Welcome to episode six of Thin Air. We first want to say thank you to you or

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Okay, on with the show. Timothy Pittson was just six years old when he went missing. The protocol for when a child goes missing, as opposed to an adult, is understandably different. In general, we assign agency to adults that can cause a lag between when they are discovered

missing and when a police investigation starts.

With adults, it seems, there's the assumption that, at least until there's's more information that they could have gone missing because they wanted to in fact in every story we've reported on here at thin air this has been the case an adult goes, and the immediate thought is that they will turn up, that they just went somewhere of their own accord.

As we've seen, this can have a devastating impact on what evidence remains for any future investigation.

With children, there's an urgency, more of an assumption that the child could be the victim of foul play,

possibly being taken by someone they don't know.

We have all heard of horrific cases where this happens,

and it would be hard to say that there wasn't a time more heartbreaking and more overwhelming for

a parent, a community, and anyone who cares for the missing child than when they are taken by someone unknown.

In general these cases are more emotionally charged so people act and act more immediately than they do with adults.

The fear of a predator kidnapping children typically motivates instantaneous investigation

and media coverage, and many local and federal government systems have been put into place to help in these cases.

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