How to Search for a Missing Child

Few things are as frightening and stressful as realizing your child is missing. Because it's important to act quickly, it's helpful to have an idea of how to handle such a situation. Use the information below to learn how to search for a missing child.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

1. Take action immediately. Although it may be difficult to focus during such a horrible incident, it's essential that you avoid panicking and get moving.
2. Search the house, including closets, under beds, inside large appliances and inside cars and trucks in the garage. Think carefully about all the places in and around your home where a child could hide, then check each and every place.
3. Talk to the manager or a security guard if your child goes missing in a store or public building. Most stores have a standard procedure to follow, which includes notifying law enforcement and alerting all employees so they can watch for the child.
4. Notify the police. Be prepared to give vital information to the officers, including a detailed description of your child. You need to be able to provide your child's height, weight, date of birth, what they were wearing, where you last saw them and any distinguishable characteristics. It's obviously extremely helpful if you have a current photograph of the child.
5. Ask the police to add your child to the FBI's National Crime Information Center Missing Person File. All federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, as well as other criminal justice agencies, can access the Missing Person File. If a missing child is added to the system, it allows for a quick transfer of information among various groups so they can work together to locate the child.