If Your Child is Missing, or you are Unsure Where he or she is...

Act immediately!

If you are in a home setting when you discover child is missing, be very quick to search the entire house. Check closets, the basement, the attic, piles of laundry, in, under and around the beds, inside old refrigerators or boxes, in the garage, vehicle(s) in the garage, kitchen cabinets, under tables, behind washer/dryer—wherever a child may crawl or hide. If you still cannot find your child, immediately call your local law-enforcement agency.

If your child disappears in a store or restaurant, the movies or a playground, anywhere you happen to be with them, notify the store manager or the security office or someone that works there, and immediately call your local law-enforcement agency. If you are inside with your child when he or she becomes missing, ask someone to please lock all exit doors, and be close at hand to check all the faces of children before they leave. Ask them if they have a Code Adam plan of action, this will quickly begin the search for your missing child. If they do not have a Code Adam plan of action, it is printed below. It is a good idea to print this and keep it with you at all times, just in case you ever need it.

When you call law enforcement, you will need to provide your child's name, date of birth, height, weight, and any other unique identifiers such as eyeglasses and braces or even birthmarks. Tell them when you noticed your child was missing and what they were wearing.
Request that your child's name and identifying information be immediately entered into the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) Missing Person File.

After you have reported your child missing to law enforcement, call the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children on their toll-free telephone number, 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678) . If your computer is equipped with a microphone and speakers you may talk to one of their Hotline operators via the Internet .

Please have all the information below ready when you call the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

After you have notified them, call us at 706-882-2897 or e-mail us at three3sides@aol.com or notify us at our website http://www.three-sides-to-every-story.org we will put this information on our site as well.

Look for this Code Adam decal in the windows of the stores you and your family frequent.

Code Adam , one of the country's largest child-safety programs, was created and promoted by the Wal-Mart ® retail stores and named in memory of 6-year-old Adam Walsh whose abduction from a Florida shopping mall and murder in 1981 brought the horror of child abduction to national attention.

When a customer reports a missing child to a store employee, a "Code Adam" alert is announced over the public-address system. A brief description of the child is obtained and provided to all designated employees who immediately stop their normal work to search for the child and monitor all exits to help prevent the child from leaving the store.

If the child is not found within 10 minutes of initiating a storewide search, or if the child is seen accompanied by someone other than a parent or guardian, store personnel contact local law enforcement and request assistance.

Before you report a child as missing to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, please be sure that all of the requirements listed below have been met. 

• the missing child is younger than 18 years of age at the time he or she became missing 

• a report has been filed with the appropriate law-enforcement agency 

• the caller must be the legal guardian of the missing child or a law-enforcement official 

• the caller must have all information necessary to report this child missing including
  • name and date of birth
  • descriptive information
  • companion information, if applicable
  • law-enforcement information including the agency name, investigator's name, and all applicable law-enforcement telephone numbers 

Report it by Telephone

Call their 24-hour, toll-free Hotline at 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678) .

For all other inquiries and information, please contact their 24-hour, toll-free Hotline at 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678).