>------------------------------------
>The Sickest Urban Legend of them All
>------------------------------------
>
>I have yet another "forward an email to all of your friends and
>something great will happen" hoax to debunk.  Before we get to that,
>though, let's do a quick review of US child protection laws.
>
>True or false: if you live in the United States and your child is
>missing, you have to wait at least twenty-four to forty-eight hours
>before you can file a missing persons report with your local police
>department.
>
>FALSE!  Despite what you have heard from Hollywood, The National Child
>Search Assistance Act of 1990 (Public Law 101-647, Title XXXVII) makes
>it illegal for State law enforcement agencies to require a waiting
>period before accepting a missing child or unidentified person report.
>The 1990 Act also reconfirms The Missing Children Act of 1982 (28 USC
>Sec. 534), requiring Federal, State, and local law enforcement
>agencies to report each case of a missing child under the age of 18 to
>the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) of the Department of
>Justice.  [The NCIC is a computer database under the authority of the
>FBI, and it enables law enforcement agencies across the country to
>gain access to descriptive information about a particular missing
>person or fugitive.].  Finally, the National Child Search Assistance
>Act of 1990 requires law enforcement agencies to maintain close
>contact with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
>for the exchange of information and technical assistance in any
>missing child case.
>
>With that said, let's get to today's hoax:
>
>      I am asking you all, begging you to please forward this email on
>      to anyone and everyone.  As most all of you know, I have a 5 year
>      old daughter named Kelsey Brooke Jones.  We are from Southern
>      Minnesota.  She has been missing since 4 pm Oct. 11, 1999.  The
>      police were notified shortly after.  If anyone anywhere knows
>      anything, sees anything, pleeeeaaaase contact me if you have my
>      number.  The police don't recommend I put my number online, but
>      you can contact the Police, a missing persons report has been
>      filed.  I am including a picture of her.
>
>      All prayers are appreciated!!
>
>I am happy to announce that this is yet another Internet hoax.  Kelsey
>Brooke Jones, if she even exists, is *NOT* missing.  Here's how I
>know:
>
>      1. There is no NCIC report on Kelsey Brooke Jones.  As you saw
>         earlier, if Kelsey really *is* missing -- and if the mythical
>         "Southern Minnesota" police department really *did* file a
>         missing persons report -- federal law requires that there be
>         an NCIC report on Kelsey's disappearance.  No such report
>         exists.
>
>      2. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
>         [ http://www.missingkids.org/ ] has no report on Kelsey Brooke
>         Jones or, for that matter, any other child from "Southern
>         Minnesota" who went missing on October 11.
>
>      3. The FBI office in Minneapolis, the largest metropolitan city
>         in "Southern Minnesota," has no information on Kelsey Brooke
>         Jones.  In fact, according to an agent I spoke to, the FBI
>         thinks the Kelsey Brooke Jones story "is probably a hoax."
>
>Wait, it gets better.  The original sender is now reporting via email
>that Kelsey was recently returned by the police after being "taken
>from the public library yesterday while her preschool class was
>visiting it."  Kelsey's abductor was a "mentally handicapped [man who
>was] living on his own."  This too is a lie -- if it were true, you
>would have read about it in every newspaper in the world.
>
>In short, some bozo thought it would be funny to create a false story
>about a missing child in "Southern Minnesota."  When confronted with
>the fact that there are no records that the child even exists, let
>alone is missing, this bozo decided to create a false, happy ending to
>the Kelsey Brooke Jones story, deceitfully blaming Kelsey's fictitious
>abduction on an unidentified, "mentally handicapped" man.
>
>I can't think of a sicker urban legend.
>
>The moral of today's story?  YOU CAN'T GET SOMETHING FOR NOTHING, and
>you certainly can't get something for simply forwarding an email to
>all of your friends -- even the return of a missing child.
>=====================[ Tourbus Rider Information ]===================
>    The Internet Tourbus - U.S. Library of Congress ISSN #1094-2238
>       Copyright 1995-99, Rankin & Crispen - All rights reserved
>             Archives on the Web at http://www.TOURBUS.com

janet paterson
52 now / 41 dx / 37 onset
613 256 8340 po box 171 almonte ontario canada K0A 1A0
a new voice: <http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Village/6263/>
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