Rutledge reminds of missing persons never forgotten includes local residents

Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge this week hosted the sixth annual Never Forgotten – Arkansas Takes Action event at the Benton Event Center. The daylong event helps raise awareness of issues surrounding missing persons and recognizes Arkansas’s missing children and adults.Of those missing, several are from the Twin Lakes Area including Liping Geng Allen, Austin Vandyken and Kay Ilene Collins, all of Mountain Home, Linda Brewer of Mountain View, Jonathan Christopher Cooper and Janice K Potts of Harrison, and Clarence W. Eaton of Yellville. Also listed as missing from Yellville are Allison M. Robinette and Tyler Triggs; and Thomas Michael Rettew is missing from Salem.

Rutledge says time wont heal the hurt and uncertainty families feel every hour of every day but it’s her mission each year that these families walk away from the Never Forgotten event with a sense of support from the state and members of law enforcement who have not and will not ever forget their loved one.

Wayne Ruthven, a consultant with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), provided law enforcement officers with an update on a program being created to coordinate efforts to assist children who become separated from their families as a result of a disaster. The Attorney General’s office and several other Arkansas agencies meet monthly to develop an action plan, coordinated by the Arkansas Department of Human Services, as part of a pilot program.

Officers also heard from Gay Smither, president of the Laura Recovery Center. Smither’s 12-year-old daughter, Laura, went missing during a jog in Friendswood, Texas, on April 3, 1997. Her body was located 17 days later. Laura’s death led to the creation of the Laura Recovery Center, an organization that helps families and law enforcement agencies on missing child cases. The center has assisted with more than 1,700 cases and participated in more than 100 active searches. William Reece was indicted September 1st, 2016, in the deaths of Laura and 17-year-old Jessica Cain, who disappeared August 17, 1997.

The officer training session concluded with a presentation from Lori Mcllwain, co-founder of the National Autism Association. Mcllwain discussed autism, including a brief overview of Autism Spectrum Disorder, wandering and its unique dangers. Best practices for prevention and response to reduce risk were also discussed, along with findings and insights from six years of autism and wandering data.

At the same time as the law enforcement session, a panel discussion was held for the families of missing persons on available resources to assist them with locating their loved one. Participating agencies included Arkansas State Police, Arkansas State Crime Lab, Arkansas Crime Information Center, FBI, National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the National Missing and Unidentified Missing Persons System.

Last year, Rutledge was part of a collaborative effort to launch a new website, https://www.neverforgotten.ar.gov/which enables the public to access information on missing persons cases with an easy-to-use searchable database.

The Attorney Generals office http://arkansasag.gov/ serves as an information clearinghouse for reports on Arkansas’s missing children and acts as the main point of contact for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

To reach the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children CyberTipline, call (800) THE-LOST (843-5678).

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