LaSharon Farmer has trekked all around Baltimore looking for her 15-year-old daughter. She?s checked in strip joint dressing rooms ? she?s even cold-called the phone numbers her daughter dialed more than 20 times before she went missing.
Emani Baxter has been gone for two weeks now. Her case reflects some of the challenges in categorizing, finding and trying to help thousands of runaway children in the Baltimore area each year.
Farmer worries the Baltimore County police aren?t working as hard as she is to find Emani. The girl might be in danger, even if she did initially leave on her own. Would the police work harder to find her if Emani weren?t a repeat runaway?
“I can understand her distress,” said Baltimore County police spokesman Bill Toohey. But there?s often far more going on in an investigation than meets the eye, he said.
Tracking cell phone numbers, talking to a missing child?s friends, going to favorite hangouts ? it all takes time. Multiply all that by several thousand.
Police officers respond to more than 10,000 children reported missing each year in Maryland, said Carla Proudfoot, director of the Maryland Center for Missing Children. About 98 percent of those are runaways, she said. Many of them have done it repeatedly, and the majority of them come home within a week by themselves.
Police prioritize as critically missing those children who are younger than 14, who have a medical or mental disability, whose disappearances are deemed suspicious, or who?ve been the known subject of abuse, she said.
They also consider whether a child has run away before.
“It is very difficult for families to hear that,” said John Worden, who leads a counseling team that works with runaways for the Baltimore County Police Department. “It?s your child, and from the first-person perspective, that?s the most important case that that officer has.”
Police are compelled to do everything they can to find the child, no matter how many times they?ve run away before. A child could be in danger regardless of why he?s missing, Worden said.
But without categorizing repeat runaways as more or less concerning than others, officials say that repeat runaways are a different story.
“We havehad cases in Baltimore County where the child can be missing … (be) brought home and taken to the front door, turned over to the custody of the parent,” Worden said. And before the officer even pulls out of the driveway, he said, “the kids go out the back door.”
“Police officers are human beings. If they?ve gone after this youngster who frequently runs away enough times, they may get a little frustrated,” he said.
Beyond her constant fear, Farmer seems a little tired, too. She quit her job to stay home with Emani. They were planning to redecorate Emani?s room before the girl left, and Farmer bought her daughter so many clothes she can?t figure out what Emani might have taken with her.
Farmer can?t understand why her former honor roll student would decide she wants to run off and be a stripper.
“I tell you, I?ve been through it,” Farmer said.
It?s certainly high-risk behavior, Worden said, emphasizing he couldn?t comment specifically on Emani?s case.
In general, rather than leave it to officers to keep finding repeat-runaways and returning them home, only to have them take off again ? a process which can be draining on families, police and the kids ? local counseling organizations can intervene and try to treat whatever is driving the child away from home.
It?s just a matter of parents reaching out, taking advantage of lower-cost or free counseling services as soon as they need to, Worden said.
“A lot of parents are in denial that it?s never going to happen to them,” Proudfoot said.
Stressing the importance of open communication in families, she said, “no matter what your relationship is with your child, there may still be things you don?t know about.”
In the only two minutes Farmer said her phone was off Thursday, it seems Emani tried to call. There was a voicemail with an operator beginning a collect call, and then avoice that sounded like Emani?s saying, “Hello? Hello?”
With the help of police, Farmer said she tracked the call to Brooklyn, N.Y. She?s not sure if it came from a pay phone or if the call was just routed through the area. At least she knows Emani?s alive — and she?s eager to get her home.
“I?ll have mixed feelings. I?ll be upset with her, as well as happy to see her,” Farmer said on Friday. “She?s too smart for that. She knows better.”
