Search volunteers vetted
Hundreds were ready to look for missing girl; not all welcome
In the hours after 10-year-old Madeleine Malloy disappeared from her home in Golden late Thursday, Jefferson County sheriff’s officials called out for volunteers to help search for the girl.
But they also made it clear not every volunteer was welcome.
Before joining the search — spanning an area from North Table Mountain to Long Lakes — volunteers first had to undergo a vetting process.
The policy was developed in December 2013, a month after Austin Sigg was sentenced in the kidnapping and murder of another 10year-old Jefferson County child, Jessica Ridgeway.
The Ridgeway case made it clear that a speedy, broad response to a child disappearance was badly needed, said Steve Davis, spokesman for the Lakewood Police Department.
The Lakewood department spearheaded a project that resulted in the formation of the Jefferson County Child Abduction Response Team, or CART, which rapidly brings together a broad spectrum of experts not only in law enforcement, but also city mapping experts and RTD and Xcel Energy employees, Davis said.
The team mobilized about 200 local, state and federal agents in a matter of hours Thursday. It was about the eighth mobilization since the team was formed, Davis said.
Sheriff’s office spokeswoman Jenny Fulton said the CART team and community responded exceptionally well on Friday. Hundreds of volunteers were gearing up when the search was called off because Madeleine was found safe in Aurora.
The girl left her home in Golden after an argument with her stepmom and stowed away in the back of a family friend’s car. The driver unknowingly drove her to Aurora. Madeleine then left the vehicle after it was parked. She walked to a nearby residence around 7 a.m. Friday, knocked on the door and asked the strangers for food. The neighbor called police.
While many people are willing to help when a child is reported missing, Davis said, care needs to be taken about who is needed and who is not.
“Anyone with a felony conviction was not going to be allowed to search for a missing child,” Fulton said. Also, no children are allowed to participate, she said.
Besides felons, people with any conviction involving a child or who have misdemeanor convictions for unlawful sexual conduct also cannot participate. Also, anyone with an arrest warrant or an active protection order won’t be allowed.
“You may even have a suspect among the volunteers,” Davis said.
The sheriff’s office asked prospective search volunteers to first watch a video in which District Attorney Peter Weir explained who couldn’t participate.