Brooklyn case has bumped awareness of missing youth

BY CHUCK VANDENBERG

PCC EDITOR

LEE COUNTY - A Brooklyn, Iowa girl who's been missing for about two weeks, along with several other missing teens in the state has created a hyper awareness locally about the safety of juveniles in Iowa.

Lee County Sheriff Stacy Weber said the actual numbers of missing juveniles in the state is on par with previous years and the Iowa Department of Criminal Investigation is backing that claim up. But the disappearance of Mollie Tibbits in Brooklyn, near Iowa City, has everyone on high alert.

The DCI released a statement on Friday about the number of missing juveniles in the state.

"In light of the missing person investigation of Mollie Tibbits, concerns have come to light about the number of juveniles reported missing in Iowa in recent weeks. In FY 2017 4,311 juveniles were reported missing to The Missing Person Information Clearinghouse. This is an average of approximately 12 juveniles a day. The vast majority of which are found or returned home within 24 hours. Typically these cases are runaway situations. The number of missing juveniles reported in recent weeks is in line with historical numbers."

Weber said the county regularly gets calls about missing girls and typically they are runaway situations.

"There's always runaways in our county. The question now is the awareness," Weber said. "Something tragic as this girl coming up missing in Brooklyn, and now everyone is paying more attention."

Weber said missing children is nothing to take lightly and the sheriff's department is available for anyone with any concerns about the whereabouts or welfare of any child or anyone possibly suffering from mental health issues.

He said there is a human trafficking problem in the United States and parts of the state close to Interstate 80 are extra susceptible.

"I don't think there's an unusually high number right now. Kids go missing all the time," Weber said.

"The problem is with the influx of trafficking. We talk about porous borders, but that works both ways. It's very easy to come across into the United States, but it's also easy to go out into Mexico and Canada. They take 'em and get 'em hooked on drugs then sell them. Do I think that's what's happening here in southeast Iowa? No. Do I think that's what's happened in Brooklyn, Iowa? I think that's not going to end well."

Weber said people need to go about life, but just be aware of their surroundings and if something doesn't look right, call the authorities. He said parents should be talking to their children about how to be safe when away from home.

"Be hanging out with your buddies and don't leave each other. If you use the restroom, go in groups. If you go anywhere or go out into a parking lot, don't go by yourself, go in groups. Stick together and be aware of your surroundings," Weber said.

"If something feels wrong, call the authorities. They can always sort it out and apologize to people later if they have to. I'd rather they do that and maybe help identify somebody doing something they shouldn't be."

Weber also said the presence of the FBI in the cases in the middle part of the state is a telling story.

"There's been several of those missing up in the middle of the state and then I see the FBI gets involved and there's either one of two reasons for that. 'A' - they were asked to participate, or 'B' - there's more to the story that we don't know about and they came down and got involved."

Detective Clint Wray, with the sheriff's department, said he, too, thinks the numbers are common for this time of year and most of the calls are from runaways that end up being found.

"I've seen a lot popping up," he said. "I think there's a good chance those numbers are skewed a little bit with reported runaways, but I haven't confirmed anything yet. I know there are lots of teenagers in those numbers and I'm going to assume that we have a lot of runaways. But that case in Brooklyn is a very, very, sad, bad deal. That's up by I-80 and we do have a human trafficking problem in the United States and Iowa with I-80 running through."

Wray said the recent heightened awareness through social media makes it a good time for parents to talk with their children about expectations and plans.

"If anything good can come out of it, it's that it's time for everyone to talk to their kids. And if you've got younger teenage kids, it's time to put an app on their phone and monitor where they are at."

Wray said he uses an app called Family Link and it allows him to monitor the activity and location of his children with phones. He said he can pull up the link, see where the child is, what activity have they been engaging in on social media and also allows him to lock up access to part of the phones.

He said there are other effective apps out there as well that provide location and activity services.

"I want everyone to be aware of what's going on, but I don't want them pushing misinformation out there and everyone getting startled," Wray said. "It's always good for people to talk with kids about being safe.Report things that appear suspicious. Have a game plan with your kids. Talk to them about what they need to do. Fight or flight or freeze. I prefer that if something looks suspicious close to them, they just go the other way."

He said he always recommends that kids move around with friends and be aware of surroundings.

"I don't think it's time for everybody to go into full panic mode. Just talk with your families, have good communication in place and be aware," Wray said.