An under utilized resource?

Earlier this year, a new tool was launched in the campaign to find missing children on YouTube. These are some of the statistics from the site.

Dont You Forget About Me
Joined: May 29, 2006
Last Login: 2 weeks ago
Videos Watched: 418
Subscribers: 1,657
Channel Views: 691,241

The International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC), in collaboration with the Find Madeleine Campaign and with the generous support of YouTube, has created this channel to help reunite missing children with their families.

It is interesting that there are only 45 video’s of missing children and PSA’s yet there are 2,457 reported missing children listed at the ICMEC.

Requirements for Videos of Missing Children

Is the site aiding in the recovery of missing children? As of January 15^th 2008

Videos Watched: 420
Subscribers: 1,716
Channel Views: 722,844

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Possible sighting?

In a story which may help keep hope alive for parents of missing children, a 3-year-old child, Jewel Strong,  believed to have drowned may not have. She was in a raft with a teenage relative at Jetty Beach in Panama City Beach on May 28, 2006 when she allegedly drowned after it capsized.

Several videos, according to her parents, contradict those findings.

You can read more about her at the website set up by her parents “Let’s find Jewel Strong“. It would be interesting in either sighting if any purchases were made with a credit card possibly providing the indentity of the woman or if she was in Panama City at the time of the girls disappearance.

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YouTube and RFU

Since debuting earlier this month, “YouTube channel, “Don’t you forget about me” has received over 245,000 channel views. There are now 39 videos listed on their site. Most are pleas for missing Madeleine McCann. The average video is less then a minute. Click on link to view at YouTube.

 

Laura Bush (English)

 

David Beckham (English)

Niall Quinn

 

In addition to the videos listed above, several members of the English Rugby team have made pleas for Madeleine safe return.

Martin Corry

Andrew Gomarsall (English)

Lewis Moody (English)

Shaun Perry (English)

Phil Vickery (English)

Jonny Wilkinson (English)

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YouTube and missing children

A new tool is being used in the campaign to find missing children on YouTube. There have been individual videos posted previously but this appears to be an attempt to locate them on one channel devoid of the clutter from unrelated videos.

The International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC), in collaboration with the Find Madeleine Campaign and with the generous support of YouTube, has created this channel to help reunite missing children with their families.

The most viewed video is Madeleine McCann’s Don’t You Forget About Me

There is a video of  Morgan Nick . The State of Arkansas has “The Morgan Nick Amber Alert System which is named for 6-year-old Morgan Nick who was abducted from a little league ball game by an unidentified man at 10:45 p.m. on June 9, 1995 in Alma, Arkansas.

Morgan Nick Foundation

There have been numerous possible sightings of Morgan across the United States. Morgan’s parents believe that Morgan is still alive and hope that with continued media coverage, someone will be able to provide them with information that could bring their daughter home.

Help Find Morgan Nick

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Missing Swiss girl

Is speculation in a possible link to the case of missing Madeleine McCann the main reason why this child’s disappearance is now receiving coverage? She is listed at F.R.E.D.I. but is not listed at the ICMEC or NCMEC. 

 DNA analysis has confirmed that Urs Hans von Aesch, the Swiss man found dead from an apparent suicide in the woods near Saint-Gall, was in physical contact with the 5 ½ year-old girl who disappeared on July 31. DNA tests also confirm that Ylenia had been inside the van with Spanish license plates that belonged to the man.

Tribune de Geneve

Ylenia Lenhard, 5 ½ years-old, was last seen at 9:30 a.m. on July 31 in front of the village swimming pool. Police and firemen began scouring the area, questioning residents and searching the nearby river Sitter.

Tribune de Geneve

According to police statistics 1,593 children were reported missing in Switzerland in 2006 and 1,109 in 2005.

Update 09-14-07

ZURICH (Reuters) – A five-year-old Swiss girl who went missing some six weeks ago was found dead on Saturday, Swiss police said.

The body of a child, found by a man in a forest close to the Swiss town of Oberbueren, was identified as Ylenia Lenhard, police in the canton of St. Gallen said in a statement.

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