If 800,000 kids disappear every year, and 8,000 to 10,000 of those are never found, then why do only 4 or 5 cases each year make the national news (and why do 99% of those seem to be 5 year old white girls)?

I personally think Caylee Anthony made the news headlines because she has a hot mom. That’s the only reason I’m able to come up with.

@TenaciousDenny yeah, she’s kinda hot, but she’s also nuttier than fruitcake.

what i think is that some kids are more “cute” in the advertising/marketing sense, and get more attention. I think that Caylee looked a lot like the little scottish girl who was abducted/disappear a ways back. Coincidence?

Also, some people don’t have the means/resources to mount huge efforts and what have you. they simply hope and pray the child returns/is returned.

@eponymoushipster Yeah, the whole (allegedly) “murdered her child and then told extensive lies to cover it up” thing definitely knocks her down a few notches on the potential mate scale.

The 800,000 statistic is probably mostly in-family abductions. One parent gets custody, the other snarfs the kid. If you look at the ‘Missing Persons’ on milk cartons and Walmart bulletin boards, a majority say, “Last seen in the presence of <somebody with the same last name>.” Those don’t generally make the news.

Because the news is all about ratings, and a pretty young female child who disappears under mysterious circumstances is far more alluring and thus far more likely to get ratings than an inner-city kid of either gender who probably ran away from a miserable home and will wind up a street kid.

800,000 in-family abductions—maybe.

8–10 thousand never found? I don’t think so. Unless the vast majority of them are also in-family abductions. If this were the case, seems to me the FBI wouldn’t have time for homeland security.

Is this only in America, or is it in the whole world?

@TenaciousDenny just a few.

@daloon My guess is that a large number of the 8–10 thousand are also domestic. Never found? Or never pursued?

I have often wondered the same thing. I was in Birmingham when Natalie Holloway went missing and the local news was doing a segment on a couple of other little girls that had disappeared and one of the girls mother was asking why her child wasn’t on CNN. I do think those numbers are for the entire world or maybe runaways as well.

@Grisson yeah, see – that’s what i think. Mom knows Dad took the kid to live somewhere else.

Probably a large number of these are runaways as well (in addition to the domestic abductions). That many are never found is depressing, but I just don’t know how many are true abductions-murders and how many are kids who runaway and are never “found” because they don’t want to be found.

That said, I agree with you that the news cycle is dominated by these things. Almost on cue, we need a titillating story from cable news to drive up ratings and distract us. I wonder if someone could research what is the “frequency” of the celebrity murder-child disappearance. My rough estimate would be a new case/month.

The stats I read on the website for the center for missing and exploited children were that 800k kids were reported missing, of those 150k were considered to be either in danger or taken involuntarily. The 8 to 10k figures is kids that were not found even after an exhasustive search…don’t think it means they were NEVER found (or their remains weren’t), just that there are at least 8,000 cases a year where kids go missing and it really is something that in my opinion would be newsworthy, regardless of what the ultimate outcome is…essentially the same as what we DO see on TV is my point. And that is an “in the US” statistic as far as I can tell.

The Caylee Anthony case had all the details that would drive the news and press. Mom doesn’t report it right away, mom is young and good looking – and seems to be crazy, to say the least. All the right things for the news and yes, probably a very bad TV Movie.

I don’t doubt that many children are not found and I think, like shilolo mentions, I’m sure it has a fair amount of runaways involved in that number.

Check This Out.

This is akin to a question I always asked myself: Why didn’t America care when non-white kids were killing each other in schools?

I’m glad the Anthony case won’t come to trial for at least another year so Nancy Grace will have her job for at least that long. Come on, Nancy, there are other cases out there of kids who need the media attention.

@chyna Nancy Grace makes me want to punch my television.

Excellent question.

Money!
It’s all down to the depth of the parents pockets!

Actually, we get called in by law enforcement on cold case searches for kids of all ages, genders, and races. There are times that not publicizing a case makes the search process easier, warrants come as a surprise, people get lax over time with keeping their mouths shut, etc.

I can agree with the above about what makes “news” but don’t think that the search is over or that law enforcement has given up.