by Kevin Cardin

Created on: June 04, 2008

JESSICA'S LAW A MUST It's no secret, the number of missing and exploited children in this country, at least not to anyone intent on braving the statistics. And staggering, those facts and statistics are. But behind every case file, lies an individual, broken- hearted family with their own horrid and painful story to tell. While each of these cases is unique, most of them also share some commonalities. When one thinks about the sheer number of children brutally abducted, and often murdered, along with the cries certain to accompany them, it's enough to overwhelm even the staunchest of children's advocates. Gone - vanished - a life put on pause or ended at such a delicate age. And thousands more just like it, each leaving behind a family, now left to gather around photos and portraits and cry, weeping the tears of a family whose only reunions will exist in memories. Parents, who in the immediate days following the abduction, are left with the gruesome and ever-present question of where and how far away their beloved child is. During the silence of their private sorrow, and amidst the chaos of the quick-paced recovery effort, exists the unavoidable question, "What unspeakable acts are being perpetrated against my child?" A question to which there is no answer. A question that haunts the few hours of meaningless sleep which is fleeting. During the initial hours and days, as the shock begins to slowly set in, the bustling activities of various law enforcement agencies conducting rapid search and recovery efforts are a daunting burden on any grieving parents. For the child's loved ones, who are now resigned to waiting, the alarming sound of the telephone brings with it an untellable series of highs and lows as they hope for that one call, and the familiar voice that will accompany it, finally proclaiming that everything is okay. It is a call that all too often is destined never to be heard. As the days drag on into weeks, there is no letup between the pull of hope and hopelessness. And despite its best efforts, little is usually resolved by a search that answered few questions and provided fewer leads. The long period of waiting seems like an indistinguishable series of day and night that has seen the well-wishing faces of family and friends relegated to strangers by a haunting daze from which it is still too soon to emerge. When sheer mental exhaustion finally sets in, and the pain doesn't diminish but becomes slightly more bearable, there remains a void of wondering

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>