AN ELECTRONIC SEARCH PARTY
IS HELPING TO FIND MY MISSING DAUGHTER
by David T. J. Landrigan


"Daddy I want to stay here with you. I want mommy to visit."
Those were the last words Angela spoke to me on the evening of
June 8, 1986 before she left with her visibly upset mother. Two
days later I learned that Angela's mother had taken our 4 1/2
year old child, crying, from her bed at 3:30 Monday morning.
Neither Angela nor her mother have been seen since by anyone who
has shared information with us.

The first week was hectic. I learned a lot about searching for
missing children and the means that people used in many previous
efforts. I spoke with the police, the Guardian Ad Litem, and a
social worker from the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention
of Cruelty to Children (MSPCC). Another social worker, who was
investigating a report that had been filed by an MSPCC social
worker alleging abuse of Angela by Nancy came for a home visit.
A concerned private investigator needed an orderly presentation
of facts before beginning his teams' work. The Missing
Children's Network and Elaine Moriconi from the Society for
Young Victims were contacted for their assistance. I had recent
pictures developed at Central Square Photo, Cambridge and
posters printed at C.W. Beane, Cambridge. I felt emotionally
bolstered when the owners of these establishments volunteered
their speedy and excellent work free of charge together with
words of support. That was one of the first signs that someone
really cared. Detective Munger of the police and the
International Research Services private detective had been
helpful, the social workers had said that there was little they
could do, and the guardian had said let's wait to see what
happens.

My aunt Marjorie put an excellent perspective on what was
happening when she said, "David you are an adult and capable of
dealing with this awful thing much more easily than your poor
daughter. Angela's life has been turned upside down. Think of
what she must be going through right now. She's missing you and
all of the people, places, and things familiar to her." I
wholeheartedly agreed with her. Angela, and other children in
similar circumstances, are victims more than we adults because
of their greater dependency.

While doing the layout for the posters on my IBM/PC, I realized
that I could contact fellow sysops of BBS's (system operators of
electronic bulletin board services) and friends from the
electronic networks to ask their help and support in finding
Angela. Initially, the most important request was for volunteers
to distribute the posters of Angela which C.W. Beane had
printed. But, much more is developing than the list of volunteer
poster hangers that I had originally envisioned. That's what
happens when a group of motivated and bright people have the
ability to communicate.

Bob Klepac, sysop for PI-Net in San Antonio, and Paul
Wilczynski, Business Forum sysop on DELPHI, were among the first
to respond with both support and help. Bob initiated the spread
of Angela's description and other information on bulletin boards
from Texas to N.Y. Paul contacted other sysops on Delphi,
arranged with Bob Fried, Ellen Kaufman, and Peter Bolson to
digitize a picture of Angela for DELPHI users to download to
their machines, and requested help from the DELPHI staff.

The day after I was sure that Angela was missing, I started a
conference called "ANGELA" in PARTI on the UNISON system. Harry
Goodman, Catharine Vinson, Pat Niehoff, Peggy Rossing, Stefanie
Kott, Fred Dudden, and a great number of other people from
UNISON have helped. A SEARCH PARTY phenomenon began to take
hold.

News of Angela's disappearance began to spread from system to
system. Porters are carrying information among the different
electronic network systems. Important information or offers of
help are returned to the "ANGELA" conference by the porters. Bob
Brody, of Los Angeles, contributed to the SOURCE PARTI "ANGELA"
conference which Catharine Vinson created. Bob and his friend
Dale have been successful in gaining further cooperation from
the Howard Johnson Corporation. Phil Moore, Sherwin Levinson,
and Terri Leitao of Networked Systems International (NSI)
arranged for Angela's picture to be digitized in a form that can
be viewed on Telex machines as well as all personal computers.
People are being encouraged to print the picture and post it in
stores, schools, etc. throughout the nation. NSI, The Source,
UNISON, GEnie, and other systems have placed messages for
everyone to see as they logon to the systems.

Messages have been received that people have spread the word
about Angela to the WELL, PeopleLink, CompuServe, EIES, New
England Commons, BIX, Usenet, Apple Grantee Network, ECONET,
QLINK, and MCI systems. All of this activity has required the
willingness of people like John Evans, Peggy Berk, Sharon Fales,
Nancy Tully, David Sawyer, Renee O'Connell and Taylor Walsh of
STC, Steve Beale, and many others who are geographically
scattered around the U.S. but linked to each other through
people working together on many computer systems. Presently no
established means exists to enable automatic porting of
information between systems. Systems have different ways of
encoding and transferring information so that without the work
of these people, the intersystem ELECTRONIC SEARCH PARTY
phenomenon would not be occurring. Perhaps some day soon greater
intersystem capability will exist so that people will spend less
energy "turning the crank" and more time communicating.

The technology of electronic communication offers capabilities
with which many people are not familiar even though they may
have a pressing need for such communication. NSI has made an
offer to assist child search organizations such as the Society
for Young Victims in communicating with each other. Cooperation
between systems such as NSI and organizations like the Society
offers hopeful prospects for locating missing children. NSI also
has a separate goal of helping the parents of missing children
through the formation of electronic links which will contribute
to their support and information needs.

The Society people have expressed an interest in becoming
familiar with the electronic approach to communication, and they
have arranged for a demonstration. People from the Adam Walsh
Foundation are being contacted with an offer to have them
participate in the first demonstration with the people from the
Society. This demonstration will be an interesting step toward
electronic networking among all of the interested organizations.

An estimated 25,000 to 100,000 children are the victims of
illegal parental abduction each year, according to figures from
the beginning of the 1980's. That the number was rising.
Including the children who are abducted by nonfamily and runaway
children, the number of missing children in the U.S. each year
is staggering. About 60% of missing children are found according
to one agency's report. While it is wonderful that so many are
returned to their homes, there is a lot of room for improvement.
Hopefully, intrasystem and intersystem electronic communications
can be one avenue toward improvement.

Angela will be found through the efforts of the many people who
are contributing both in the ELECTRONIC SEARCH PARTY and the
more conventional searches. It hurts to have her missing and it
hurts to think of what she is going through right now. However,
there is solace in knowing that no obstacle will stand in the
way of people united in a common purpose. We the people will
succeed; and now, technology has given us tools to speed us
toward success.

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Author's note: Dave Landrigan (TJLAND) is a psychologist in
Cambridge, Massachusetts. His daughter Angela was abducted from
their home in June of this year and has become the focus of an
intersystem "electronic search party" effort the find her and
return her to her father.