Parents Of Abducted And Sexually Assaulted Children Join Forces
KOTV - 6/21/2007 8:19 PM - Updated 6/22/2007 6:25 AM
Parents who've been through the worst pain imaginable join forces to protect children. Families who made national news after their child was kidnapped or murdered have created the Surviving Parents Coalition. These parents are members of a close-knit group that no parent ever wants to belong to. They have lost children to kidnappers, sexual predators and murderers all over the U.S., including Oklahoma. News On 6 crime reporter Lori Fullbright reports they will be featured in “People” magazine next week.
The names are familiar, Mark Lunsford, whose daughter Jessica was kidnapped from her Florida home. Her body was found three weeks later. Ed Smart, his 15-year-old daughter Elizabeth was kidnapped from their Utah home. She was found alive, but sexually abused, nine months later. Marc Klass, whose daughter Polly was kidnapped at age 12 from their home and murdered. Colleen Nick, her daughter Morgan was kidnapped from a ballgame in Alma, Arkansas and has never been found. Erin Runnion, the mother of Samantha who was kidnapped from home and found murdered, 70 miles away the next day. Magi and John Blish, parents of 16-year-old Molly who was kidnapped from her job as a lifeguard, her remains weren't found for three years. Linda Walker, whose daughter Dru Sjodin was kidnapped from a mall parking lot in North Dakota and found murdered five months later. Mika Moulton, the mother of Christopher Meyer, he was kidnapped when he was 10 and found buried in a shallow grave. Mary Kozakiewicz, mother of 13-year-old Alicia who disappeared from their Pennsylvania home. She was found alive, chained inside an online sexual predator's home. And Oklahoman Rebecca DeMauro, whose daughter Andi Brewer was also a victim.
]"Nobody thinks it'll happen to them. Eight years ago I couldn't have believed I'd have a child kidnapped and murdered," said Andi’s mother Rebecca DeMauro.
These parents have individually created foundations to educate citizens and lobby for tougher laws. Now, they realize it will be more effective to do it as a group.
"If we can just make this a safer place for them to grow up, not see Internet porn, God forbid, be kidnapped, we want that to stop," DeMauro said.
These parents go to Washington DC on Monday to meet with members of Congress. They are pushing two bills next term, one, the TRAC ACT, tracks the actions of judges, prosecutors and police regarding crimes against children, the other, the War on Child Predators Act, gives better funding to fight child pornography.
TRAC ACT: Track and Report Abuse of Children
This law is a full-disclosure bill that will require states to track and publicly report the practices of judges, prosecutors and law enforcement agencies regarding crimes against children. For example, the number of plea-bargains, sentence lengths, and verified locations of sex-offenders.
War on Child Predators Act – Child Pornography and the Internet Crimes Against Children
Funding and accountability measures for law enforcement and prosecutorial agencies empowered to investigate and prosecute crimes against children. This law will focus on child pornography, but the funds used for forensic labs, investigators and U.S. Attorneys all dedicated to crimes against children will significantly improve the number of perpetrators apprehended and the number of children rescued from sexual abuse and exploitation.
3 comments:
How can you good parents even be assoicated with this man MArk Lunsford that the police Found CHILD PORN ON HIS HOME COMPUTER?
How can we let this happen within our Government? The law is clear and while we all feel his pain, that does not negate his own crimes as per the FBI statement below. Just because he’s been though enough.
Teacher charged with having child porn on computer
Saturday, June 9, 2007
The Associated Press
If this teacher was charged then after reading the below we are sure you will agree that Mark Lunsford should be as well.
Well all we can say is that some of us better stop this Mark Lunsford from going to Washington this week, and before our Congressmen and lobbying for the same thing that he is guilty of. How can we let this man stand before our Gov't and ask that a Child Porn Law be supported when he was found to have it on his own home computer, see the excuse they use below! The FBI Law is clear about even having possession which he had on his computer. SEE: News Story and FACTS:
What we would like to know is how can this man Mark Lunsford go to Washington and lobby for a Child Porn Law when it was found on his own home computer. The questions begs itself is to why he was not prosecuted as so many others have been . Well the answer lies below in the cover up of the Atty. For the state of Florida says he's been though enough.
FBI Special Agent Pete Gulotta: The law is very clear that transmission of child pornography is a crime. In fact, the mere possession of child pornography is a crime. There are numerous Federal statutes that pertain to the possession, transportation of child pornography, travelling interstate with intent to have sex with a minor, coercing a minor into travelling interstate to have sex, manufacture of child pornography, etc. Numerous successful prosecutions have resulted from the application of these statues.
Story on the news all over about them finding it on his computer. Just because it was in a delete bin does not mean that he could not restore it at any time he wanted. Now his son Joshua Lunsford is charged with Sex Crime in Ohio.
According to documents released Monday afternoon, investigators say they discovered child pornography on Mark Lunsford's home computer.
Lunsford, the father of 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford, who was killed in February, denies looking at the images, while the sheriff's office says none of the images had been "downloaded, filed or saved."
The 852 pages made public by the State Attorney's office in Brooksville contained transcripts of interviews with accused killer John Couey's housemates Dorothy Dixon, Matthew Dittrich and Madie Secord and also information about the hundreds of leads investigators checked out during the opening days of Jessica Lunsford's disappearance.
Prosecutors continue to prepare for their capital murder case against Couey, who they say admitted to kidnapping and murdering the 9-year-old Homosassa girl.
He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Contained in the documents released by the State Attorney's office were notes from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement that mention the pornography. The images, documents say, were found Feb. 24 -- the day Jessica was reported missing from her South Sonata Avenue home -- by Citrus County sheriff's detectives during their investigation of the missing girl.
Though the documents did not go into specifics about the images, Assistant State Attorney Pete Magrino said the images were found on Lunsford's computer. However, he said his office is not pursuing charges.
"There was no evidence found by law enforcement that the computer was used in the manufacturing or production of child pornography, only that there were a limited number of items that were viewed," Magrino said. "To expend additional law enforcement resources and prosecutor resources to make a case, when balancing societal goals. I mean, Mr. Lunsford's been through enough."
Along with the images, a list of more than 50 "sexually oriented" Web sites that Lunsford visited on the morning before Jessica disappeared was released by prosecutors last month. Talking in his office Monday, Magrino declined to give an exact number of images that investigators found, but said it was in the "single digits."
He said while Lunsford said he viewed pornographic images, the questionable images could have gotten on the computer any number of ways, such as through "pop-ups" or by accident.
Sheriff spokeswoman Gail Tierney said a "handful" of images were found by members of the sheriff's computer forensics unit in the computers delete bin. She said the images had not been downloaded, filed or saved.
Tierney said Sheriff Jeff Dawsy has been "in agreement" with the State Attorney about not pressing charges because the office felt Lunsford has been through enough, and added that any attempt at prosecution "would have been challenging" because the images had not been saved.
Magrino acknowledged there would likely be some public outcry concerning the images and his office's decision not to prosecute. He theorized the Public Defender's Office might even use the information to build its case for defending John Couey, the man accused of Jessica's kidnapping and murder
The names are familiar, Mark Lunsford, whose daughter Jessica was kidnapped from her Florida home. Her body was found three weeks later.
If we can just make this a safer place for them to grow up, not see Internet porn, God forbid, be kidnapped, we want that to stop," DeMauro said.
These parents go to Washington DC on Monday to meet with members of Congress. They are pushing two bills next term, one, the TRAC ACT, tracks the actions of judges, prosecutors and police regarding crimes against children, the other, the War on Child
Predators Act, gives better funding to fight child pornography.
TRAC ACT: Track and Report Abuse of Children
This law is a full-disclosure bill that will require states to track and publicly report the practices of judges, prosecutors and law enforcement agencies regarding crimes against children. For example, the number of plea-bargains, sentence lengths, and verified locations of sex-offenders.
War on Child Predators Act -- Child Pornography and the Internet Crimes Against Children
Funding and accountability measures for law enforcement and prosecutorial agencies empowered to investigate and prosecute crimes against children. This law will focus on child pornography, but the funds used for forensic labs, investigators and U.S. Attorneys all dedicated to crimes against children will significantly improve the number of perpetrators apprehended and the number of children rescued from sexual abuse and exploitation.
Have we lost all our feelings for our children and if he can get by with this, then why are there so many in jail for the same crime. They could not use the excuse that "POPUPS or Accident" When he admitted to looking at them.
How can you good parents even be assoicated with this man MArk Lunsford that the police Found CHILD PORN ON HIS HOME COMPUTER?
How can we let this happen within our Government? The law is clear and while we all feel his pain, that does not negate his own crimes as per the FBI statement below. Just because he’s been though enough.
Teacher charged with having child porn on computer
Saturday, June 9, 2007
The Associated Press
If this teacher was charged then after reading the below we are sure you will agree that Mark Lunsford should be as well.
Well all we can say is that some of us better stop this Mark Lunsford from going to Washington this week, and before our Congressmen and lobbying for the same thing that he is guilty of. How can we let this man stand before our Gov't and ask that a Child Porn Law be supported when he was found to have it on his own home computer, see the excuse they use below! The FBI Law is clear about even having possession which he had on his computer. SEE: News Story and FACTS:
What we would like to know is how can this man Mark Lunsford go to Washington and lobby for a Child Porn Law when it was found on his own home computer. The questions begs itself is to why he was not prosecuted as so many others have been . Well the answer lies below in the cover up of the Atty. For the state of Florida says he's been though enough.
FBI Special Agent Pete Gulotta: The law is very clear that transmission of child pornography is a crime. In fact, the mere possession of child pornography is a crime. There are numerous Federal statutes that pertain to the possession, transportation of child pornography, travelling interstate with intent to have sex with a minor, coercing a minor into travelling interstate to have sex, manufacture of child pornography, etc. Numerous successful prosecutions have resulted from the application of these statues.
Story on the news all over about them finding it on his computer. Just because it was in a delete bin does not mean that he could not restore it at any time he wanted. Now his son Joshua Lunsford is charged with Sex Crime in Ohio.
According to documents released Monday afternoon, investigators say they discovered child pornography on Mark Lunsford's home computer.
Lunsford, the father of 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford, who was killed in February, denies looking at the images, while the sheriff's office says none of the images had been "downloaded, filed or saved."
The 852 pages made public by the State Attorney's office in Brooksville contained transcripts of interviews with accused killer John Couey's housemates Dorothy Dixon, Matthew Dittrich and Madie Secord and also information about the hundreds of leads investigators checked out during the opening days of Jessica Lunsford's disappearance.
Prosecutors continue to prepare for their capital murder case against Couey, who they say admitted to kidnapping and murdering the 9-year-old Homosassa girl.
He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Contained in the documents released by the State Attorney's office were notes from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement that mention the pornography. The images, documents say, were found Feb. 24 -- the day Jessica was reported missing from her South Sonata Avenue home -- by Citrus County sheriff's detectives during their investigation of the missing girl.
Though the documents did not go into specifics about the images, Assistant State Attorney Pete Magrino said the images were found on Lunsford's computer. However, he said his office is not pursuing charges.
"There was no evidence found by law enforcement that the computer was used in the manufacturing or production of child pornography, only that there were a limited number of items that were viewed," Magrino said. "To expend additional law enforcement resources and prosecutor resources to make a case, when balancing societal goals. I mean, Mr. Lunsford's been through enough."
Along with the images, a list of more than 50 "sexually oriented" Web sites that Lunsford visited on the morning before Jessica disappeared was released by prosecutors last month. Talking in his office Monday, Magrino declined to give an exact number of images that investigators found, but said it was in the "single digits."
He said while Lunsford said he viewed pornographic images, the questionable images could have gotten on the computer any number of ways, such as through "pop-ups" or by accident.
Sheriff spokeswoman Gail Tierney said a "handful" of images were found by members of the sheriff's computer forensics unit in the computers delete bin. She said the images had not been downloaded, filed or saved.
Tierney said Sheriff Jeff Dawsy has been "in agreement" with the State Attorney about not pressing charges because the office felt Lunsford has been through enough, and added that any attempt at prosecution "would have been challenging" because the images had not been saved.
Magrino acknowledged there would likely be some public outcry concerning the images and his office's decision not to prosecute. He theorized the Public Defender's Office might even use the information to build its case for defending John Couey, the man accused of Jessica's kidnapping and murder
The names are familiar, Mark Lunsford, whose daughter Jessica was kidnapped from her Florida home. Her body was found three weeks later.
If we can just make this a safer place for them to grow up, not see Internet porn, God forbid, be kidnapped, we want that to stop," DeMauro said.
These parents go to Washington DC on Monday to meet with members of Congress. They are pushing two bills next term, one, the TRAC ACT, tracks the actions of judges, prosecutors and police regarding crimes against children, the other, the War on Child
Predators Act, gives better funding to fight child pornography.
TRAC ACT: Track and Report Abuse of Children
This law is a full-disclosure bill that will require states to track and publicly report the practices of judges, prosecutors and law enforcement agencies regarding crimes against children. For example, the number of plea-bargains, sentence lengths, and verified locations of sex-offenders.
War on Child Predators Act -- Child Pornography and the Internet Crimes Against Children
Funding and accountability measures for law enforcement and prosecutorial agencies empowered to investigate and prosecute crimes against children. This law will focus on child pornography, but the funds used for forensic labs, investigators and U.S. Attorneys all dedicated to crimes against children will significantly improve the number of perpetrators apprehended and the number of children rescued from sexual abuse and exploitation.
Have we lost all our feelings for our children and if he can get by with this, then why are there so many in jail for the same crime. They could not use the excuse that "POPUPS or Accident" When he admitted to looking at them.
I don't know anything about Mark Lunsford, but for you people to try and make this Coalition look bad, shame on you! My cousin has put her heart and soul into helping other families find their children, and in the worst cases help them move on and make a difference. I don't know if he is guilty of this and neither do you so please don't put a dark cloud on this great mission.
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