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In 1985, Houston Police reported that at any given time,

130 to 140 active missing persons cases were on the books.

The department received about 5,000 missing persons reports a year involving children under the age of 17,

Houston Police Sergeant Steve Gregg said, with about 95% of those solved.

Several factors determine whether police take an immediate or serious interest in the disappearances,

Sergeant Gregg reported.

When the child is nine or younger, he said, the department generally responds immediately.

Kids above that age get, quote, next working day treatment. Other factors slow down police urgency too,

such as if an older juvenile has a history of running away. A child who's never disappeared before,

Sergeant Gregg said, would get priority. In 1985, almost 20,000 juveniles were reported missing in the state of Texas, and like in

the case of Houston, 95% of those were solved, most often the result of running away from home or

family abduction. Nationwide experts that year estimated that only around 200 children went missing due to a stranger abduction,

though a child disappearing at the hands of a predator was and is among parents' greatest fears.

Beyond the extremely low likelihood of such an abduction, high-profile cases such as the disappearance

and murder of Adam Walsh in Florida, fed mothers and fathers paranoia all over the United States

and the world. Police in Houston and the Galveston Bay areas commented that children

kidnapped by strangers was a rare thing,

but they treated every case with that possibility in mind,

though they went on to jokingly speak of kids avoiding parents because of things like report

cards in the very next breath.

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