an employee and placed the child in a large blue tote bag, then slipped by hospital security and left the grounds. Police tracked her down about 90 minutes later and found the newborn unharmed. Officials say the woman was not related to the child or the parents, and that this appears to have been a random abduction attempt.

I believe these abductions are rare, but that doesn't mean news of this latest incident won't make everyone even more paranoid about parting with their kids during hospital stays. I predict that fewer women will want to deliver at Central Florida Regional Hospital, where the Sanford kidnapping occurred, because they'll hear this story and get freaked. I also predict that moms-to-be at other hospitals across America will start asking plenty of detailed questions about the security at those institutions. Which isn't such a bad thing. It's unlikely someone will walk off with your newborn while she's in the hospital nursery. But as the daily news invariably proves, anything is possible.

Photo: Local6.com