Time is of the essence when a child goes missing

CHARLOTTE, NC (WBTV) - Time is of the essence when a child goes missing.

According to FBI statistics, when a child goes missing and is ultimately found dead or is killed, 50% of the time that child is dead within the first hour of their disappearance. That child is dead in three hours 75% of the time, and 89% of the time the child is dead in 24 hours.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation doesn't investigate every missing child case, but they do come in when called by a local agency or if they think they can lend some unique expertise.

The FBI has a special group of agents who comprise what is called the CARD team. That stands for Child Abduction Rapid Deployment team.

Seventy-five agents across the country are specially trained with unique skills to work on child abduction cases and they can get to scenes quickly. There are members of the team in Charlotte who can be deployed when there is a non-family child abduction, a ransom child abduction, or any mysterious disappearance of a child.

"A stranger abduction in this country is rare. That means if your child does go missing, chances are they know the person who took them. What does that mean for us? As for parents, that means we have to get involved in our child's lives," said Special Agent James Granozio who is the local CARD Team Leader.

The FBI also offers a free iPhone or Android app, called the Child ID app, in which parents can store personal information about their child and quickly get that information to authorities if that child goes missing. We'll talk about that this week on Morning Break.

In fact all week from 9 to 10 a.m. on Morning Break, we're going to be giving you - parents - the tools you can use to protect your kids and, to be honest, keep an eye on them.

We'll also show you some active missing children's cases police are trying really hard to solve.

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