Latest news with #NationalCenterforMissing&ExploitedChildren
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Yahoo
National Missing Children's Day aims to bring awareness to those still missing
GREENVILLE, N.C. (WNCT) — Sunday, May 25, is National Missing Children's Day. The day of recognition was proclaimed by former President Ronald Reagan in 1983 after 6 year old Etan Patz went missing in New York City on May 25, 1979. Patz's case was so public it went on to inspire the creation of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. In 2024 there were 8,758 reports of missing children in North Carolina, the NC Department of Public Safety reports. The department recently announced in March of this year that they have created a Missing Child Repository to provide a unified way of notifying the public when a child goes missing. Family members can submit a photo of the missing child to missing@ while also providing the child's name and case number. As of May 21, 2025, 5,148 children have gone missing this year in North Carolina. Out of these cases, 412 were still active at the time this article was written. Six of those cases were AMBER alerts and 85 were labelled missing endangered. There are some things everyone can do to make a difference, such as sharing a poster of a local missing child online, talking to a child that you know about how to stay safe and report any information that could help in the case of a missing child. To report information, call 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678). To view North Carolina's missing children, click here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Yahoo
Florida State Attorney working to create Sextortion Taskforce as cases increase
Research shows financial sextortion cases are skyrocketing in recent years. State Attorney Melissa Nelson tells Action News Jax she's seen an increase in local cases. Now, her office plans to work with local law enforcement to create a sextortion task force. A nationally recognized cybercrime and financial sextortion expert was invited to Jacksonville Thursday by State Attorney Melissa Nelson to give advice to parents and children on how to protect themselves. 'I'm reading about teens, taking their own lives across our nation,' said Nelson. 'I'm the mother of both three teenagers and both as a prosecutor, a public servant, and a mother, I feel like our community needs to know about this.' >>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<< [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks] Financial Sextortion is a crime that involves blackmailing children using their intimate images or intimate videos to demand money. According to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, there were 139 cases of sextortion in 2021. By 2023, there were over 26,000 cases reported. That is an 18,000% increase in the span of 2 years. 'If you're on social media and you get a friend request from somebody you don't know and immediately, they start messaging you, they start to compliment you, they ask you for pictures, that's a red flag right away,' said Paul Raffile, Cybercrime expert and researcher. Raffile said during his research, he noticed a correlation between the spike in financial sextortion cases and the increased use of financial payment platforms. 'What we actually saw is this crime started spiking about a year or a year and a half after COVID started. In fact, there's more of a correlation to a lot of the financial payment platforms that allowed teens on their platforms post-2021. And at the same time that teens have been able to send money back and forth to their friends, now they're also exposed to international criminals who exploit those apps to get them to send them money their way instead,' said Raffile. Raffile noted that a lot of the time, sextortion criminals are targeting young men on sports teams. He suggested some active approaches parents and coaches should be taking to get ahead of this. 'Just having that conversation, if this does happen to you, you can come to us. You can reach out to a parent, reach out to a coach or a teacher and they will find some way to help,' said Raffile. If you think you are falling victim to sextortion, be sure to report it to the authorities immediately. [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter]
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Yahoo
Chickasha Police Department join national sex offender network
The Chickasha Police Department announced last week that it has joined the nationwide OffenderWatch® sex offender registry network. The network enables interagency collaboration on investigations and shares critical information involving registered sex offenders with other local law enforcement agencies across the country, according to a press release. Chickasha citizens can search for sex offenders in the area, or sign up to receive email alerts, at OffenderWatch® is the leading sex offender registration solution, according to the press release, and has over 15,000 unique users in 16 states. There are 4,000 local and state law enforcement agencies that utilize the software for registered offenders tracking across jurisdictions. 'Chickasha Police Department is pleased to join the coast-to-coast OffenderWatch® network in order to better share information, coordinate investigations, and collaborate on sex offenders,' said CPD Chief Goebel Music. 'When a registered offender moves from outside the city, officers save countless hours researching and re-entering data because the offender record is seamlessly shared from one agency to the other. OffenderWatch builds a history of the data we have on file, and this facilitates registry staff, investigators and others working together. This enables officers to be more proactive in offender management and keeping the community aware.' The press release said there are more than 900,000 registered sex offenders in the United States, according to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. 'We believe data shared between law enforcement agencies leads to better investigations and safer cities and counties,' said Mike Cormaci, president, and co-founder of OffenderWatch®. 'With the Chickasha Police Department joining our network, OffenderWatch now has more of the nation's children covered by our reach—hopefully leading to fewer victims.' To learn more about OffenderWatch® and sign up for email alerts on offenders, visit
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Yahoo
Chickasha Police Department join national sex offender network
The Chickasha Police Department announced last week that it has joined the nationwide OffenderWatch® sex offender registry network. The network enables interagency collaboration on investigations and shares critical information involving registered sex offenders with other local law enforcement agencies across the country, according to a press release. Chickasha citizens can search for sex offenders in the area, or sign up to receive email alerts, at OffenderWatch® is the leading sex offender registration solution, according to the press release, and has over 15,000 unique users in 16 states. There are 4,000 local and state law enforcement agencies that utilize the software for registered offenders tracking across jurisdictions. 'Chickasha Police Department is pleased to join the coast-to-coast OffenderWatch® network in order to better share information, coordinate investigations, and collaborate on sex offenders,' said CPD Chief Goebel Music. 'When a registered offender moves from outside the city, officers save countless hours researching and re-entering data because the offender record is seamlessly shared from one agency to the other. OffenderWatch builds a history of the data we have on file, and this facilitates registry staff, investigators and others working together. This enables officers to be more proactive in offender management and keeping the community aware.' The press release said there are more than 900,000 registered sex offenders in the United States, according to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. 'We believe data shared between law enforcement agencies leads to better investigations and safer cities and counties,' said Mike Cormaci, president, and co-founder of OffenderWatch®. 'With the Chickasha Police Department joining our network, OffenderWatch now has more of the nation's children covered by our reach—hopefully leading to fewer victims.' To learn more about OffenderWatch® and sign up for email alerts on offenders, visit
Metro
07-05-2025
- Metro
Search for missing girl as sister found 'starving and locked in closet by mum'
A desperate search is underway for a missing nine-year-old girl after her mother was busted for allegedly locking her younger sister in a closet and starving her. Ava Marie Gonzales was last seen by her family and friends in December 2017, when she was just two years old. She was never reported missing. More than six years later, the Austin Police Department is asking for the public's help to find Ava after discovering her seven-year-old sister 'locked in a closet and starving' on April 3, said Detective Russell Constable of the child abuse unit. Police on April 24 arrested their mother, Virginia Gonzales, and charged her with injury to a child and serious bodily injury related to the seven-year-old. A 911 caller said the girl was 'malnourished, soiled and barricaded in a bedroom closet', according to her mum's arrest affidavit. Inside the apartment in Del Valle, Texas, police found six more children who all appeared 'to be fine', Constable said during a press conference on Tuesday. But in the course of the investigation, police discovered that there was an eighth child who was not found in the home – and whom they identified as Ava. Ava was in her mum's custody before she vanished. Missing persons detectives are 'seriously concerned about Ava's welfare given the circumstances in which Ava's seven-year-old sibling was found', Constable said. Ava has been described as Hispanic with straight brown hair and brown eyes. Her height and weight are unknown. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children has developed an age progressed photo of Ava to aid in the search for her. 'This has been an emotionally difficult case for multiple agencies that were involved' including the police department, interviewers, medical responders, counselors and community members, Constable said. He added that detectives have not found any record of any of the children being enrolled in school, meaning they could have been kept at home. Authorities have not identified Ava's father, and did not immediately disclose her mother's criminal history. She was pictured with a heart-shaped tattoo on her neck in her mugshot. Gonzales is being held at the Travis County Correctional Complex on a $75,000 bond, jail records show. More Trending Anyone with information on Ava's disappearance and whereabouts is urged to contact the police department or Crime Stoppers. Del Valle is about nine miles southeast of Austin. 'She could be anywhere at this point,' Constable said. The hunt for Ava comes days after a married mum-of-two who went missing from Reedsburg, Wisconsin, 60 years ago was found alive and well. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: Girl, 13, raped by teenage boy 'last seen at McDonald's' MORE: Nine arrested after group celebrated Hitler's birthday with cake at a pub MORE: Men accused of felling Sycamore Gap took part in 'thuggish' attack for a 'laugh'
