LATHAM, N.Y. (NEWS10) – Dozens of missing children and teens have been found thanks to the Capital Region’s first ever missing child rescue operation. The three-day investigation wrapped up on Thursday, but officials said this is just the beginning.
At a hotel in Latham, federal, state and local law enforcement officials set up a command center where they’re facilitating the Capital Region’s first missing child rescue operation.
Cindy Neff is the manager of the New York State Missing Persons Clearinghouse.
“Out of my 20 year career at the Missing Persons Clearinghouse, this has been the most significant and meaningful event that we’ve ever done,” said Neff.
So far 63 children and teens have been rescued – 47 from Albany, 11 from Troy, five from Schenectady. As well as one missing vulnerable adult from Colonie. And they expect to rescue more.
“The age when they went missing ranged from two years old to 17. And their current age now that they were located was six years old to a 21 year old,” said Neff.
Officials from the New York State’s Division of Criminal Justice Service and the Office of Children and Family Services were joined by police chiefs and the CEO of the National Child Protection Task Force Kevin Branzetti.
He said many of the cases were a nontraditional form of human trafficking.
“It becomes a romance, human trafficking. Where the guy will find the vulnerable girl, show love to her, show affection, and then convince her to do this for him and that’s how she becomes trafficked. That we see a whole lot more,” said Branzetti.
The investigations are ongoing. No arrests have been made. They anticipate arrests will follow.
Albany Police Chief Brendan Cox said many of the children were runaways from group homes.
“We have a number of group homes where we have vulnerable children that are already placed there, that have already been traumatized, that are trying to be worked with by those agencies, that wind up eloping and wind up on the streets, and they wind up victimized, sometimes their victimized in the city of Albany, sometimes a victimized as far away as Florida and Buffalo,” said Cox.
“So we’ve worked with our partners to say, ‘OK when we locate this child what are we going to do to ensure that they don’t just wind up, going back to the facility and taking off again and wind up in a very vulnerable situation?’” said Cox.
They called it a unique collaboration between federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, nonprofits and businesses.
“When their kids go missing, they’re waiting to hear from us. and as you heard from the date ranges sometimes it takes a long time for them to hear that their child is safe and that’s scary for them so their kids matter to us,” said Cox.
“The numbers today are spectacular. We love them and we want to help every one of them, but the concern is what happens next week. The infrastructure is better for next week. It’s better for that family next month. It’s better for those kids later on. That’s what the chiefs and the state are leaving and putting together a legacy to make sure this continues,” said Branzetti.
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