Missing from home — numbers are rising

Press, 3 February 1987, Page 17

Missing from home — numbers are rising

The words, “missing from home”, are heard more often these days. The circumstances vary; the anger and the anguish invariably are the same. KEN COATES reports.

A shouting match with an angry, rebellious teenager ends abruptly with a slammed front door. It is the beginning of a long silence.

No sound of a returning car, or motor-bike. No telephone call or note from a son or daughter as to his or her whereabouts. A bed remains unslept in. For parents there is emptiness and nagging anxiety.

Youngsters constantly go missing these days. They loom largest on police missing persons files, and numbers are increasing. For some it may be only a night at a friend’s house, a testing of growing independence, a learning experience. But for others, running away is almost a way of life. Take a day of last week: Christchurch Police Station files showed 15 males and 25 females missing. In more human terms, these included 10 boys and 23 girls under 17 years of age. Five of the boys were from institutions and five had run away from home. Nine of the girls were missing from Kingslea Girls’ Home run by the Social Welfare Department. The institution represents the extreme end of the problem. It is not surprising that girls run away from Kingslea as 60 per cent have cultivated a habit of absconding when they arrive. Many are still at school, with a record of truancy; they are arrogant, angry, and outspoken against parents or guardians. They can be the product of broken homes; a high proportion have been sexually abused in the family circle and now have no trust in anyone. Girls with a background of serious personal and family disturbance may be wary, ready to fight back, depressive, or acting tough. Running away is a means of coping with stress and up to nine girls can be missing from Kingslea at one time. If a quick search of buildings, grounds and locality does not produce a missing girl, the police are notified. Usually no further action is taken — unless there are fears for her safety.

More than half who go missing return within less than a day. (Thirty-six per cent of those who have been absconders on arrival, or who get into the habit, overcome the problem during their stay at Kingslea.) If the underground grapevine does not provide the whereabouts of a runaway, description and photograph may be published nationally. Meanwhile, girls can live on the streets, some turning to prostitution as young as 13, and crime.

The problem of runaways is increasing, according to the Kingslea principal, Miss Marion Judge. Contributing factors are the number of "safe houses” for street kids and the greater permissiveness in society. She emphasises that the institution’s 13-bed secure section is not used as a punishment. Its main purpose, she adds, is to provide a setting for the intensive counselling the girls need. A study of absconding showed that 34 per cent of missing girls were found by Kingslea staff; 29 per cent returned themselves; police located 26 per cent; and the rest were found through parents, boyfriends, and contacts.

Staff at the Stanmore Road Boys’ Home expect a runaway problem at what is an open institution with few locked doors. Many inmates have already begun running away, and repetition of the pattern enables staff to confront them and deal with it.

“We seek to understand motivating factors and work with the young person to alleviate those where we are able to,” says the principal, David Hutchinson.

The more stimulating and interesting the programmes and activities the more chance there is of decreasing the incidence of absconding. Criminal offences are more

likely during the time a boy is missing.

“Absconding - creates extra work for staff and police, and causes real concern and heartache for parents,” David Hutchinson says.

The runaway trend is rising at Stanmore Road; 300 boys went missing last year. But a small number of difficult boys who absconded repeatedly accounted for a high proportion of that total. Most return of their own accord and are missing for less than 24 hours.

Some of the runaways return home; some go to the Square and around the city. Often, basic needs of hunger and a place to sleep determine return. The police say, however, that some young people from institutions and foster homes go missing for months, but not years. The whereabouts of some may become known to parents or friends who do not tell the police. When the young people who have run away do not reoffend, perhaps their rehabilitation in society has begun.

The absence from home of many young people who run away for a short time is never reported to the police. Most return within a short time, or are at a friend’s house, and telephone worrying parents.

With older children such behaviour can be a normal stage of development, but the younger the child the more cause for concern.

As Sergeant Alistair Waugh, of the youth aid section in Christchurch, says: “The cooling down period can vary. With a three-year-old five minutes can be too long, whereas for a 15-year-old five hours is not unreasonable.”

Custody cases, when estranged parents kidnap children, are rarely reported to the police. On those occasions when they are

the police advise legal solutions unless there is genuine concern for the children’s safety.

Some parents seek advice when a daughter leaves home to live with someone they do not approve of. Police action depends on the circumstances and the age of the girl.

Although 16 is the age of sexual consent, investigations can be made and action may be taken in the light of evidence that she is not under proper care and control.

While strict parents might disapprove of, say a family their daughter is living with because of an alleged round of “wild parties, drinking, and gambling,” the facts may show a more relaxed atmosphere than the girl’s home, with reasonable family entertaining, a few drinks, and card games. Similarly, parents might express concern to the police that a young person has become hooked by a religious sect they strongly disapprove of. But investigations may show a girl or boy has “given my life to God,” is not in trouble, is eating well, is over the age of sexual consent, and is living in reasonable standards. In such a case, there is little the police can do. “But we would look seriously at a 15-year-old girl living with a guy whose interest is definitely not platonic,” says Sergeant Waugh. The police do not take action against a young person unless they consider they have a good chance of proving to a court the circumstances seriously affect welfare.

In law, a child is under 14 and a young person is under 17. Between 60 and 70 under 17s, other than those' from institutions, are reported missing from home each year in Christchurch. According to national police records, a total of 471 missing persons were listed on May 30 last year. These included 152 children 15 and under missing from State institutions or simply missing.

A check on January 21 this year shows that the total of missing persons halved to 230; missing children 15 and under numbered 130, compared with 152 in May. Police in Christchurch say people most likely to go missing

are those with severe depression, the mentally retarded, and a person who has had a major family row.

A husband who found his wife in bed with another man might have a “bust up” with his wife and clear off with the family shot-gun. Four people who last year went missing on impulse after such a crisis were found dead by police after being tracked down. They either committed suicide, or were unprepared for cold weather at night. Abduction of a girl or young woman is rare, though on record is a case of a girl being taken to Timaru, then brought back to Christchurch. Police kicked in the door of a house where a man was hiding the girl and discovered a rifle.

court, was released on bail, but took the girl back to Timaru where he killed her.

Elderly people can often wander off and get lost, and there are the occasional cases of amnesia when an accident causes loss of memory. When police suspect a person who is missing may come to harm, such as attempting suicide, they circulate a description nationally through their computer network, release photographs to news media, and alert officials at airports and sea ports. This often gets public cooperation. As one police officer puts it: “There is plenty of basic human decency, left, and some people fancy themselves as amateur crime solvers.” While it is difficult to disappear without trace in New

Zealand, a country small in size and population, police say it can happen, and mention Ronald Jorgensen. What of the adults reported missing? A quick check with Christchurch police files last week showed five men in this category. They were a motor-cyclist on the West Coast, an escaped prisoner from Rolleston, a 35-year-old single man in the city, a patient from Sunnyside Hospital, and a 40-year-old from an alcohol and drug addiction centre.

A husband had reported his 21-year-old wife missing; a woman patient had left Sunnyside; and a married woman was missing from Karaki Beach. An increasing number of young New Zealanders going missing is reported by Ray Cross,

who heads the Salvation Army's missing persons bureau at Wellington. Around 40 per cent of inquiries are from parents, he says, and many young people are in Australia. “A number are linked with the drug world, and that’s a sad, sad situation,” he adds.

On the bureau’s register are 270 names of people missing either in New Zealand or abroad. Forty per cent of inquiries are for people thought to be in this country, and 60 per cent concern missing persons in other countries.

The Salvation Army has a world-wide network in more than 90 countries; in Britain, its bureau handles 5000 cases a year. It will not search for children under 16, nor will it undertake inquiries related to legal battles. Its service is confidential. A young person when found is given the option of notifying parents, or remaining silent, though the Salvation Army favours reconciliation.

While his organisation claims 60 per cent success, Ray Cross says name changes can bring inquiries to a dead end. And, he adds, people do disappear. “A young woman using a different name can go off and get married.”

Outdoor men, too, disappear: “We had a case of a man going missing in Westland. We and relatives finally concluded he had died in the bush through some misfortune, but no body was ever found.”

The happier cases are family reunions brought about by the missing persons bureau, such as the man in England who ran out on his young daughter 15 years ago, but who was traced to New Zealand and is now reconciled with her.

Family rows are a cause