Families turn to Facebook in search for missing kids

When 19-year-old William Hood seemingly went missing earlier this summer in Toronto and hadn't contacted anyone in his family for weeks, his mom, a police dispatcher from London, Ont., knew exactly what to do.

She went on Facebook.

Online social networking sites are increasingly being used to complement police investigations into missing person reports, and Facebook is filled with stories of families seized by unimaginable grief.

This week, Child Find Manitoba turned to Facebook to help in the search for missing children Abby and Dominic Maryk, who disappeared more than a year ago and might have been abducted by their biological father.

"Our goal is to use as many means as possible to get the faces of these children in front of as wide an audience as possible," said Christy Dzikowicz, the organization's director, in a statement.

The Missing Children Society of Canada doesn't go out of its way to recommend that Facebook be used in the search for loved ones but often finds that going online is among the first things families do, spokeswoman Marilyne Aalhus said.

Pages devoted to missing people fill Facebook, and among the sad eulogies for loved ones who have never been found, there are also some hopeful stories with happy endings.

The London dispatcher 42-year-old Deanna Rawn logged on to Facebook after son William, who had moved to Toronto for school, stopped returning calls and emails.

First she posted a message on her profile and on his wall saying she was very worried and would be calling police if she didn't hear from him soon.

Hours passed with no reply. As she picked up the phone to call police, she also logged back on to Facebook and posted the digital equivalent of a "missing" poster. The message was time-stamped July 29, 4:03 p.m.

Twenty-six minutes later, her son replied.

"Hey mom. LONG story short, I'm ok. I'm not in T.O. any more," he wrote. "I have just been practically living under a rock in terms of technology. I don't have a phone or anything like that, but I will try to call your cell ASAP."

The teen had strayed a few hours north of the city looking for work but hadn't relayed that information back to his worried family.

"Like most teenagers, when they start out on their own, they want to think they can do it all without any help from their families, and he wanted to be back on his feet before he let anyone know where he was," Rawn explained.

"With youth nowadays, Facebook is an addiction for them. They all go on it, they all have friends [on it], and I figured even if he wasn't still going on it maybe one of his friends would hear where he was."

Sad memorials

But for every happy story about reunited families, Facebook has many more sad memorials for missing people who have never been found.

Twenty-one-year-old Dylan Koshman of Edmonton has been missing since last Oct. 10, but his family and friends have not given up hope and continue to gather on Facebook to exchange messages of support and wait for news.

Koshman left his apartment after an argument with a roommate and has not been seen since. Although the site has contributed few solid leads, Koshman's family credits Facebook with helping to quickly let people know about his disappearance.

"Facebook was definitely a great tool to have it connect us with all our friends and family immediately," said Koshman's sister, Tara.

There are drawbacks to posting appeals for help on Facebook, as the family of slain eight-year-old Victoria (Tori) Stafford of Woodstock, Ont., learned.

The site was great for spreading the word about her disappearance and co-ordinating public searches, but it also became a forum for unsubstantiated rumour-mongering and slandering of the girl's parents as the police investigation dragged on.

"It definitely helped to raise awareness, but there's definitely pros and cons with it," said Rebecca Stafford, the girl's aunt, who started the Facebook page.

"You had people that were venting their anger about the situation there and you almost had a pack mentality forming. ... Sometimes, we were worried that there might be some form of lynch mob forming or something to that effect."

Despite the potential drawbacks, Koshman said she'll continue to use Facebook in the search for her brother until her family finally gets closure. Since Koshman's body has never been found, the family is still hoping for a miracle.

"It definitely keeps our hopes alive that he might be out there. Maybe he had some amnesia or something," she said. "It's good to get his picture out there. Hopefully, somebody out there will be able to recognize him."