5-year-old girl vanishes
2 child abduction cases are highlighting just how vulnerable our kids are.
By Scott Dunlop
Pic: Shutterstock
Article originally in
Parent24
In a story guaranteed to send chills down the necks of most
parents, 5-year-old April Jones has allegedly been abducted while playing with
a friend, according to the Daily Mail.
“One minute she was playing on her bike, the next, she was
gone...”
The lively girl who has been missing since Monday has a
medical condition which may require medication; her distraught parents are battling
to deal with her disappearance. A local man is being held for questioning, and
speculation that he may be connected to little April’s vanishing is spreading,
especially since the man is known to frequent her neighbourhood, and he was
discovered walking in the area where she was last seen. April was playing with
her friend who insists that April got into a vehicle voluntarily.
Missing SA 7-year-old found dead
In SA, yet another similar story has an eerie echo of the missing April Jones: In KwaZulu-Natal, a 7-year-old boy missing since 29 September was found dead after he left his family home to help a man look for cattle, according to News24. A 28-year-old man has allegedly confessed to police that he killed the boy, whose body was discovered in a shallow grave with his throat slit. The motive for the murder is as yet unclear.
These tragic stories show that that abduction can take place anywhere. Unfortunately, a simple walk to
the local cafe or a bike ride in the park can have tragic consequences. In SA
there have been horrific cases of children being abducted and murdered for
muti, as well as human trafficking cases. Even if the abduction is by one
estranged parent, it is no less traumatising for the parent left behind.
Parent 24 has several great articles on how to avoid child abduction,
as well as information on how to differentiate between abduction, kidnapping for
ransom and stealing babies for the purposes of bringing them up. Your child
should know what to do in the event of a potential abduction, and, by informing
yourself you could save your child’s life.
Have you ever panicked when your child has suddenly
disappeared from sight?