Mother finds missing children on Facebook

Unshackled Thoughts and Musings

Lately I've been having this overwhelming urge to write. Poetry? Prose? I don't know... Content? Fiction? Non-fiction? I'm not really sure... I do sit in front of my laptop for hours on end just strumming my fingers lightly over the keyboard. I do that sometimes, when I don't know what to write, yet the muse is shackled ever so slightly on my left shoulder. Never the right shoulder. I'm sure if she tries hard enough she could break free, but noooo.. She just sits there, quite happily restrained. Laughing. Then when the tapping of keyboard starts to bore me, I'd play around with a few sentences. Deleting them and start again. And so goes the process till I just close the document without saving. I like to write; I like to ramble about what ever tickles my fancy. Or scratches it, for that matter... Truth be told. I don't write hardly enough. So, pardon my ramblings, give me some space to clear the cobwebs out.

Mother finds missing children on Facebook

Posted by: ShackledMuse on Jun 08, 2010

Tagged in: Twitter , Social Networking , social media , missing persons , kidnapping , Facebook

Amidst all hype about safety and privacy control and the social networking sites we use, one good story emerged. Not necessarily a story with a fairy tale ending, but a good ending nonetheless.

We know that there's a smorgasbord of sites and applications available for our every social whim. Whether we use Mxit to chat, or Facebook to keep in touch with the friends or family, Twitter or StumbleUpon to promote ourselves, or Livejournal and Blogger to share our thoughts, there's something for every one and every thing.

Who knew that we could use social networking to track down missing people? Granted, your average kidnapped person isn't gonna post that on Facebook or Twitter. (Although, if I'm ever a situation like that and I have my phone hidden on my person, I might post a status about, right after dialing 121 or 10111. lol)

An article on KCCI proves that social networking applications could be used, not only to track people down with whom we lost contact, about even people who went missing years ago.

In 1995, a Mother in California lost her 2- and 3 year old toddlers when her ex husband kidnapped them. In March this year, she searched for the names of her children on Facebook, and found her daughters profile. However when the mother made contact with her daughter, for the first time in 15 years, the daughter said that they have a happy life and the mother should leave them alone.

The mother went to the Florida authorities, who were investigating the case I presume and the husband was arrested and charged with accounts for kidnapping and violating child custody orders; the mother was given custody of the teens.

Carrie Hoeppner, of DCF, said that's where things get complicated.

"There is no relationship there," Hoeppner said. "You don't have that immediate joyful reunification. If in fact that is what will progress, it will take time. These children will have to build a relationship, and that is something that will not happen overnight."

kcci.com