November 29, 2023 • 45 mins
During a shopping trip to the Hollywood Mall in Florida on July 27, 1981, 6-year-old Adam Walsh's mother, Revé Walsh, left him at a kiosk with other boys playing Atari games, while she did some quick shopping.
When she returned, Adam and the other children had disappeared. Investigators later found the boy murdered, prompting his father, Jphn Walsh, to go on to become one of the nation's biggest advocates for catching criminals.
In this episode of Zone 7, Crime Scene Investigator, Sheryl McCollum, talks with Callahan Walsh about his work at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).
They discuss several high-profile missing and exploited children cases, including Adam Walsh, Amber Hagerman, and the Delphi murders. Callahan also talks about prevention tips for parents, the NCMEC's services, and how to stay safe online.
Show Notes:
- [0:00] Welcome back to Zone 7 with Crime Scene Investigator, Sheryl McCollum.
- [3:10] Sheryl introduces guest, Callahan Walsh to the listeners
- [6:00] Callahan shares a brief background of how he got to be a part of NCMEC
- [7:00] National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
- [10:00] Educating the public on how to help find missing children
- [15:30] “32 million reports of suspected child sexual exploitation online came into the National Center through our cyber tip line in 2022 alone.”
- [16:30] Question: Adam's case changed the way not only law enforcement but the way the public looks and investigates and deals with missing children's cases. Can you tell us how?
- [17:20] Operation Cross Country
- [18:25] Team Adam
- [20:40] The Delphi Murders: The Quest for Justice with Barbara MacDonald
- [25:00] Preventions and safety tips for parents
- [25:40] KidSmartz
- [29:00] Predators collaborating online during pandemic
- [31:55] Sextortion
- [35:10] Facial Reconstruction Demonstration
- [43:25] Public donations allow NCMEC to continue work. If you would like to help DONATE HERE
- [45:06] “Not knowing where your child is at bedtime is a pretty hard thing to accept.” -R.W
- Thanks for listening to another episode! If you’re loving the show and want to help grow the show, please head over to Itunes and leave a rating and review! How to Leave an Apple Podcast Review: First, Open the podcast app on your iPhone, Mac, or iPad. Then, hit the “Search” tab at the bottom right-hand corner of the page and search for Zone 7. Select the podcast, scroll down to find the subheading “Ratings & Reviews”. and select “Write a Review.” Next, select the number of stars you’d like to leave. Please choose 5 stars! Using the text box which says “Title,” write a title for your review. Then in the text box, write the review itself. The review can be up to 300 words long, but doesn’t need to be much more than: “Love the show! Thanks!” or Once you’re done select “Send” in the upper right-hand corner.
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Sheryl “Mac” McCollum is an Emmy Award winning CS
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Children know. They may not have all the information, they
may not know exactly the details or exactly what the
adults are upset about, but they know something drawn and
they normally know more than the adults think that they do.
And this was absolutely the case. In nineteen seventy two,
(00:29):
my sister Shelley and I were extremely aware that our
mother was really upset about something that had occurred north
of Atlanta. A little girl had been abducted and they
could not find her, and it went on for over
a week, and then they found her murdered, and my
mother was just not okay with it. It was after
(00:51):
Christmas time, everybody was back in school, and this little
girl had been so brutally harmed. Nobody knew who the
killer was, and the witness has said he was in
a truck, and our mom thought he could be anywhere.
He could be down here, he could be in South Georgia,
he could be in West Georgia. So she made us
aware that we needed to be more careful and she
(01:14):
didn't want us going too far from the house. But
the reality is didn't matter if you were in your
own front yard. Sometimes children are taken from their own
front yard. July twenty seventh, nineteen eighty one. Adam was
just six years old when he was abducted from the
Seers department store. His mom was just in the next aisle.
(01:38):
She did what every mom does at some point. You
stay right here with the older kids and look at
this video game. I'll be right back. It wasn't even
ten minutes and when she came back, the older boys
and Adam were gone. Now unbeknownst to her, she didn't
know that a security guard came over and said, hey,
y'all are being a little rambunctious. Y'all need to go.
(02:00):
So the older boys just started leaving the store. Well,
Adam followed him. He thought that's what he was supposed
to do. His mom immediately started to search for him,
immediately started to panic, looked all over the store, surrounding area,
and then the police were involved. August the tenth, nineteen
eighty one, only Adam's head was found by fishermen one
(02:24):
hundred miles away in Vero Beach, Florida. Adam's father, John Walsh,
he started America's Most Wanted. He and his wife threw
everything they had into We are going to help every
child that we can, whether it's subduction, missing, runaway, or
(02:44):
missing and then found murdered. They were relentless in their
advocacy for every child. But that is not where the
family business stops. And tonight we are, I think, in
the presence of somebody that has done something so extraordinary
that he has decided that he is going to take
(03:06):
up and dedicate his life to also helping children for
a brother he never had the chance to meet. And
it is a great honor for me to introduce y'all
to Callahan Walsh. Callahan, thank you so much for being
a part of his own.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Seven Cheryl, thank you for having me. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
And you know, every single time I've ever talked to
you and I've said things like, you know, it's just
amazing what you do. It is incredible what your parents
have done, you always say basically the same sentiment and
you say, that's nice of you to say, or thank
you so much. But the reality is you could have
gone on and done a lot of things. You could
(03:49):
have distanced yourself from sadness and horrific events and children
being murdered, but you, like your parents, decided, you know what,
Adam's death is not going to be in vain. I
heard your mama say that over and over and over
in different interviews, and I think that is so powerful,
(04:10):
when anybody can turn their grief into something so extraordinary.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
That's how I grew up, you know. I watched my
parents channel their emotions and their anger and their energy
over what happened to Adam to make sure that Adam
didn't die in vain. You know, we celebrated this little
boy's life. As you mentioned, I never met Adam. Adam
was kidnapped before I was born, but I knew everything
(04:37):
about that little boy. We celebrated his birthdays. I knew
his favorite sports and movies, Baseball and Star Wars, you know.
And they said, you know, if Adam's song is to continue,
then we must do the singing. And we try to
do that every single day, whether it's at the National
Center for Missing Exploited Children, bringing home finding missing kids,
(05:01):
to fighting against exploitation, to you know, my father hosting
Americs Most Wanted and now me co hosting his show
in Pursuit and finding, you know, still finding fugitives, profiling
these wanted bad guys and hopes to get the tips
that bring them to justice. You know, we know there
are so many families out there that are seeking justice,
(05:22):
and whether it's finding their missing child or child that's
been exploited, to the cases that we do on the
show of murders and serial rapists, and you know, the
worst of the worst that we profile on on In Pursuit.
I'm honored, honestly to follow in their footsteps. It's a
pursuit that, you know. I always imagined one day I
(05:44):
would eventually be working at the National Center for Missing
Exploited Children. I just didn't know when. I didn't know
it would be so early in my professional career, but
I worked on Americs Most Wanted. I was a producer
for the show. When the show was ultimately canceled on
Fox after twenty five years, I worked in development and
(06:05):
creating a new show for my father, The Hunt, that
went to CNN, and that's when I made my break
over the National Center and I've been working there ever
since now, of course, also joining my father on his
new show again in Pursuit on Investigation Discovery. But I
know I have the biggest shoes to fill with my
father and my mother. But I'm just honored to be
(06:26):
able to continue Adam's legacy and continue what they started.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
And see, that's what I love about what you're doing,
because you're carving your own way. I mean, they forged
a path, there's no question about it. But they forged
a path for a lot of people, not just you.
There's a lot of people doing incredible work because of
the groundwork they laid. But you, you're doing things your
parents never did.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
And we couldn't do it without the other child advocates
that joined the fight. I mean when we started the
National Center for Missing Exploited Children originally was the Adam
Walsh Resource Center, that's what it was called. And my
mother had the idea to create a place at some
place that parents could go to when they're looking for
(07:12):
their missing child because they realized that there was no
support when they were looking for Adam. Local law enforcement,
of course they wanted to help, they didn't know how,
and there was no response from any federal or state
body to come in and help save the day. They
realized that there was really no organization out there. And
(07:32):
in the wake of Adam's disappearance, the Hollywood Post Office
this is Hollywood, Florida, estimates that they delivered over forty
thousand pieces of mail to my parents' home in the
wake of Adam's disappearance. Many were letters of condolence, but
many were letters of other parents who had missing children,
whose cases were not getting the same attention that Adam's
(07:53):
case got. You have to think back in nineteen eighty one,
it was difficult to get a missing child case elevated
to national national news, and an Adam's case captivated the country,
but there were so many other kids out there who
were missing at the same time Adam went missing, whose
cases were not getting the attention that Adams got. And
(08:15):
so when my parents, you know, received these letter after letter,
they knew that something had to be done, and so
they started the Adam Wulsh Resource Center in our garage
off a card table and a landline telephone. People remember
what a landline telephone was. But it's the other child
advocates that have joined the fight, whether it's the employees
(08:38):
at the National Center were over five hundred full time employees.
Now it's just amazing how many people just are dedicated
to the cause, but also all the other organizations and
ngngos and grassroots local organizations that there's just so many
people that have have now joined the fight. It's it's
amazing to see how many people are out there and
(09:00):
want to protect our nation's most vulnerable population, our children.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
And you know, that's something I remember about your mama.
Often when she was on an interview, she would mention
other missing children. She would use her platform to make
sure there was some equal billin here. And I remember thinking,
that's the most extraordinary thing I've ever seen.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Yeah, if you remember, they even had a made for
TV movie. Again, we're talking landline telephones and made for
TV movies. We're talking eighties here, right, There wasn't the
movie Adam. At the end of that movie, my parents
made sure that other images of missing children were broadcasted
(09:43):
during the credits. So at the end of the movie,
when the credits were rolling, they were showing images of
active missing children's cases. And it was so successful in
finding those missing children in quite a few of them,
that they had to re edit the credit of that
movie so that they could enter more missing children in
(10:04):
there because so many of them had been found. And
that was really what was one of the turning points
and understanding, Hey, the public is the force multiplier here.
The public can help us in this mission, the public
can help find missing kids because they're the eyes and
ears on the ground. Yes, law enforcement does an incredible
(10:26):
job of helping find missing children, and we work with
law enforcement both local, state, and federal authorities and those partnerships.
We weren't able to do what we're able to do
without that. But the public, I mean, that's the reason
we put out the posters. That's the reason we put
out images of missing children. Also takes is one person,
it's got to be the right person. It also takes
(10:47):
is one person to spot that missing child that could
be the reason that child is reunited with their family.
And so after that made for TV movie Adam, my
parents were quick realize, hey, this is this, this works,
and so we've been doing that as well at the
National Center, and we circulated missing children's posters literally in
(11:09):
the billions since our inception, because we know it works.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
My children would tell you that I was somewhat overprotective,
and you know, you can't help it in this business,
because you know people say, oh, you know, for the kids,
stay together, stay right in front of the house. Well,
I know that's what Amber Hackerman did. She did everything right,
(11:37):
She did everything that we tell children to do, and
she was kidnapped anyway. But what I heard you say
one time just hit me like a ton of bricks,
and I thought, how incredible were your parents because you
said I was allowed to play outside?
Speaker 2 (11:55):
And I think, I think most people would think, after
what happened to them, that my parents would never, you know,
would lock me in a room and I had never
never see the light of day. But my parents understood,
you know, is you know what it's like to be
a child and what a child needs growing up. And
we want children to be able to play outside. We
(12:16):
want children to be able to live in an environment
that they can feel safe. Every child deserves a safe childhood,
and we want to make sure that children can play outside. Still,
even in this day and age, you know, you know,
we just saw the horrible stranger kidnapping in Upstate New
York in twenty twenty three. These things still happen, but
(12:39):
we want to empower children to be able to make
safe and smart decisions. We want to be able to
teach parents how to instill safety messaging and talk to
their kids about identifying risky situations and learning how to
avoid them. You know, my parents still let me play outside.
They knew that I needed to be, you know, an
independent little kid to become a functioning adult, and they
(13:01):
couldn't be the helicopter parent all the time. And so well, yes,
I had every rule in the book instilled in me,
you know, I even those early anecdotal ones. You know,
no name on the backpack and have the safety word,
and you know all this stuff. And I think, you know,
the National Center for Missing has played children. We have
some incredible child safety prevention education programs out there, but
(13:25):
every program that the National Center's ever put out, I
was basically beta tested on. I feel like as a kid,
so I know them all. But at the same time,
it's about, you know, understanding those rules and understanding, you know,
what to do in a situation. You know, we've been
analyzing attempted abductions at the National Center for over a decade.
(13:47):
We know over eighty percent of the time when a
child is in that situation where they're actively being abducted,
eighty percent of the time they were The reason they
were able to get away was something that that child
did proactively. It wasn't an adult coming in to save
the day. It was something that that child did. Like kicking, screaming,
(14:08):
you know, drawing attention to the situation. And so it
really is about empowering children with that safety messaging and
making sure that they understand, well, hey, you know, yes,
you can be out here and be independent and let's
you know, you can have a good time, but if
something happens, you know you need you need to make
sure that you're doing everything in your power to prevent
(14:30):
that individual from taking you to that second location, as
we always talk about. And so yeah, I grew up
with with all that safety messaging and you know when
I started at the National Center, to tell you the truth,
I started and I still continue to work in outreach
prevention education, but that's where I started. Prevention will always
hold a special place in my heart. I truly believe,
(14:54):
you know, an ounce of prevention's worth of pound to cure. We,
of course, at the National Center for Missing Exploited Children,
want to make sure kids don't go missing or become
exploited in the first place, and so taking in all
the information, all the cases that we work on, whether
it's the thirty thousand active missing children's cases that we're
working on at any one time, in our Missing Children's division,
(15:15):
or the thirty two million reports of child sexual exploitation
that we receive through our cyber Tipline that happen you know, online,
last year in twenty twenty two alone. We're looking at
this data, we're analyzing it, We're spotting trends and creating
prevention education material out of this research to make sure
that children are empowered and have the latest information and
(15:38):
data at their fingertips to make sure that they're making
again these safe and spark decisions, whether it's online or
in the real world.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
Thirty two million.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Thirty two million reports to our cyber tipline last year
loan suspected child sexual exploitation. Those numbers are unacceptable for
the listeners that don't know what the cyber tip line is.
It's a it's a tipline that we offer at the
National Center for Missing Exploited Children. We take in reports, yes,
from the public, we'd taken a lot of reports from
internet service providers as well. We're talking all the social
(16:10):
media platforms you know of Google, Microsoft, all of it,
you name it. Thirty two million reports of suspective child
sexual exploitation online came into the National Center through our
cyber tipline in twenty twenty two alone.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
Now, Adams case change the way law enforcement investigates cases.
Can you tell us how You're absolutely right?
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Adam's case changed the way not only law enforcement, but
the way the public looks and investigates and deals with
Missing Jillames cases. But you know, with law enforcement, it's
interesting because the FBI had actually had just created the
NCIC just before Adam's disappearance, and while they had all
sorts of criminal cases in there, they refused to enter
(16:55):
Adam's case. They had the cases of stolen race sources,
but yet refuse to enter the case of a soul
and child. That's changed. Not only are the FBI a strong,
strong and lasting partner at the National Center, where we
have FBI agents who are assigned to the National Center
literally where their desk is at our headquarters. The work
(17:16):
that we do with the FBI through Operation Cross Country.
If your listeners are familiar with Operation Cross Country, it's
a sting operation to catch child sex traffickers and rescue survivors.
That operation was done right out of our HQ last year.
And so these partnerships run deep, and it's not just
federal partnerships which is incredible. I mean our federal partnerships,
(17:39):
it allows us to do what we're able to do,
whether it's FBI Marshals, Secret Service that they're all credible partners,
but the local and state partnerships as well, working and
training law enforcement. We've trained over four h and fifty
thousand law enforcement professionals at our organization in how to
(18:00):
search for missing children, how to do a poster distribution,
how to do grid searches, and landfill searches. We've trained
so many because we know so much, but we want
to spread this to every jurisdiction in the country. And
so not only do we have these trainings and bringing
law enforcement to our organization, but we also have Team Adam,
(18:22):
which just celebrated its twentieth anniversary. And Team Adam is
a group of retired law enforcement professionals and they all
specialize in missing children's cases. They're Team ADAM members. They're
spread spread out throughout the country, and when a child,
an active missing child case pops up again like the
(18:43):
case we saw in Upstate New York just recently, we
deploy Team Adam on site and they become boots on
the ground and allow law enforce local law enforcement to
be hooked up with all the resources that we have
at the National Center, including all of our federal partnerships
as well, and that can be anything from again those
(19:04):
searches to k nines to drones, to poster distribution, even
handling the media. You know, sometimes we have these cases
where the local jurisdiction is like five officers and you
have a missing child case that just captivates the nation's attention,
and you have NBC Nightly News showing up and Good
Morning America and the Today's Show and the Nurson Cooper
(19:26):
and you know, all these people descending, you know, on
the small location. And sometimes it's even helped just with
the media and how to deal with that. And so,
you know, we try to take all the experience that
we've gained over these forty years of operation to help
these local jurisdictions when they're actively dealing with a critical
(19:48):
missing child case and calian.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
It must drive you crazy when things like del Fi
happen and all the work that you've done and all
the effort and all the teams and you still have
law enforcement say, well, they've just run away.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
Yeah, the Delphi case is I covered, I profiled that
case on On in Pursuit, on Investigation Discovery, on my show,
and not a typical case I would would do. Honestly,
I hand picked that case was the case I wanted
to do because because Abby and Libby, you know those
(20:26):
two girls, I just you know, I see their picture
and I just I you know, I can't imagine what
they went through. You know the wherewithal that both of
those girls had to record their abductor just moments before
the fatal incident occurred. You know that, how terrified those
(20:48):
girls must have been. I knew it was the case
we had to do. And I say, it's a case
we don't typically do because On in Pursuit, just like
Americas must want we profile and wanted fugitive, Well, we
know who the bad guy is, we just don't know
where he is. In this case, we don't know who
did it. And that's what's so baffling, because you have
a small, tight knit community. You have a case where
(21:13):
this guy traverses I've been on that bridge, and I
know your listeners know exactly what I'm talking about, But
there is a bridge that Abby and Livy recorded. This
perpetrator walked across this bridge that he walked across. He
had his hands in his pockets. I've walked across that bridge.
It is beyond treacherous.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
Preach, yes, And if you.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
Are going to walk across that bridge with your hands
in your pockets, you know that era you've walked across
that bridge before. There are rapids below that bridge, hundreds
of feet down, rocks everywhere. And for him to be
able to stroll across that bridge right upon those girls,
(21:54):
and his cadence and his walk and the clothing that
he was wearing, it baffles me that community cannot figure
out what happened and who that individual is. It baffles
me that they cannot identify this individual. And so the
Delphi case, I mean, like many others, haunts me still
to this day. And it's you know, it's I know
(22:18):
local law enforcements wants nothing but to find their killers.
It's it's been an interesting investigation. There's been twists and turns,
there's been new information and new sketches, and they you know,
it's one that I just can't believe hasn't been solved.
I just can't believe it. I really can't.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
A fourteen year old girl gave us the best evidence ever.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
Audioadio, audio and video.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
Absolutely, And to your point, you've got the clothing, you've
got the cadence, you've got enough of him that if
you knew him, you should have been able to say,
oh my gosh, that's blank. And then when the first
composite came out, and then the second composite came out,
I was like, Okay, I don't want to lose faith
in what they're doing, but I don't understand this. I
(23:11):
don't understand how we have two opposite looking people and
you told us to scrap this one, and now it's
this guy and he's so much younger.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
Yeah, oh my gosh, I don't.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Know you picked the right one. And I mean everyone
is the right one. Every case, you know, deserves as
much publicity as possible because.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
And that's the hardest part.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
That's the hardest part.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
It's turning down cases.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
Yes, because you only have so much time.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
Absolutely, absolutely, it breaks my heart. You know when people
reach out on social media or right to the show,
and I encourage people to do so because we have
picked some incredible cases from it. You know, the media
tries to tries to capture a lot of these, but
we find cases that the media hasn't covered at all.
(24:00):
Family reaches out because, of course, you know, when we're
ever doing a case on the show, we want two things.
One the blessing of the family. Of course, we're never
going to do a case. We're never going to drag
you back through this traumatic experience if you don't want to,
if you don't want us to profile the case, we're
(24:20):
not going to. But we also need law enforcement. We
need law enforcement to open up their books, to open
up the case files, to show us what's going on
in the investigation, to see where they've hit a dead end,
to see where they've they've hit some crossroads. That's the
hardest part when families reach out saying, hey, we want,
we want you to do this case on the show,
and for X, Y and Z reasons we're not able to.
(24:44):
It breaks my heart.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
What can parents do? I mean, I know y'all have
some places where they can go and learn how to
prevent abductions and you know, sexual exploitation, But just give
parents a few little things right now, Just what should
they be doing?
Speaker 2 (25:04):
Sure, you know, number one, talking to your kids. Talk
to your kids about making safe and smart decisions. You know,
when it comes to prevention education and what the real world,
you know, abduction prevention, it's, you know, making sure that
your kids know your whole name. They, especially the young kids,
they need to know mom and dad's full name. They
(25:25):
need to know their address, they need to know mom
and dad's phone numbers. You know, there's some really great
prevention education curriculum through our kid Smarts program. Anybody can
go to Missing kids dot org. That's the website for
the National Center for Missing Exploited Children. Click on our
education tab. Kids Smarts teaches children the four rules of
(25:46):
personal safety to make sure that they are making safe
and smart decisions. Again, in the real world, we know
most of these abductions happen between two and seven PM
when a child is walking to or from a school
related activity, and we use the four rules of personal safety.
Check first, take a friend, tell people know, and tell
a trust of the adult. It's simple messaging for young kids,
(26:08):
but for online safety, you know, those conversations need to
mature as the child matures as well. And so that's
again why I go back to have it making sure
parents are having successful and ongoing conversations with their kids
about safety. I always give you when it comes to
online safety, I give parents my top three rules or
you know, safety tips. Number one, try to understand the
(26:31):
technology the best you can. You know, we understand not
going to be a child safety expert overnight, and sometimes
that knowledge gap can be so severe. You know, some
parents didn't grow up with the internet and children can
be running circles around them. So talk to your kids,
ask them what what apps are they using? You know,
download them yourself, poke around. That's the best way. If
(26:53):
you poke around and figure out how they work. Sign
up for them, get a pro file. That way, you
can friend your child and make sure you know that
there's their profile is also set to private, and make
sure you know you can see who they're messaging and whatnot.
So number one is try to understand the technology the
(27:14):
best you can. Number two is to set ground rules
and stick to them, especially if there's been any bad
behavior in the past. And number three is back to
those conversations. Have ongoing conversations with your kids about safety,
because when they're young and they're first getting online, that
conversation needs to be simple, easy for a child to understand.
(27:36):
But as that child gets older and matures, that conversation
needs to mature as well. The conversation you have with
your youngest child about online safety is a vastly different
conversation than you're having with your sixteen seventeen year old
about online safety, about you know, romances that they're having
online and sending nudes and you know, all these sort
(27:56):
of things. Parents need to continue having that dial Unfortunately,
parents can't raise their children the same way our parents
raised us. The online landscape, you know, is here to stay.
Internet has created life for the better in so many ways,
but has created so many new ways to exploit children.
(28:16):
At the same time, parents need to be aware of that,
and they need to be empowering their children with this
safety messaging.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
You know, my son Huck played sports all through school
and everything, and sometimes he would say, oh, I don't
feel like practicing, or I don't feel like putting in
the extra work after practice, And inevitably he would say, hey, mom,
you know what my competition is doing right now, working out?
So he would get up and go work out because
(28:45):
he realized, you know, you don't have to, but that
person's trying to take your spot, or that person is
trying to beat you in a competition. Well that's how
I see criminals. You don't have to keep up if
you don't want to, but I promise you that person
is figuring out a way to get to your child, Cheryl.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
We saw, especially during the pandemic, we saw tons of
chatter on the dark web amongst exploiters sharing best practices,
talking about how this is a great time. All kids
are experiencing increase screen time their home, but they're on
their computers. And when you have access to a child,
you know, we used to have that family computer out
(29:23):
in the living room. That's not how it is anymore.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
You know.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
Most of the computers that we have, it's either a
laptop that can travel, or a cell phone. And that
cell phone goes into the bedroom at night, into the
bathroom with children as a high death camera right on it.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
And so you're absolutely right, you know. We again, we
saw this chatter amongst these exploiters on the dark web,
sharing best practices, tips and tricks have to groom children,
how to lure them and how to entice them online,
how to avoid detection from parents and law enforcement. These
exploiters are working together to build a playbook and using
(30:07):
social media platforms as a private hunting preserve to pray
on our children. So while you're sitting there and thinking, oh,
this isn't a big deal, and know my child is
you know I can see my kids. They're right there
on the couch. That's giving you a false sense of
security if you don't know what kind of activity your
child's getting into online. These are some conversations you need
to start having.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
And again going back to Delphi, the grandparents had no idea.
The parents had no idea, her older sister had no
idea that Libby had been in contact with anybody over snapchat.
So again I can't echo what you're saying loud enough.
Have the honest conversations. Children are already aware friends are
(30:47):
telling them different things. They already know there's predators out there.
You need to be able to tell them the truth.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
And you know, it is a bit reassuring because we're
starting to see those types of conversations online as well too,
where you know, kids are you know, well, these exploiters
are reaching out to them. The kids are fighting back
and they're they're they're you know, smartening up to these
(31:15):
type of types of exploitation, and that always warms my heart.
You know, we get these these chat logs in and
a kid is has not fallen for it and giving
it right back to the exploiter. That's always it's always interesting.
But you know, they're so accessible, that's that I think
that's what parents don't understand, even whether it's through you know,
(31:37):
regular online activity, but even through gaming channels. I mean,
we're seeing it more and more this issue of what
we call sex stortion. Sextortion is a trend we didn't
even have a word for a few years ago, but
it's where an exploiter will essentially get their hands on
a sexually explicit image of a child and then blackmail
(32:00):
them for either more explicit photos or monetary goods and services,
and so that child is essentially blackmailed. And what we're seeing,
what we should say. What we saw in the early
stages of sextortion were individuals who were praying mostly on
(32:21):
teenage girls for sexually explicit content. They were befriending them online,
building you know what this young girl thought was perhaps
a romantic relationship, requesting that nude image or semi nude image,
and then once that image was sent, that exploiter would
(32:43):
use that as blackmail to request more explicit content. And
of course that the explicit nature would ramp up over time. Unfortunately,
what we're seeing right now is an explosion in what
we call financial sex stortion, where boys are being targeted
through online gaming platforms. And again, this is what goes
(33:03):
back to you know, many parents like, oh, well, the
chat rooms and this and that, Well, no, we're starting
to see it and gaming platforms, online gaming platforms where
individuals are using whether it's in game currency or items
or experience in the games, to befriend and earn the
trust of young boys, and they will request again a
(33:24):
sexually explicit image from that child. Once that image is received,
those tables are immediately turned and there are requesting you know,
wire transfer of money or gift cards or whatnot. And
what we saw last year alone, over twelve boys in
the United States, over a dozen boys committed suicide because
(33:46):
they were victims of sextortion. Children who you know, this
isn't a mental health crisis. The issue. This isn't our
children who were suicidal before this. They were driven to
suicide because of the shame and guilt of these images
being exposed to their friends and families and whatnot. And
(34:07):
in fact, we just saw an extradition. It's incredible and
hats off to law enforcement on this. An extradition of
an individual, a child predator from Nigeria who was praying
on a young boy for financial gains again in the
case of financial sextortion, and that boy committed suicide unfortunately,
(34:31):
and the individual who was responsible for that was extra
dated from Nigeria to the United States and his pending
trial as we speak.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
That is fantastic and that's what should happen, you know,
And a lot of times people will say to me, well,
how bad is the problem, and I said, well, we
had to invent a registry because there's that many. You
need to know where they're living. I said earlier that
you're paving your own way. But I have to tell
(34:59):
people at crime Con, I saw you and Joe Mullins
doing something that was so extraordinary and he's going to
be on Zone seven sometime. But I've got to go
ahead and mention this because again when you say, you know,
how do I set myself apart? How can I do
something more? How can I do something that's so unique
(35:19):
and also helpful? Well, at crime Con, I got my
socks knocked off. So tell everybody what y'all did in
real time right there in front of everybody.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
Oh. Absolutely, yeah, that was fantastic. Right. So, Joe Mullins,
as you mentioned, he is a longtime forensic imaging specialist
here at the National Center for Missing Exploited Children. I've
known Joe for a very long time, a very dedicated
individual and awesome, awesome guy. And so what we did
(35:52):
is we worked so crime con this year was in Orlando,
So we worked with the local Medical Examiner's Office in Orlando,
and we requested the remains of any unidentified children who
have been found in the area, whose cases are still
unsolved and are still unidentified. And so the local Medical
(36:14):
Examiner's Office provided us with a case of our anthropologists,
because we first consult forensic anthropologists before we start a
forensic reconstruction. So what the Medical Examiner's Office did is
they CT scan the skull and then we had two
(36:34):
different three D prints, one to one exact replicas of
the skull printed. And this was the case of the
unidentified remains of what was believed to be between the
ages of twelve and eighteen years old Caucasian female whose
remains were found in a heavily wooded area that was
(36:56):
formerly used as a garbage dump. Her remains found. She
had two gunshot wounds to the head, one from left
to right and one sort of diagonal through her through
her face kind of from the back, sort of from
the temple out through the nasal passage, and her remains
(37:19):
began have gone unidentified. This is a cold case. This
is nineteen seventy three. It's a fifty year old case.
Her remains have gone unidentified since nineteen seventy three. And
so what Joe does when he starts with these forensic
reconstructions is, of course again consult the friends Aga anthropologist.
They said, okay, twelve everything it was actually I think
(37:41):
it was thirteen to eighteen years old, So we shoot
down the middle. Joe was like, okay, we're going to
aim for about a sixteen year old here, fifteen to
sixteen year old. What we were able determine we knew
she was Caucasian. She she's white. We also did know
that she had brown hair. We don't always get that information,
but she had brown hair pulled back in a ponytail.
(38:02):
And so what Joe will start to do using oil
based clay is start the forensic reconstruction lay in tissue
dept markers, start putting in muscle, ligature, cartilage, trying to
determine what this child may have looked like in life,
in hopes that somebody there at crime Con would identify
(38:25):
who this child is. So Joe starting in day one
to get this takes him about typically about two weeks
to do these facial reconstructions. He had three days, so
lots of coffee, but Joe powered through and again a
great crowd at crime Con, lots of questions, and so
(38:46):
Joe starts with those tissue dept markers laying in the ligature,
trying to, you know, figuring out where the tip of
the noses, what orientation the nose is in, how thick
or thin it should be. Does this person have detached
or attached deer lobes. In fact, that he could determine
from the skull she had detached deer lobs, that's the
genetic marker. He could also determine which direction her nose
(39:08):
was pointed, where the tip of her nose was We
saw that she had a slight overbite as well. We
were also able to determine through a biochemical analysis that
while her remains were found in Florida. She was not
from Florida and she had only been in Florida for
a few months because the pollen that was found on
her remains, and the pollen was from of that recent season,
(39:30):
meaning the pollen found on her body was unique only
to the northwestern part of the United States, possibly the
midwestern part of the United States as well. And so
with this information, we are trying to spark that recognition,
try to get somebody who may recognize who this person,
who this child was in life, in hopes that we
(39:53):
can determine we can find out their name, we can
find out what happened to them, and provide the family
with these answers. You know, again, you have to think
it's nineteen seventy three when these remains were found. There's
no social media, there's no cell phones, you know. Was
she traveling with a companion, was she traveling with a boyfriend?
(40:14):
You know, there's a really strong possibility that our family
had no idea she was even in Florida, hence why
there was no missing child report matching her description in
the area. So her remains have gone unidentified and we're
hoping that somebody can identify her remains based on the
(40:35):
facial reconstruction that Joe did right there at Crime con
in front of all the attendees, right there on the floor.
Over those three days he hand built that in clay,
which we have now at our Florida branch. We have
a Florida branch of the National Center for Missing Employee Children.
That that bust is now in our Florida office and
(40:56):
will continue to be used in hopes to identify this
this Jane Doe.
Speaker 1 (41:01):
And I'm going to tell you it was the most
extraordinary thing to watch. It was just a god given
gift to watch him work. And you know, when you
start with that first day, I mean, it looks like
a skeleton. It looks kind of almost like are you
making some kind of Halloween mask.
Speaker 2 (41:18):
Yeah, it's kind of creepy at first, kind of creepy.
Speaker 1 (41:21):
And I know, Caroline, you met my daughter. She was
with me and she was like, okay, like he's got
a ways to go, you know. But then Saturday we
started to really see wait a minute, and then by
Sunday afternoon there she was yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:37):
Oh she's got his hair and a scrunchy and everything.
I mean, you know, yeah, it comes to life and
that's what Joe. Joe always says. You know, once I
see someone staring back at me, that's when I stopped.
Speaker 1 (41:48):
And then everybody there was taking pictures to share on
social media. So it was just a brilliant way to
get this unidentified cold case some national attention because everybody
was sharing it.
Speaker 2 (42:01):
Yeah, and that's what we wanted. Look, hey, it would
have been great if somebody there at Crime con recognize
that child, but hey, take a picture of him post
on social media. It also takes as one person again
to spark that recognition when we see that all the
time at the National Center. Our whole database of missing
children's cases are available at our website missingkids dot org.
(42:22):
You can go and search through every single one of
our cases that we have active right now. If there's
a case from your community, or a case that you
think is not getting the attention that it deserves, post
on yours on your feet. Maybe a friend or a
family member, somebody that follows you recognizes that child. Also
takes as one kid. You could be the reason that
that child is reunited with their family, or a case
(42:45):
like this one that these unidentified remains are identified and
a family finally gets those answers that they've been desperately
searching for.
Speaker 1 (42:54):
Callahan. There's no way to talk to you without getting
fired up. But I'm just ready to go load up
the truck, go save some children.
Speaker 2 (43:01):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (43:02):
So tell us what your goals are for the future
and how we can support you. What do you need
from us?
Speaker 2 (43:09):
Absolutely well, you know, we're always trying to put ourselves
out of a job at the National Center. We're always
trying to We always want to say like, hey, the
last missing child's been found. No children, wo let me
go missing again. Unfortunately we're not there, and we are
a nonprofit. We rely on the generous donations of individuals,
and so you know, for listeners to go out and
(43:31):
come to our website, we're missing kids dot org.
Speaker 1 (43:34):
Again.
Speaker 2 (43:35):
We have some great educational programs. If you have a
child in your life, look at our net Smart's program,
look at our Kids Smarts program. We've got resources that
can help them make safe and smart decisions. But for
our active cases, for the cases of exploitation we're fighting against,
for the missing children, we're trying to actively find donations.
I can't stress it enough. It really is what keeps
(43:58):
our doors open, our lights on. If it weren't for
our generous donors, we wouldn't be able to help recover.
We've recovered over four hundred thousand missing children since our inception,
and that doesn't happen without the generous donations of people
like your listeners, and so you know, if you give
a dollar, five dollars, whatever you have, Honestly, the donations
(44:20):
just they mean a lot, and what allows us to
continue the fight. It allows us to help assisting law
enforcement and assisting families that are going through a nightmare scenario.
And it allows us to bring home these children that
that we're able to know in effect, the chains that
(44:42):
we're able to affect with the families and the children
that we serve. It really is about bringing these children
home and being able to provide the long term care
and support that they need as well.
Speaker 1 (44:53):
Callahan, I cannot thank you enough. I think everybody that
had an opportunity to listen to you tonight is going
to be called to action, y'all. I'm going to end
Zone seven the way that I always do with a quote.
Not knowing where your child is at bedtime is a
pretty hard thing to accept. Rave Walsh Adam's Mama. I'm
(45:15):
Cheryl McCollum and this is Zone seven.
Children know. They may not have all the information, they
may not know exactly the details or exactly what the
adults are upset about, but they know something drawn and
they normally know more than the adults think that they do.
And this was absolutely the case. In nineteen seventy two,
(00:29):
my sister Shelley and I were extremely aware that our
mother was really upset about something that had occurred north
of Atlanta. A little girl had been abducted and they
could not find her, and it went on for over
a week, and then they found her murdered, and my
mother was just not okay with it. It was after
(00:51):
Christmas time, everybody was back in school, and this little
girl had been so brutally harmed. Nobody knew who the
killer was, and the witness has said he was in
a truck, and our mom thought he could be anywhere.
He could be down here, he could be in South Georgia,
he could be in West Georgia. So she made us
aware that we needed to be more careful and she
(01:14):
didn't want us going too far from the house. But
the reality is didn't matter if you were in your
own front yard. Sometimes children are taken from their own
front yard. July twenty seventh, nineteen eighty one. Adam was
just six years old when he was abducted from the
Seers department store. His mom was just in the next aisle.
(01:38):
She did what every mom does at some point. You
stay right here with the older kids and look at
this video game. I'll be right back. It wasn't even
ten minutes and when she came back, the older boys
and Adam were gone. Now unbeknownst to her, she didn't
know that a security guard came over and said, hey,
y'all are being a little rambunctious. Y'all need to go.
(02:00):
So the older boys just started leaving the store. Well,
Adam followed him. He thought that's what he was supposed
to do. His mom immediately started to search for him,
immediately started to panic, looked all over the store, surrounding area,
and then the police were involved. August the tenth, nineteen
eighty one, only Adam's head was found by fishermen one
(02:24):
hundred miles away in Vero Beach, Florida. Adam's father, John Walsh,
he started America's Most Wanted. He and his wife threw
everything they had into We are going to help every
child that we can, whether it's subduction, missing, runaway, or
(02:44):
missing and then found murdered. They were relentless in their
advocacy for every child. But that is not where the
family business stops. And tonight we are, I think, in
the presence of somebody that has done something so extraordinary
that he has decided that he is going to take
(03:06):
up and dedicate his life to also helping children for
a brother he never had the chance to meet. And
it is a great honor for me to introduce y'all
to Callahan Walsh. Callahan, thank you so much for being
a part of his own.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Seven Cheryl, thank you for having me. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
And you know, every single time I've ever talked to
you and I've said things like, you know, it's just
amazing what you do. It is incredible what your parents
have done, you always say basically the same sentiment and
you say, that's nice of you to say, or thank
you so much. But the reality is you could have
gone on and done a lot of things. You could
(03:49):
have distanced yourself from sadness and horrific events and children
being murdered, but you, like your parents, decided, you know what,
Adam's death is not going to be in vain. I
heard your mama say that over and over and over
in different interviews, and I think that is so powerful,
(04:10):
when anybody can turn their grief into something so extraordinary.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
That's how I grew up, you know. I watched my
parents channel their emotions and their anger and their energy
over what happened to Adam to make sure that Adam
didn't die in vain. You know, we celebrated this little
boy's life. As you mentioned, I never met Adam. Adam
was kidnapped before I was born, but I knew everything
(04:37):
about that little boy. We celebrated his birthdays. I knew
his favorite sports and movies, Baseball and Star Wars, you know.
And they said, you know, if Adam's song is to continue,
then we must do the singing. And we try to
do that every single day, whether it's at the National
Center for Missing Exploited Children, bringing home finding missing kids,
(05:01):
to fighting against exploitation, to you know, my father hosting
Americs Most Wanted and now me co hosting his show
in Pursuit and finding, you know, still finding fugitives, profiling
these wanted bad guys and hopes to get the tips
that bring them to justice. You know, we know there
are so many families out there that are seeking justice,
(05:22):
and whether it's finding their missing child or child that's
been exploited, to the cases that we do on the
show of murders and serial rapists, and you know, the
worst of the worst that we profile on on In Pursuit.
I'm honored, honestly to follow in their footsteps. It's a
pursuit that, you know. I always imagined one day I
(05:44):
would eventually be working at the National Center for Missing
Exploited Children. I just didn't know when. I didn't know
it would be so early in my professional career, but
I worked on Americs Most Wanted. I was a producer
for the show. When the show was ultimately canceled on
Fox after twenty five years, I worked in development and
(06:05):
creating a new show for my father, The Hunt, that
went to CNN, and that's when I made my break
over the National Center and I've been working there ever
since now, of course, also joining my father on his
new show again in Pursuit on Investigation Discovery. But I
know I have the biggest shoes to fill with my
father and my mother. But I'm just honored to be
(06:26):
able to continue Adam's legacy and continue what they started.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
And see, that's what I love about what you're doing,
because you're carving your own way. I mean, they forged
a path, there's no question about it. But they forged
a path for a lot of people, not just you.
There's a lot of people doing incredible work because of
the groundwork they laid. But you, you're doing things your
parents never did.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
And we couldn't do it without the other child advocates
that joined the fight. I mean when we started the
National Center for Missing Exploited Children originally was the Adam
Walsh Resource Center, that's what it was called. And my
mother had the idea to create a place at some
place that parents could go to when they're looking for
(07:12):
their missing child because they realized that there was no
support when they were looking for Adam. Local law enforcement,
of course they wanted to help, they didn't know how,
and there was no response from any federal or state
body to come in and help save the day. They
realized that there was really no organization out there. And
(07:32):
in the wake of Adam's disappearance, the Hollywood Post Office
this is Hollywood, Florida, estimates that they delivered over forty
thousand pieces of mail to my parents' home in the
wake of Adam's disappearance. Many were letters of condolence, but
many were letters of other parents who had missing children,
whose cases were not getting the same attention that Adam's
(07:53):
case got. You have to think back in nineteen eighty one,
it was difficult to get a missing child case elevated
to national national news, and an Adam's case captivated the country,
but there were so many other kids out there who
were missing at the same time Adam went missing, whose
cases were not getting the attention that Adams got. And
(08:15):
so when my parents, you know, received these letter after letter,
they knew that something had to be done, and so
they started the Adam Wulsh Resource Center in our garage
off a card table and a landline telephone. People remember
what a landline telephone was. But it's the other child
advocates that have joined the fight, whether it's the employees
(08:38):
at the National Center were over five hundred full time employees.
Now it's just amazing how many people just are dedicated
to the cause, but also all the other organizations and
ngngos and grassroots local organizations that there's just so many
people that have have now joined the fight. It's it's
amazing to see how many people are out there and
(09:00):
want to protect our nation's most vulnerable population, our children.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
And you know, that's something I remember about your mama.
Often when she was on an interview, she would mention
other missing children. She would use her platform to make
sure there was some equal billin here. And I remember thinking,
that's the most extraordinary thing I've ever seen.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Yeah, if you remember, they even had a made for
TV movie. Again, we're talking landline telephones and made for
TV movies. We're talking eighties here, right, There wasn't the
movie Adam. At the end of that movie, my parents
made sure that other images of missing children were broadcasted
(09:43):
during the credits. So at the end of the movie,
when the credits were rolling, they were showing images of
active missing children's cases. And it was so successful in
finding those missing children in quite a few of them,
that they had to re edit the credit of that
movie so that they could enter more missing children in
(10:04):
there because so many of them had been found. And
that was really what was one of the turning points
and understanding, Hey, the public is the force multiplier here.
The public can help us in this mission, the public
can help find missing kids because they're the eyes and
ears on the ground. Yes, law enforcement does an incredible
(10:26):
job of helping find missing children, and we work with
law enforcement both local, state, and federal authorities and those partnerships.
We weren't able to do what we're able to do
without that. But the public, I mean, that's the reason
we put out the posters. That's the reason we put
out images of missing children. Also takes is one person,
it's got to be the right person. It also takes
(10:47):
is one person to spot that missing child that could
be the reason that child is reunited with their family.
And so after that made for TV movie Adam, my
parents were quick realize, hey, this is this, this works,
and so we've been doing that as well at the
National Center, and we circulated missing children's posters literally in
(11:09):
the billions since our inception, because we know it works.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
My children would tell you that I was somewhat overprotective,
and you know, you can't help it in this business,
because you know people say, oh, you know, for the kids,
stay together, stay right in front of the house. Well,
I know that's what Amber Hackerman did. She did everything right,
(11:37):
She did everything that we tell children to do, and
she was kidnapped anyway. But what I heard you say
one time just hit me like a ton of bricks,
and I thought, how incredible were your parents because you
said I was allowed to play outside?
Speaker 2 (11:55):
And I think, I think most people would think, after
what happened to them, that my parents would never, you know,
would lock me in a room and I had never
never see the light of day. But my parents understood,
you know, is you know what it's like to be
a child and what a child needs growing up. And
we want children to be able to play outside. We
(12:16):
want children to be able to live in an environment
that they can feel safe. Every child deserves a safe childhood,
and we want to make sure that children can play outside. Still,
even in this day and age, you know, you know,
we just saw the horrible stranger kidnapping in Upstate New
York in twenty twenty three. These things still happen, but
(12:39):
we want to empower children to be able to make
safe and smart decisions. We want to be able to
teach parents how to instill safety messaging and talk to
their kids about identifying risky situations and learning how to
avoid them. You know, my parents still let me play outside.
They knew that I needed to be, you know, an
independent little kid to become a functioning adult, and they
(13:01):
couldn't be the helicopter parent all the time. And so well, yes,
I had every rule in the book instilled in me,
you know, I even those early anecdotal ones. You know,
no name on the backpack and have the safety word,
and you know all this stuff. And I think, you know,
the National Center for Missing has played children. We have
some incredible child safety prevention education programs out there, but
(13:25):
every program that the National Center's ever put out, I
was basically beta tested on. I feel like as a kid,
so I know them all. But at the same time,
it's about, you know, understanding those rules and understanding, you know,
what to do in a situation. You know, we've been
analyzing attempted abductions at the National Center for over a decade.
(13:47):
We know over eighty percent of the time when a
child is in that situation where they're actively being abducted,
eighty percent of the time they were The reason they
were able to get away was something that that child
did proactively. It wasn't an adult coming in to save
the day. It was something that that child did. Like kicking, screaming,
(14:08):
you know, drawing attention to the situation. And so it
really is about empowering children with that safety messaging and
making sure that they understand, well, hey, you know, yes,
you can be out here and be independent and let's
you know, you can have a good time, but if
something happens, you know you need you need to make
sure that you're doing everything in your power to prevent
(14:30):
that individual from taking you to that second location, as
we always talk about. And so yeah, I grew up
with with all that safety messaging and you know when
I started at the National Center, to tell you the truth,
I started and I still continue to work in outreach
prevention education, but that's where I started. Prevention will always
hold a special place in my heart. I truly believe,
(14:54):
you know, an ounce of prevention's worth of pound to cure. We,
of course, at the National Center for Missing Exploited Children,
want to make sure kids don't go missing or become
exploited in the first place, and so taking in all
the information, all the cases that we work on, whether
it's the thirty thousand active missing children's cases that we're
working on at any one time, in our Missing Children's division,
(15:15):
or the thirty two million reports of child sexual exploitation
that we receive through our cyber Tipline that happen you know, online,
last year in twenty twenty two alone. We're looking at
this data, we're analyzing it, We're spotting trends and creating
prevention education material out of this research to make sure
that children are empowered and have the latest information and
(15:38):
data at their fingertips to make sure that they're making
again these safe and spark decisions, whether it's online or
in the real world.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
Thirty two million.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Thirty two million reports to our cyber tipline last year
loan suspected child sexual exploitation. Those numbers are unacceptable for
the listeners that don't know what the cyber tip line is.
It's a it's a tipline that we offer at the
National Center for Missing Exploited Children. We take in reports, yes,
from the public, we'd taken a lot of reports from
internet service providers as well. We're talking all the social
(16:10):
media platforms you know of Google, Microsoft, all of it,
you name it. Thirty two million reports of suspective child
sexual exploitation online came into the National Center through our
cyber tipline in twenty twenty two alone.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
Now, Adams case change the way law enforcement investigates cases.
Can you tell us how You're absolutely right?
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Adam's case changed the way not only law enforcement, but
the way the public looks and investigates and deals with
Missing Jillames cases. But you know, with law enforcement, it's
interesting because the FBI had actually had just created the
NCIC just before Adam's disappearance, and while they had all
sorts of criminal cases in there, they refused to enter
(16:55):
Adam's case. They had the cases of stolen race sources,
but yet refuse to enter the case of a soul
and child. That's changed. Not only are the FBI a strong,
strong and lasting partner at the National Center, where we
have FBI agents who are assigned to the National Center
literally where their desk is at our headquarters. The work
(17:16):
that we do with the FBI through Operation Cross Country.
If your listeners are familiar with Operation Cross Country, it's
a sting operation to catch child sex traffickers and rescue survivors.
That operation was done right out of our HQ last year.
And so these partnerships run deep, and it's not just
federal partnerships which is incredible. I mean our federal partnerships,
(17:39):
it allows us to do what we're able to do,
whether it's FBI Marshals, Secret Service that they're all credible partners,
but the local and state partnerships as well, working and
training law enforcement. We've trained over four h and fifty
thousand law enforcement professionals at our organization in how to
(18:00):
search for missing children, how to do a poster distribution,
how to do grid searches, and landfill searches. We've trained
so many because we know so much, but we want
to spread this to every jurisdiction in the country. And
so not only do we have these trainings and bringing
law enforcement to our organization, but we also have Team Adam,
(18:22):
which just celebrated its twentieth anniversary. And Team Adam is
a group of retired law enforcement professionals and they all
specialize in missing children's cases. They're Team ADAM members. They're
spread spread out throughout the country, and when a child,
an active missing child case pops up again like the
(18:43):
case we saw in Upstate New York just recently, we
deploy Team Adam on site and they become boots on
the ground and allow law enforce local law enforcement to
be hooked up with all the resources that we have
at the National Center, including all of our federal partnerships
as well, and that can be anything from again those
(19:04):
searches to k nines to drones, to poster distribution, even
handling the media. You know, sometimes we have these cases
where the local jurisdiction is like five officers and you
have a missing child case that just captivates the nation's attention,
and you have NBC Nightly News showing up and Good
Morning America and the Today's Show and the Nurson Cooper
(19:26):
and you know, all these people descending, you know, on
the small location. And sometimes it's even helped just with
the media and how to deal with that. And so,
you know, we try to take all the experience that
we've gained over these forty years of operation to help
these local jurisdictions when they're actively dealing with a critical
(19:48):
missing child case and calian.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
It must drive you crazy when things like del Fi
happen and all the work that you've done and all
the effort and all the teams and you still have
law enforcement say, well, they've just run away.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
Yeah, the Delphi case is I covered, I profiled that
case on On in Pursuit, on Investigation Discovery, on my show,
and not a typical case I would would do. Honestly,
I hand picked that case was the case I wanted
to do because because Abby and Libby, you know those
(20:26):
two girls, I just you know, I see their picture
and I just I you know, I can't imagine what
they went through. You know the wherewithal that both of
those girls had to record their abductor just moments before
the fatal incident occurred. You know that, how terrified those
(20:48):
girls must have been. I knew it was the case
we had to do. And I say, it's a case
we don't typically do because On in Pursuit, just like
Americas must want we profile and wanted fugitive, Well, we
know who the bad guy is, we just don't know
where he is. In this case, we don't know who
did it. And that's what's so baffling, because you have
a small, tight knit community. You have a case where
(21:13):
this guy traverses I've been on that bridge, and I
know your listeners know exactly what I'm talking about, But
there is a bridge that Abby and Livy recorded. This
perpetrator walked across this bridge that he walked across. He
had his hands in his pockets. I've walked across that bridge.
It is beyond treacherous.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
Preach, yes, And if you.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
Are going to walk across that bridge with your hands
in your pockets, you know that era you've walked across
that bridge before. There are rapids below that bridge, hundreds
of feet down, rocks everywhere. And for him to be
able to stroll across that bridge right upon those girls,
(21:54):
and his cadence and his walk and the clothing that
he was wearing, it baffles me that community cannot figure
out what happened and who that individual is. It baffles
me that they cannot identify this individual. And so the
Delphi case, I mean, like many others, haunts me still
to this day. And it's you know, it's I know
(22:18):
local law enforcements wants nothing but to find their killers.
It's it's been an interesting investigation. There's been twists and turns,
there's been new information and new sketches, and they you know,
it's one that I just can't believe hasn't been solved.
I just can't believe it. I really can't.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
A fourteen year old girl gave us the best evidence ever.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
Audioadio, audio and video.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
Absolutely, And to your point, you've got the clothing, you've
got the cadence, you've got enough of him that if
you knew him, you should have been able to say,
oh my gosh, that's blank. And then when the first
composite came out, and then the second composite came out,
I was like, Okay, I don't want to lose faith
in what they're doing, but I don't understand this. I
(23:11):
don't understand how we have two opposite looking people and
you told us to scrap this one, and now it's
this guy and he's so much younger.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
Yeah, oh my gosh, I don't.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Know you picked the right one. And I mean everyone
is the right one. Every case, you know, deserves as
much publicity as possible because.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
And that's the hardest part.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
That's the hardest part.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
It's turning down cases.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
Yes, because you only have so much time.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
Absolutely, absolutely, it breaks my heart. You know when people
reach out on social media or right to the show,
and I encourage people to do so because we have
picked some incredible cases from it. You know, the media
tries to tries to capture a lot of these, but
we find cases that the media hasn't covered at all.
(24:00):
Family reaches out because, of course, you know, when we're
ever doing a case on the show, we want two things.
One the blessing of the family. Of course, we're never
going to do a case. We're never going to drag
you back through this traumatic experience if you don't want to,
if you don't want us to profile the case, we're
(24:20):
not going to. But we also need law enforcement. We
need law enforcement to open up their books, to open
up the case files, to show us what's going on
in the investigation, to see where they've hit a dead end,
to see where they've they've hit some crossroads. That's the
hardest part when families reach out saying, hey, we want,
we want you to do this case on the show,
and for X, Y and Z reasons we're not able to.
(24:44):
It breaks my heart.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
What can parents do? I mean, I know y'all have
some places where they can go and learn how to
prevent abductions and you know, sexual exploitation, But just give
parents a few little things right now, Just what should
they be doing?
Speaker 2 (25:04):
Sure, you know, number one, talking to your kids. Talk
to your kids about making safe and smart decisions. You know,
when it comes to prevention education and what the real world,
you know, abduction prevention, it's, you know, making sure that
your kids know your whole name. They, especially the young kids,
they need to know mom and dad's full name. They
(25:25):
need to know their address, they need to know mom
and dad's phone numbers. You know, there's some really great
prevention education curriculum through our kid Smarts program. Anybody can
go to Missing kids dot org. That's the website for
the National Center for Missing Exploited Children. Click on our
education tab. Kids Smarts teaches children the four rules of
(25:46):
personal safety to make sure that they are making safe
and smart decisions. Again, in the real world, we know
most of these abductions happen between two and seven PM
when a child is walking to or from a school
related activity, and we use the four rules of personal safety.
Check first, take a friend, tell people know, and tell
a trust of the adult. It's simple messaging for young kids,
(26:08):
but for online safety, you know, those conversations need to
mature as the child matures as well. And so that's
again why I go back to have it making sure
parents are having successful and ongoing conversations with their kids
about safety. I always give you when it comes to
online safety, I give parents my top three rules or
you know, safety tips. Number one, try to understand the
(26:31):
technology the best you can. You know, we understand not
going to be a child safety expert overnight, and sometimes
that knowledge gap can be so severe. You know, some
parents didn't grow up with the internet and children can
be running circles around them. So talk to your kids,
ask them what what apps are they using? You know,
download them yourself, poke around. That's the best way. If
(26:53):
you poke around and figure out how they work. Sign
up for them, get a pro file. That way, you
can friend your child and make sure you know that
there's their profile is also set to private, and make
sure you know you can see who they're messaging and whatnot.
So number one is try to understand the technology the
(27:14):
best you can. Number two is to set ground rules
and stick to them, especially if there's been any bad
behavior in the past. And number three is back to
those conversations. Have ongoing conversations with your kids about safety,
because when they're young and they're first getting online, that
conversation needs to be simple, easy for a child to understand.
(27:36):
But as that child gets older and matures, that conversation
needs to mature as well. The conversation you have with
your youngest child about online safety is a vastly different
conversation than you're having with your sixteen seventeen year old
about online safety, about you know, romances that they're having
online and sending nudes and you know, all these sort
(27:56):
of things. Parents need to continue having that dial Unfortunately,
parents can't raise their children the same way our parents
raised us. The online landscape, you know, is here to stay.
Internet has created life for the better in so many ways,
but has created so many new ways to exploit children.
(28:16):
At the same time, parents need to be aware of that,
and they need to be empowering their children with this
safety messaging.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
You know, my son Huck played sports all through school
and everything, and sometimes he would say, oh, I don't
feel like practicing, or I don't feel like putting in
the extra work after practice, And inevitably he would say, hey, mom,
you know what my competition is doing right now, working out?
So he would get up and go work out because
(28:45):
he realized, you know, you don't have to, but that
person's trying to take your spot, or that person is
trying to beat you in a competition. Well that's how
I see criminals. You don't have to keep up if
you don't want to, but I promise you that person
is figuring out a way to get to your child, Cheryl.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
We saw, especially during the pandemic, we saw tons of
chatter on the dark web amongst exploiters sharing best practices,
talking about how this is a great time. All kids
are experiencing increase screen time their home, but they're on
their computers. And when you have access to a child,
you know, we used to have that family computer out
(29:23):
in the living room. That's not how it is anymore.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
You know.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
Most of the computers that we have, it's either a
laptop that can travel, or a cell phone. And that
cell phone goes into the bedroom at night, into the
bathroom with children as a high death camera right on it.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
And so you're absolutely right, you know. We again, we
saw this chatter amongst these exploiters on the dark web,
sharing best practices, tips and tricks have to groom children,
how to lure them and how to entice them online,
how to avoid detection from parents and law enforcement. These
exploiters are working together to build a playbook and using
(30:07):
social media platforms as a private hunting preserve to pray
on our children. So while you're sitting there and thinking, oh,
this isn't a big deal, and know my child is
you know I can see my kids. They're right there
on the couch. That's giving you a false sense of
security if you don't know what kind of activity your
child's getting into online. These are some conversations you need
to start having.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
And again going back to Delphi, the grandparents had no idea.
The parents had no idea, her older sister had no
idea that Libby had been in contact with anybody over snapchat.
So again I can't echo what you're saying loud enough.
Have the honest conversations. Children are already aware friends are
(30:47):
telling them different things. They already know there's predators out there.
You need to be able to tell them the truth.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
And you know, it is a bit reassuring because we're
starting to see those types of conversations online as well too,
where you know, kids are you know, well, these exploiters
are reaching out to them. The kids are fighting back
and they're they're they're you know, smartening up to these
(31:15):
type of types of exploitation, and that always warms my heart.
You know, we get these these chat logs in and
a kid is has not fallen for it and giving
it right back to the exploiter. That's always it's always interesting.
But you know, they're so accessible, that's that I think
that's what parents don't understand, even whether it's through you know,
(31:37):
regular online activity, but even through gaming channels. I mean,
we're seeing it more and more this issue of what
we call sex stortion. Sextortion is a trend we didn't
even have a word for a few years ago, but
it's where an exploiter will essentially get their hands on
a sexually explicit image of a child and then blackmail
(32:00):
them for either more explicit photos or monetary goods and services,
and so that child is essentially blackmailed. And what we're seeing,
what we should say. What we saw in the early
stages of sextortion were individuals who were praying mostly on
(32:21):
teenage girls for sexually explicit content. They were befriending them online,
building you know what this young girl thought was perhaps
a romantic relationship, requesting that nude image or semi nude image,
and then once that image was sent, that exploiter would
(32:43):
use that as blackmail to request more explicit content. And
of course that the explicit nature would ramp up over time. Unfortunately,
what we're seeing right now is an explosion in what
we call financial sex stortion, where boys are being targeted
through online gaming platforms. And again, this is what goes
(33:03):
back to you know, many parents like, oh, well, the
chat rooms and this and that, Well, no, we're starting
to see it and gaming platforms, online gaming platforms where
individuals are using whether it's in game currency or items
or experience in the games, to befriend and earn the
trust of young boys, and they will request again a
(33:24):
sexually explicit image from that child. Once that image is received,
those tables are immediately turned and there are requesting you know,
wire transfer of money or gift cards or whatnot. And
what we saw last year alone, over twelve boys in
the United States, over a dozen boys committed suicide because
(33:46):
they were victims of sextortion. Children who you know, this
isn't a mental health crisis. The issue. This isn't our
children who were suicidal before this. They were driven to
suicide because of the shame and guilt of these images
being exposed to their friends and families and whatnot. And
(34:07):
in fact, we just saw an extradition. It's incredible and
hats off to law enforcement on this. An extradition of
an individual, a child predator from Nigeria who was praying
on a young boy for financial gains again in the
case of financial sextortion, and that boy committed suicide unfortunately,
(34:31):
and the individual who was responsible for that was extra
dated from Nigeria to the United States and his pending
trial as we speak.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
That is fantastic and that's what should happen, you know,
And a lot of times people will say to me, well,
how bad is the problem, and I said, well, we
had to invent a registry because there's that many. You
need to know where they're living. I said earlier that
you're paving your own way. But I have to tell
(34:59):
people at crime Con, I saw you and Joe Mullins
doing something that was so extraordinary and he's going to
be on Zone seven sometime. But I've got to go
ahead and mention this because again when you say, you know,
how do I set myself apart? How can I do
something more? How can I do something that's so unique
(35:19):
and also helpful? Well, at crime Con, I got my
socks knocked off. So tell everybody what y'all did in
real time right there in front of everybody.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
Oh. Absolutely, yeah, that was fantastic. Right. So, Joe Mullins,
as you mentioned, he is a longtime forensic imaging specialist
here at the National Center for Missing Exploited Children. I've
known Joe for a very long time, a very dedicated
individual and awesome, awesome guy. And so what we did
(35:52):
is we worked so crime con this year was in Orlando,
So we worked with the local Medical Examiner's Office in Orlando,
and we requested the remains of any unidentified children who
have been found in the area, whose cases are still
unsolved and are still unidentified. And so the local Medical
(36:14):
Examiner's Office provided us with a case of our anthropologists,
because we first consult forensic anthropologists before we start a
forensic reconstruction. So what the Medical Examiner's Office did is
they CT scan the skull and then we had two
(36:34):
different three D prints, one to one exact replicas of
the skull printed. And this was the case of the
unidentified remains of what was believed to be between the
ages of twelve and eighteen years old Caucasian female whose
remains were found in a heavily wooded area that was
(36:56):
formerly used as a garbage dump. Her remains found. She
had two gunshot wounds to the head, one from left
to right and one sort of diagonal through her through
her face kind of from the back, sort of from
the temple out through the nasal passage, and her remains
(37:19):
began have gone unidentified. This is a cold case. This
is nineteen seventy three. It's a fifty year old case.
Her remains have gone unidentified since nineteen seventy three. And
so what Joe does when he starts with these forensic
reconstructions is, of course again consult the friends Aga anthropologist.
They said, okay, twelve everything it was actually I think
(37:41):
it was thirteen to eighteen years old, So we shoot
down the middle. Joe was like, okay, we're going to
aim for about a sixteen year old here, fifteen to
sixteen year old. What we were able determine we knew
she was Caucasian. She she's white. We also did know
that she had brown hair. We don't always get that information,
but she had brown hair pulled back in a ponytail.
(38:02):
And so what Joe will start to do using oil
based clay is start the forensic reconstruction lay in tissue
dept markers, start putting in muscle, ligature, cartilage, trying to
determine what this child may have looked like in life,
in hopes that somebody there at crime Con would identify
(38:25):
who this child is. So Joe starting in day one
to get this takes him about typically about two weeks
to do these facial reconstructions. He had three days, so
lots of coffee, but Joe powered through and again a
great crowd at crime Con, lots of questions, and so
(38:46):
Joe starts with those tissue dept markers laying in the ligature,
trying to, you know, figuring out where the tip of
the noses, what orientation the nose is in, how thick
or thin it should be. Does this person have detached
or attached deer lobes. In fact, that he could determine
from the skull she had detached deer lobs, that's the
genetic marker. He could also determine which direction her nose
(39:08):
was pointed, where the tip of her nose was We
saw that she had a slight overbite as well. We
were also able to determine through a biochemical analysis that
while her remains were found in Florida. She was not
from Florida and she had only been in Florida for
a few months because the pollen that was found on
her remains, and the pollen was from of that recent season,
(39:30):
meaning the pollen found on her body was unique only
to the northwestern part of the United States, possibly the
midwestern part of the United States as well. And so
with this information, we are trying to spark that recognition,
try to get somebody who may recognize who this person,
who this child was in life, in hopes that we
(39:53):
can determine we can find out their name, we can
find out what happened to them, and provide the family
with these answers. You know, again, you have to think
it's nineteen seventy three when these remains were found. There's
no social media, there's no cell phones, you know. Was
she traveling with a companion, was she traveling with a boyfriend?
(40:14):
You know, there's a really strong possibility that our family
had no idea she was even in Florida, hence why
there was no missing child report matching her description in
the area. So her remains have gone unidentified and we're
hoping that somebody can identify her remains based on the
(40:35):
facial reconstruction that Joe did right there at Crime con
in front of all the attendees, right there on the floor.
Over those three days he hand built that in clay,
which we have now at our Florida branch. We have
a Florida branch of the National Center for Missing Employee Children.
That that bust is now in our Florida office and
(40:56):
will continue to be used in hopes to identify this
this Jane Doe.
Speaker 1 (41:01):
And I'm going to tell you it was the most
extraordinary thing to watch. It was just a god given
gift to watch him work. And you know, when you
start with that first day, I mean, it looks like
a skeleton. It looks kind of almost like are you
making some kind of Halloween mask.
Speaker 2 (41:18):
Yeah, it's kind of creepy at first, kind of creepy.
Speaker 1 (41:21):
And I know, Caroline, you met my daughter. She was
with me and she was like, okay, like he's got
a ways to go, you know. But then Saturday we
started to really see wait a minute, and then by
Sunday afternoon there she was yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:37):
Oh she's got his hair and a scrunchy and everything.
I mean, you know, yeah, it comes to life and
that's what Joe. Joe always says. You know, once I
see someone staring back at me, that's when I stopped.
Speaker 1 (41:48):
And then everybody there was taking pictures to share on
social media. So it was just a brilliant way to
get this unidentified cold case some national attention because everybody
was sharing it.
Speaker 2 (42:01):
Yeah, and that's what we wanted. Look, hey, it would
have been great if somebody there at Crime con recognize
that child, but hey, take a picture of him post
on social media. It also takes as one person again
to spark that recognition when we see that all the
time at the National Center. Our whole database of missing
children's cases are available at our website missingkids dot org.
(42:22):
You can go and search through every single one of
our cases that we have active right now. If there's
a case from your community, or a case that you
think is not getting the attention that it deserves, post
on yours on your feet. Maybe a friend or a
family member, somebody that follows you recognizes that child. Also
takes as one kid. You could be the reason that
that child is reunited with their family, or a case
(42:45):
like this one that these unidentified remains are identified and
a family finally gets those answers that they've been desperately
searching for.
Speaker 1 (42:54):
Callahan. There's no way to talk to you without getting
fired up. But I'm just ready to go load up
the truck, go save some children.
Speaker 2 (43:01):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (43:02):
So tell us what your goals are for the future
and how we can support you. What do you need
from us?
Speaker 2 (43:09):
Absolutely well, you know, we're always trying to put ourselves
out of a job at the National Center. We're always
trying to We always want to say like, hey, the
last missing child's been found. No children, wo let me
go missing again. Unfortunately we're not there, and we are
a nonprofit. We rely on the generous donations of individuals,
and so you know, for listeners to go out and
(43:31):
come to our website, we're missing kids dot org.
Speaker 1 (43:34):
Again.
Speaker 2 (43:35):
We have some great educational programs. If you have a
child in your life, look at our net Smart's program,
look at our Kids Smarts program. We've got resources that
can help them make safe and smart decisions. But for
our active cases, for the cases of exploitation we're fighting against,
for the missing children, we're trying to actively find donations.
I can't stress it enough. It really is what keeps
(43:58):
our doors open, our lights on. If it weren't for
our generous donors, we wouldn't be able to help recover.
We've recovered over four hundred thousand missing children since our inception,
and that doesn't happen without the generous donations of people
like your listeners, and so you know, if you give
a dollar, five dollars, whatever you have, Honestly, the donations
(44:20):
just they mean a lot, and what allows us to
continue the fight. It allows us to help assisting law
enforcement and assisting families that are going through a nightmare scenario.
And it allows us to bring home these children that
that we're able to know in effect, the chains that
(44:42):
we're able to affect with the families and the children
that we serve. It really is about bringing these children
home and being able to provide the long term care
and support that they need as well.
Speaker 1 (44:53):
Callahan, I cannot thank you enough. I think everybody that
had an opportunity to listen to you tonight is going
to be called to action, y'all. I'm going to end
Zone seven the way that I always do with a quote.
Not knowing where your child is at bedtime is a
pretty hard thing to accept. Rave Walsh Adam's Mama. I'm
(45:15):
Cheryl McCollum and this is Zone seven.
Host
Sheryl McCollum
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