Missing children: 20 stories of missing children

Running away, parental abduction, worrying disappearance… Each year, around 50,000 children disappear in France. In 2019, 51,287 reports of disappearances of minors have been recorded by the Ministry of the Interior in France. That is to say 1 disappearance every… 10 minutes. And some are never found. Like Mathis Jouanneau, Estelle Mouzin, Marion Wagon, Madeleine McCann also called Maddie … In the vast majority of disappearances (49,846), the disappearance is a fugue. Most of the children and adolescents are found unharmed or are coming home. But there are also worrying disappearances (918) and parental abductions (523).

A number, still poorly known, exists for families of missing children or teenagers: the 116,000. A number (managed and coordinated by Childhood Rights) European and free, available 24 hours a day, to receive calls from people affected by missing children.

The warning system

The first hours of the investigation are decisive in resolving cases of missing children. Since February 2006, a kidnapping alert system has been set up in France on the model of the Amber alert in the United States.

The messages are broadcast for 3 hours from the start of the operation by the courts, in the media, on highways, in stations and airports.

Since its inception, this alert system has made it possible to find several children.

  • On January 11, 2007, an 11-year-old boy and his 8-year-old sister were found in a Limay shopping center in Yvelines, following indications from a motorist. Their neighbor, a 27-year-old man, had abducted them.

  • On January 13, 2007, a baby kidnapped from Montfermeil hospital, in Seine-Saint-Denis, was found in a metro train in Brétigny-sur-Orge.

  • On August 15, 2007, a 5-year-old child goes missing in Roubaix. He was found the day after the alert was broadcast locked in a box.

If you notice the disappearance of your minor child (running away, kidnapping, accident, …), you must first seek it from your relatives before alerting the competent services. There are devices to help find missing children.

source site-41