For Immediate Release
Monday, August 19, 2013
San Francisco – Sean Sidi vanished
on May 21, 2013, near 150 Oak Street in San Francisco, CA. Frantic, Sean’s
parents Claude Sidi and Lynn Ching, immediately called San Francisco Police
Department (SFPD) to make a missing person report. The Sidi’s were particularly
concerned because Sean was recovering from emergency brain surgery after
sustaining a severe traumatic brain injury in an accident several months
earlier. According to a statement issued by Dr. Geoffrey Manley, Chief of
Neurosurgery at San Francisco General Hospital, “Sean’s medical condition puts
him at significant risk of death, or of not making a meaningful recovery from
his brain injury if not found quickly.” What the Sidi family
did not realize is local and national resources to help them find their son are
minimal.
 |
| Kevin Collins missing February 10, 1984 |
It has been almost 30
years since Kevin Collins vanished from San Francisco on February 10, 1984. One
of the first children to appear on a milk carton, Kevin’s case garnered
national media attention.
 |
| The missing, featured on a milk carton. |
In the years
following Kevin’s disappearance, there were many advances in the way law
enforcement and media respond to missing child cases. However, as the Sidi family found out, how
much help you receive depends upon the age of your missing child and possibly
even their gender. Unlike the disappearance of Kevin Collins, few missing
persons ever become a household name.
As of August 1, 2013,
there were 80,870 active missing person cases in the United States. The total
number of active juvenile cases totals 40,671 missing children ages 0 - 17, and
11,025 active missing persons ages 18 - 21, with 29,174 active missing adults
ages 22 - 99. Of the total number of active missing person cases 39,692 are
missing males and the total number of individuals entered as disabled total
5,104.
In 1982, Congress
enacted the Missing Children’s Act, requiring law enforcement to enter a missing
child’s information into the FBI National Crime Information Center (NCIC). In
1984, President Ronald Reagan officially opened the doors of the National
Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) to provide assistance to
law enforcement and families of missing children up to age 17.
Suzanne’s Law, which
passed in 2003, required that law enforcement enter any missing person between 18 - 21 years of age into NCIC. In addition to NCIC entry, Suzanne’s Law
enables law enforcement to register 18 - 21 year olds with the NCMEC and
profiled on www.missingkids.com, along with making
additional resources available. However,
despite the passage of Suzanne’s Law, many law enforcement agencies throughout
the country are still unaware this law exists, and missing persons ages 18-21, are
often not provided the services of NCMEC or properly entered into NCIC
databases.
Sean was entered into
National Missing and
Unidentified Persons System (NAMUS) and receiving services from NCMEC searching for
their missing disabled son but discovered other resources to assist in the
search are scarce. Experts say missing persons over the age of 18 still have
minimal resources, and even less media attention, especially for missing young
men.
Typically, Amber
Alerts and Silver Alerts are not available for young adults who vanish – even
if severely disabled. According to the official Amber Alert website, one of the
criteria for issuing an emergency broadcast is the missing person must be under
age 17. The California Highway
Patrol - Silver Alert
website indicates the missing person
must be 65 or older to issue a Silver Alert. Sean does not fit either
requirement.
A family’s desperate efforts to find missing son
transforms into national public awareness campaign
 |
| Sean Sidi, critically disabled missing person. |
With the help of an
army of volunteers, the Sidi family has conducted ground searches, held vigils,
posted thousands of fliers, visited homeless shelters and food kitchens, and
even traveled to the Montana Rainbow Gathering in an effort to find Sean. They
have distributed a minimum 30,000 missing person fliers.
They have also
conducted a very impressive social media campaign. The Sidi’s immediately
created a website for their son at www.seansidi.com that has received
over 80,000 unique site visits since
May and 1,613,306 hits to their
website. In addition, they created “Find Sean Sidi” Facebook page, along
with utilizing Twitter and Pinterest, to get Sean’s information out to the
public. Together, the social media sites are averaging 7,000 visitors per day.
The Sidi family post
updates on activities, dates of vigils, personal notes to Sean from family and
friends, and “Calls to Action” asking for help from the public to “share” and
post fliers of Sean nationwide, hoping to generate the one lead that will bring
Sean home safe. They even announced a $5,000 reward.
According to NOKR’s National Director for Missing Adults,
Sean is considered an extremely “high risk” missing person case but even his
critical medical condition does not garner the same media attention as other
missing persons.
“Sean’s medical condition places him in a category of
individuals with a disability who are at significant risk of injury or
victimization if not found immediately - and with the public’s help, I believe
we can find Sean,” says Kym L. Pasqualini. “I’ve spent twenty years in the
field of missing persons and services to families of missing adults are
minimal, but there also exists disproportionate media coverage and historically
we have had more difficulty getting media coverage for missing adult males, and the
same is true for missing persons of different races and socioeconomic status.” NBC
news Damsels in Distress
and TRU TV
reports from 2004, reflect little has changed for families of missing adults.
Despite the challenges they have faced in their effort to
find their missing son, Sean’s parents remain undeterred from continuing their
aggressive public awareness campaign.
“We will never stop searching for Sean until he is
found. Despite the many advances in the way law
enforcement and media respond to missing child cases,
since Kevin Collins’ disappearance 30 years ago, there is a serious lack of
resources available when an adult goes missing,” says Lynn Ching, Sean Sidi’s
mother. “It has been very difficult to obtain government assistance in our
search for Sean. There is an urgent need for stronger laws to ensure timely assistance in the search for missing adults, especially those with serious
medical conditions.”
For general information and
statistics about missing persons, you can reach Kym L. Pasqualini at (480)
466-0063 or kympasqualini@gmail.com.
About NOKR
Established
in January 2004, The Next of Kin Registry (NOKR) is a humanitarian non-profit
501c3 dedicated to bridging rapid emergency contact information. NOKR is a 100%
volunteer work force with volunteers in 87 countries. NOKR is a resource on
more than 92% of all State websites, the American Red Cross, International
Committee for the Red Cross, Homeland Security Disasterhelp.gov, USA.gov, Ready
FEMA, and other federal agencies, as a critical resource for daily emergencies.
NOKR is also an official partner of Microsoft HealthVault. For more
information, please contact NOKR Deputy Director Gerry DiStefano at (803)
319-3017 or Kym L. Pasqualini at (480) 466-0063. Visit NOKR's website at www.nokr.org.
