‘The first few hours are absolutely critical’
Police receive training that could
First of Two Parts
help prevent another Jiezhao Li
Windward schools on abduction alert
By Craig Gima
Star-BulletinIt was a crime that had parents across Hawaii hugging their children a little tighter, taking extra safety precautions, and asking what they could do to help find a little girl who just vanished. Three days before Valentine's Day in 1988, 12-year-old Jiezhao Li was kidnapped while selling benefit chili tickets in Nuuanu.
She is still missing.
Missing Persons Detective Joe Self said cases like Jiezhao Li, the unsolved abduction and murder of 8-year-old Roiti Dias in 1980 and the killing of 20-month old Sheri Lynn Funk by her father have an effect on police and the public.
"Cases like this - I have grandchildren. I have children and I think about all these cases," Self said.
Since the Jiezhao Li case, Honolulu police have changed the way they handle reports of missing children.
Procedures are now in place to start active investigations of missing children sooner, cases are now reviewed by homicide detectives, and police have a detailed plan to handle suspicious cases which includes notifying the media to ask for help with missing children.
Better training is also in place to help patrol officers and detectives know what to do in missing child cases.
That training continued at a recent session on Oahu sponsored by the attorney general's Hawaii Clearinghouse on Missing Children.
Forty-five police officers from all over the state learned about the latest techniques in locating and recovering missing children.
Those cases run the gamut from runaways to stranger abductions.
The Hawaii Clearinghouse on Missing Children estimates there are about 10,000 missing children cases every year in Hawaii.
The vast majority are runaways. Fewer than 300 involve abductions either by a parent or a stranger.
Most of those are solved.
"Having the highest and best trained officers is the best policy in handling these types of cases," said Anne Clarkin, the clearinghouse coordinator.
Clarkin said it was especially important to have neighbor island police departments attend the session, paid for through donations from the nonprofit Alger Foundation and Aloha Airlines.
"Abductions usually happen in small, rural communities," said Patty Wetterling, whose 12-year-old son, Jacob, was abducted in Minnesota. "It's usually in an unsuspecting community, not in the big city where kids are more street smart."
Big Island Police Lt. Ron Nakamichi said he was taking the information he learned at the seminar back to the Hawaii Police Department.
"We do have procedures to handle missing children cases," he said. "But they are not as detailed as what we learned at the seminar."
In the last phase of the training session, police broke up into groups and worked on various missing child scenarios.
Yvonne Bolton of the Honolulu Police Department described how her group would respond to a report of a missing 5-year-old whose father had a history of domestic problems.
Bolton went down a checklist of investigative and search procedures that included conducting and organizing a search, sealing the home and area as a potential crime scene, and checking on the whereabouts of known sex offenders.
"When a child is kidnapped, the first few hours are absolutely critical. Law enforcement needs to know what to do," Wetterling said.
"We're constantly updating," said Honolulu Police Lt. Roland Naauao. "There's a vast amount of new information. This way we don't have to do any research. They do it for us."
Naauao and Clarkin noted it was especially important for patrol officers to attend the seminar.
"Patrol officers are in the front line of abductions," Clarkin said.
Just before certificates of completion were handed out, Wetterling read a poem from a children's book, called "I'll Find You," written for the parent of a missing child.
It was an emotional moment.
Even veteran police officers had tears in their eyes as she read these words:
"If I had a little airplane, I'd fly across the sky. I'd look and look and look for you, as every day went by..."And if I had no other way, I'd walk or crawl or run. I'd search to the very ends of the Earth, for you, my precious one.
"So remember this, my darling, for it is very true. If ever you're apart from me, I'll search 'til I find you."
Tomorrow: Jiezhao's story
Abduction raises alert
Police increase patrols after a
By Jaymes Song
schoolboy, 6, is snatched
Star-BulletinPolice have increased patrols and school officials have sent out notices to all 32 Windward District schools in the wake of Tuesday's kidnapping of a 6-year-old boy from Puohala Elementary School in Kaneohe. "The school, parents and kids have to be alert all the time -- not just when this happens," said Sgt. Robert Silva of the Community Policing Team. "When things go smooth with no incidents, the school and community get lax."
During an assembly this afternoon called by Principal Ruth Silberstein, four police officers were to warn Puohala's 487 students about strangers.
On Tuesday, a man in a black truck or sports utility-type vehicle picked up the first-grader after school about 2 p.m., but dropped him off unharmed near Windward Mall area, police said.
"The student is very fortunate," Silva said. "I don't know why (the suspect) let him go. It's always going to be a question."
Silberstein sent a notice to all parents of Puohala School, and to all the 32 Windward District schools.
"Our main thing is to get the word out to parents to be aware that he is out there," said Puohala counselor Julie Park.
"The students and parents have remained calm and have become more cautious."
Silva said one of the best prevention tools he used with his four children was a secret password.
"It starts at home," he said. "Parents must constantly remind their kids. You can't tell a kid today and expect him to remember three months from now."
The suspect was described as Caucasian, 5-foot-8, 200 pounds.
He had wavy black hair and a beard, a dragon tattoo on his right arm, and wore a blue tank top and black pants.
