A 9-year-old New Jersey boy and his 14-year-old sister vanished in the early hours of July 3, officials said, prompting a search for them.
Shan Greene and Treazure Greene were last seen on South 7th Street in Newark around 2 a.m.
“While police are actively searching for Treazure and Shan Greene, we seek the public’s help in quickly locating them and returning them to their family,” Newark Public Safety Director Anthony Ambrose said in a statement.
One of the children has run away in the past, according to Ambrose.
MISSING CHILDREN: 14-year-old Treazure Greene and her 9-year-old brother Shan are missing in Newark. Have you seen them? read more: https://t.co/1LPlTsjGTA pic.twitter.com/EnoyU6AZDD
— CBS New York (@CBSNewYork) July 3, 2019
According to WABC, flyers were being distributed in the family’s neighborhood.
Police officers escorted a woman from the house where the children live, the broadcaster reported later Wednesday. She was in handcuffs. Her alleged crime and her relationship, if any, with the children was not known.
Neighbors told the broadcaster that the mother of the children owns two pit bulls. The dogs were said to have attacked one of the children before.
The children sometimes walked the dogs outside, neighbors added.
Treazure Greene was described as 5’7″, weighing 120 pounds, with dark-brown skin, dark-brown braids, and likely carrying a piece of luggage that’s purple with multicolored dots.
Shan Greene was described as 4’6,” weighing 80 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes.
Anyone with information was asked to call the Newark Police Department at 1-877-695-8477.
Tipsters can remain anonymous by using the Police Division’s website at www.newarkpd.org or through the Newark Police Division smartphone app. Tips could result in a reward.
Missing Children
There were 424,066 missing children reported in the FBI’s National Crime Information Center in 2018, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Under federal law, when a child is reported missing to law enforcement they must be entered into the database. In 2017, there were 464,324 entries.
“This number represents reports of missing children. That means if a child runs away multiple times in a year, each instance would be entered into NCIC separately and counted in the yearly total. Likewise, if an entry is withdrawn and amended or updated, that would also be reflected in the total,” the center noted.
The center said it assisted officers and families with the cases of more than 25,00 missing children. In those cases, 92 percent were endangered runaways, 4 percent were family abductions, 3 percent were critically missing young adults between the ages of 17 and 21, 1 percent were lost, injured, or otherwise missing children, and less than one percent were nonfamily abductions.
The center was founded by John and Revé Walsh and other child advocates in 1984 as a private, non-profit organization to serve as the national clearinghouse and resource center for information about missing and exploited children.
Kidnapping
The number of reported missing children has significantly decreased in recent years, according to a report by the Department of Justice (pdf) in 2017. Reported missing children dropped from 6.5 per 1,000 children in 1999 to 3.1 per 1,000 in 2013.
Missing children typically fall into five categories: kidnapped by a family member, abducted by a nonfamily perpetrator, runaways, those who got lost, stranded, or injured, or those who went missing due to benign reasons, such as misunderstandings, according to the report.
Department of Justice researchers said in a separate report (pdf) published in 2016 that there were an estimated 105 children nationwide that were victims of stereotypical kidnappings, a number that was virtually the same as 1997.
“Most kidnappings involved the use of force or threats, and about three in five victims were sexually assaulted, abused, or exploited, the researchers said. Stereotypical kidnappings are defined as abductions in which a slight acquaintance or stranger moves a child at least 20 feet or holds the child at least 1 hour. Most victims were girls aged 12 to 17 and most perpetrators were men aged 18 to 35.
