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MISSING 9-YEAR-OLD FOUND

KIDNAPPING

Missing Gothenburg girl found after 20 hours

Some 600 volunteers helped police in the search of a 9-year-old girl who had been missing in western Sweden since Thursday morning. She was found in the early hours of Friday morning some 400 metres from her home.

Published: 9 November 2012 06:40 CET
Missing Gothenburg girl found after 20 hours

“She was scared, sad, cold and tired. But as far as I could see she was unharmed,” said John Pettersson, one of the volunteers, to daily Expressen.

The girl was found after a group of volunteers from the organization Missing People spotted her outside accompanied by a man in his twenties. The volunteers reportedly surrounded the man and called the police who were quickly on the scene.

“She has been brought to hospital for medical examinations,” police spokesman Stefan Gustafsson confirmed news agency TT.

The girl had disappeared shortly before 8am on Thursday when she left her home to walk to school. After saying goodbye to her older sister who cycled past her, she never made it to class.

According to TT, her father had called the police just before 4pm when he was informed of her absence from school. At first schoolteachers had not noted that she was missing as one of the school nurses was conducting health checks that day and students were absent from classes here and there over the course of the day.

“By 5pm we had realized that this would take a lot of resources and should be classified as a serious incident,” police spokesman Björ Blixter told TT.

According to officers, there was nothing indicating that the girl was staying away by her own accord, or hiding out at a friend’s house. Neither had anything particularly difficult going on within the family or at school.

Police searched the area between the girl’s home and her school throughout Thursday night, assisted by some 500-600 members from the volunteer organization.

The girl was found just before 3am on Friday in the area where she had disappeared.

The 20-year-old man has been taken to the police station for questioning. As of yet, he has not been formally notified of any suspicions against him.

“But the preliminary investigation into suspected kidnapping is still undergoing,“ said Gustafsson to daily Dagens Nyheter (DN).

The girl’s version of events will be crucial to the investigation, according to the police.

“We have spoken to her, but we are treading gently as she is only 9 years old,” Gustafsson said to TT.

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MISSING PEOPLE

Why is this Italian football club posting missing people pics?

On the left, the smile of a footballer, happy to join his new club. On the right, another smile, but one which hides a dramatic story. AS Roma are using transfers to highlight the plight of missing children.

Published: 26 January 2020 10:21 CET
Why is this Italian football club posting missing people pics?
When the AS Roma signed Pau Lopez, it put out a search for a missing 15-year-old. Photo: AS Roma/Twitter
Roma is one of the two major clubs from the Italian capital along with eternal rivals Lazio and on Sunday both will go head-to-head in a fiery derby clash at the Stadio Olimpico.
   
On social media, clubs compete for originality when it comes to announcing new signings, and in recent years Roma have built a solid reputation for their quirky humour and style.
   
But in 2019, the three-time Italian champions decided to take another approach to announcing new signings, using the club's extensive digital media following for social good.
   
New recruits are now presented alongside the face of a missing child, with information, a phone number and a video clip.
   
The project is run with 13 associations and since June 30 and the signing of Italian defender Leonardo Spinazzola, six children featured have been found, in Great Britain, Belgium and Kenya.
   
“I don't think any of us expected a child we'd featured in a video to return home safely, obviously we prayed it would happen but we didn't expect it,” Paul Rogers, AS Roma's Chief Strategy Officer told AFP.
 
“When I got the first call from the charity Missing People to say a teenage girl from London who had featured in the Mert Cetin video six days earlier had been found safe, it was one of the best days I have ever had at work. I was so excited to tell everyone. It was just brilliant.”
 
In Septemer, the club announced that the 13-year-old Kenyan boy featured alongside the transfer of Chris Smalling had also been found. 
 
   
In total, Roma broadcast 72 videos last summer, presenting 109 missing children from 13 different countries.
   
It was truly global with the focus on the United States, South America, Europe and Africa. These videos were viewed 11 million times, the club said.
   
At the launch of the initiative, Jo Youle, CEO of the British association Missing People, stressed how precious the power of Roma on social media could be.
   
“AS Roma is giving us a fantastic opportunity to reach a wide audience by sharing appeals for missing children and young people with their millions of fans,” she said. “Raising awareness among as many people as possible is crucial.”
 
'Painful context'
 
The concept was inspired by American rock band Soul Asylum's 1993 video 'Runaway Train' which featured missing children, 21 of whom were later found.
   
“Obviously, there was no public internet and no social media back then, so the band used MTV, which I guess was the best way to reach young people across America and the world at the time,” explained Rogers.
   
“With Roma, we thought we could try and do something similar but updated for the social media generation.”
   
The fact that footballers, who have millions of followers on Twitter and Instagram, are associated with the campaign means that it reaches an even bigger audience.
   
“I have spoken with some players like Chris Smalling, whose video announcement featured a teenager who later returned home safely, and I can say that they were beyond proud,” said Rogers.
   
The initiative was to continue during the January transfer window which closes next Friday, but Roma have not yet recruited a new player.
   
And the recent announcement of the death of a young American who had been due to appear in the next video was a stark reminder of the painful context.
   
“The NCMEC (National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children) told us that many brands are scared off by this subject but that only made us more determined to do what we could to help them,” continued Rogers.
   
The Roman club are now trying to convince other big names in European football to join them for a joint initiative on May 25, International Missing Children's Day.
   
“With the help of clubs like Real Madrid, Chelsea, Borussia Dortmund and Marseille, we can help reunite some families,” added Rogers.
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