Age Progression: an Aid in Locating Stolen American Babies

(SALEM, Ore.) - You could call it "future forecasting". Photo progression technology has advanced the science of locating missing children in ways that investigators of yesterday only dreamed of.

The public, along with police and online missing persons agencies like charleyproject.org, http://www.doenetwork.org/, and media organizations like Salem-News.com have an open chance to raise the odds for locating missing children. It begins by taking the time to study images of the missing, and note which of the locations are close to you.

Sometimes people discover that they live very close to a crime scene, and sometimes the families of the victims and the people responsible for their disappearance, are in the same place.

Sadly, all too many volunteers who become engaged in this extremely important work are people who lost a child, or have a missing family member. Our agencies banding together with the eyes and ears of the public, incrementally raises the possibility that some of these children, many of whom are now adults, could be located.

The news recently featured the story of Jaycee Lee Dugard, freed from captivity after 18 years of being held in poor conditions as she was sexually abused and ultimately gave birth to two girls, who were also released.

There is the story of Elizabeth Smart, who was kidnapped during the summer of 2002 from her home in Utah, and held for nearly a year, again not a long distance from the scene of the kidnapping. (see: Wikipedia: Elizabeth Smart kidnapping)

A Salem-News.com contributor and Missing Person Advocate, Andrea Stroh, assembled a list of abducted babies from across America. The list is not complete, but gives a reader an idea of the immensity of the problem. The list below is approximately 60 abducted infants aged birth to two years old, who have been missing over the last 50 years or so.

Experts believe it is possible that many of these infants may still be "recoverable", as statistically, children this age are usually abducted more often by people with psychological problems, who want to raise a child, as opposed to sexual predators who may harm them.

There is also the very strong possibility in these cases, that the children themselves, taken at an extremely young age, may not be aware of their own story, that is until they see a photo on a site like this.

In the list below, you will find hot links that take you to a page on that individual child. Almost all have pictures, and most are age progressed. The pages include birthmarks and identifying features, Stroh said.

"They might notice they have the same scars as one of the missing, and this along with other things might arouse their suspicion. A girlfriend might say 'my husband has a birthmark like that' or my friend or my friend's daughter has a heart shaped birthmark on her arm. 'That looks like so and so's baby picture' etc.'"

She added, "Even if they don't see it today, even with all the thousands of hits on the Jaycee Lee Dugard case, if it's on the Internet it's out there."

Andrea and I, along with other members of our staff, will begin spending more time in this important area and our next feature will discuss missing infants whose cases involve suspect and vehicle sketches and descriptions. We also will be speaking with families of the missing and delivering fresh updates on these extremely important stories.

My email address is below, you can also email Andrea Stroh in Canada at, astroh@rogers.com

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Tim King is a former U.S. Marine with twenty years of experience on the west coast as a television news producer, photojournalist, reporter and assignment editor. In addition to his role as a war correspondent, this Los Angeles native serves as Salem-News.com's Executive News Editor.
Tim spent the winter of 2006/07 covering the war in Afghanistan, and he was in Iraq over the summer of 2008, reporting from the war while embedded with both the U.S. Army and the Marines. Tim holds numerous awards for reporting, photography, writing and editing, including the Oregon AP Award for Spot News Photographer of the Year (2004), the first place Electronic Media Award in Spot News, Las Vegas, (1998), Oregon AP Cooperation Award (1991); and several other awards including the 2005 Red Cross Good Neighborhood Award for reporting. Serving the community in very real terms, Salem-News.com is the nation's only truly independent high traffic news Website, affiliated with Google News and several other major search engines and news aggregators.
You can send Tim an email at this address: newsroom@salem-news.com

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Cynthia August 3, 2011 8:27 am (Pacific time)

I don't look like anyone in my family. My mother was physically, verbally and emotionally abusive to me my entire life. My mother always produced this birth certificate for me when I was younger for things but when I was old enough to have it for myself she will NOT and says she lost it. I think I may have been abducted when I was a small child. I have dreams and memories of a man and woman I do not know... They feel very familiar to me, more so than my own mother has ever felt to me... I think this may be my parents. I need help to figure this out. Thank you. My email is ringcm@yahoo.com

Sam cardwell March 6, 2011 7:18 pm (Pacific time)

I tried gtn help n called the missing/exploited,bt noone wud help

charles c. carte II January 25, 2011 7:49 am (Pacific time)

I never resembled my birth records both parents names are on them. curious as to whether I was abducted, I was molested as a child. no one on either side of the family is similar in appearance many inconsistencies. Please contact me whodro9@yahoo.com obviously lost

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