COLUMBUS, Ohio – The majority of children reported missing in Ohio last year were teenage runaways who returned home safely, according to a report from the Ohio Attorney General’s Office in advance of National Missing Children’s Day on Sunday.
The incidence of abductions, which concern many parents, remains extremely rare.
Attorney General Mike DeWine’s 2013 Ohio Missing Children Clearinghouse Report says, of the 18,599 children reported missing to police in Ohio in 2013 17,473 were between 13 and 17 years of age and all but 261 were recovered safely.
Of the others, 151 were five years old or younger, 975 were between six and 12 and 4,312 were 18 or older, the report said.
The clearinghouse also documented 51 attempted child abductions involving 34 girls and 17 boys. The suspects were driving vehicles in 79 percent of the attempts and 36 percent of them occurred while children were walking to or from school, the clearinghouse report said.
Authorities recommend parents continue to remind their children not to talk to strangers, but also encourage them to instruct them on Internet and cell phone safety and monitor their use of cell phones and their computers, especially social networking sites.