Missouri town’s police car displays photo of missing man

by Ray Scherer
Monday, August 18, 2008

A Southwest Missouri police department is displaying a photo of a missing Skidmore, Mo., man on one of its cruisers in hopes the image will lead to his return home.

The Carl Junction, Mo., police department unveiled a poster photo of Branson Perry on a patrol car Aug. 11. Mr. Perry’s photo is part of a “Picture Them Home” campaign that places the images of missing children on patrol car windows. The agency is the first to display such photos. The car will also carry copies of the poster to hand out to the public.

Meanwhile, a national tour focused on missing children will stop in Northwest Missouri Aug. 29 to highlight Mr. Perry’s case and others from the area. The rally is set for 7:30 p.m. at 14635 Ember Road in Craig, Mo.

Police in Clarksville, Ark., are also participating in the “Picture Them Home” campaign.

Mr. Perry disappeared April 11, 2001, from his Skidmore, Mo., home when he was 20 years old. He left the residence on foot.

Electronic billboards of Mr. Perry can be seen on North Belt Highway near the Gene Field and Sherman Avenue intersections.

A Stewartsville, Mo., business, Jim’s Home Repair, is also carrying a billboard of Mr. Perry on one of its vehicles.

Police carry signs of hope for missing kids

Friday, May 16, 2008

CLARKSVILLE — On May 2, the Clarksville Police Department posted on a police cruiser a photograph of smiling, redhaired Dixie Rogers, who ran away from her Conway home.

Before the clock struck midnight, Rogers, 16, resurfaced. The adult she was staying with in south Arkansas heard that police were looking for the girl, panicked and had her call home.

On Thursday, parents of 24 other missing children prayed that the Police Department’s new program leads to their safe return as well.

While photographs of missing children have long been posted on fliers, billboards and grocery store bulletin boards, Clarksville’s Police Department is the first in the nation to post such pictures on its vehicles, said Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

It’s a simple yet inspired idea that the Virginia-based nonprofit plans to ask more law enforcement agencies to consider.

Nationally, one in six missing children featured in a photograph campaign is located, Allen said.

“I can’t imagine a better place to put these pictures than on a police cruiser because, believe me, people pay attention to police cars,” he said. “The power of these images is really extraordinary.” The 15-officer department in Johnson County has affixed names, telephone numbers and photographs of missing children from Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas and Missouri to the rear windshields of Clarksville’s police cruisers.

Clarksville Police Chief Greg Donaldson got the idea while watching television and seeing a photograph of a missing child on the side of a cement truck.

Donaldson contacted the nonprofit Morgan Nick Foundation, which had placed the photograph on the cement truck through its “Picture Them Home” campaign. The Alma-based foundation has helped law enforcement agencies find 3, 721 missing children since its founding in 1996.

Today, Clarksville cruisers each sport photographs of two missing children on their rear windshields. Each police officer also carries a set of fliers in the cruiser with biographical information about the missing children.

On Thursday, Donaldson and Morgan Nick Foundation founder Colleen Nick wept as they pasted a red “Recovered” sticker over Rogers’ photograph on the cruiser.

Nick’s daughter, Morgan Nick, was abducted in 1995 while attending a little league baseball game in Alma. She was 6.

She hasn’t been heard from since.

Morgan was one of about 800, 000 children who vanish across the United States each year, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

More than half of these children are believed to be runaways. Many others are abducted by family members. Only a fraction are taken by strangers who intend to kill them, keep them permanently or demand a ransom.

It’s hard to say exactly how many children are missing in Arkansas, said Robin Sanford, an analyst with the center.

All law enforcement agencies are required to report missing children to a Federal Bureau of Investigation National Crime Information Center database. But it’s hard to break out numbers for missing children because many are lumped into a category that includes missing adults.

However, the database shows there were at least 3, 812 new reports of Arkansas children who ran away from home in 2007 — more than 300 per month.

Branson Perry, who disappeared from his home north of Kansas City, Mo., on April 11, 2001, is among those featured on the Clarksville Police Department’s cruisers.

Mother Becky Klino said her 20-year-old son was at the family home with a friend before he disappeared.

Perry went outside to put some jumper cables in a shed. He never came back.

He had never run away before or run afoul of the law. Klino is sure he was abducted.

But she’s equally sure that he’s still alive, despite no word from Perry in seven years.

She has to believe that to make it through the day.

“You have to keep believing. You have to keep looking until there’s no hope left. Until there’s evidence, you don’t give up,” she said. “If you have children, then you surely understand why you just can’t give up.” Perry’s photograph on a Clarksville cruiser gives Klino just a little more hope that she’ll be reunited with her son one day.

Donaldson challenged every law enforcement agency in the nation to follow his department’s lead.

While it costs $150 per cruiser to affix the photographs, it’s money well spent, he said.

“There’s no way that it can get any better than doing what we did this morning: putting a ‘recovered’ sticker on a child’s picture,” he said of Rogers, who was missing for 17 days.

“I know every chief and every sheriff wants to do the same thing.” More information about the “Picture Them Home” campaign can be found at www. morgannick.com

08/12/08

The reward for a Skidmore man who’s been missing for seven years has doubled.

The $10,000 reward for information on Branson Perry is now $20,000.

New billboards have been posted throughout the Midland Empire.

Perry disappeared from his home in April 2001.

Police soon closed the case after minimal leads got them nowhere.

The case was then reopened in 2003 after new leads were presented.

Police carry signs of hope for missing kids

Friday, May 16, 2008

CLARKSVILLE — On May 2, the Clarksville Police Department posted on a police cruiser a photograph of smiling, redhaired Dixie Rogers, who ran away from her Conway home.

Before the clock struck midnight, Rogers, 16, resurfaced. The adult she was staying with in south Arkansas heard that police were looking for the girl, panicked and had her call home.

On Thursday, parents of 24 other missing children prayed that the Police Department’s new program leads to their safe return as well.

While photographs of missing children have long been posted on fliers, billboards and grocery store bulletin boards, Clarksville’s Police Department is the first in the nation to post such pictures on its vehicles, said Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

It’s a simple yet inspired idea that the Virginia-based nonprofit plans to ask more law enforcement agencies to consider.

Nationally, one in six missing children featured in a photograph campaign is located, Allen said.

“I can’t imagine a better place to put these pictures than on a police cruiser because, believe me, people pay attention to police cars,” he said. “The power of these images is really extraordinary.” The 15-officer department in Johnson County has affixed names, telephone numbers and photographs of missing children from Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas and Missouri to the rear windshields of Clarksville’s police cruisers.

Clarksville Police Chief Greg Donaldson got the idea while watching television and seeing a photograph of a missing child on the side of a cement truck.

Donaldson contacted the nonprofit Morgan Nick Foundation, which had placed the photograph on the cement truck through its “Picture Them Home” campaign. The Alma-based foundation has helped law enforcement agencies find 3, 721 missing children since its founding in 1996.

Today, Clarksville cruisers each sport photographs of two missing children on their rear windshields. Each police officer also carries a set of fliers in the cruiser with biographical information about the missing children.

On Thursday, Donaldson and Morgan Nick Foundation founder Colleen Nick wept as they pasted a red “Recovered” sticker over Rogers’ photograph on the cruiser.

Nick’s daughter, Morgan Nick, was abducted in 1995 while attending a little league baseball game in Alma. She was 6.

She hasn’t been heard from since.

Morgan was one of about 800, 000 children who vanish across the United States each year, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

More than half of these children are believed to be runaways. Many others are abducted by family members. Only a fraction are taken by strangers who intend to kill them, keep them permanently or demand a ransom.

It’s hard to say exactly how many children are missing in Arkansas, said Robin Sanford, an analyst with the center.

All law enforcement agencies are required to report missing children to a Federal Bureau of Investigation National Crime Information Center database. But it’s hard to break out numbers for missing children because many are lumped into a category that includes missing adults.

However, the database shows there were at least 3, 812 new reports of Arkansas children who ran away from home in 2007 — more than 300 per month.

Branson Perry, who disappeared from his home north of Kansas City, Mo., on April 11, 2001, is among those featured on the Clarksville Police Department’s cruisers.

Mother Becky Klino said her 20-year-old son was at the family home with a friend before he disappeared.

Perry went outside to put some jumper cables in a shed. He never came back.

He had never run away before or run afoul of the law. Klino is sure he was abducted.

But she’s equally sure that he’s still alive, despite no word from Perry in seven years.

She has to believe that to make it through the day.

“You have to keep believing. You have to keep looking until there’s no hope left. Until there’s evidence, you don’t give up,” she said. “If you have children, then you surely understand why you just can’t give up.” Perry’s photograph on a Clarksville cruiser gives Klino just a little more hope that she’ll be reunited with her son one day.

Donaldson challenged every law enforcement agency in the nation to follow his department’s lead.

While it costs $150 per cruiser to affix the photographs, it’s money well spent, he said.

“There’s no way that it can get any better than doing what we did this morning: putting a ‘recovered’ sticker on a child’s picture,” he said of Rogers, who was missing for 17 days.

“I know every chief and every sheriff wants to do the same thing.” More information about the “Picture Them Home” campaign can be found at www. morgannick.com

Apr 11, 2008

Friday, Apr 11, 2008

The search for a missing Skidmore man marks its seventh anniversary.

Branson Perry’s family continues its effort to find him at all costs.

His face has become familiar to folks in the Midland Empire. From billboards to websites, the search for Branson Perry hasn’t stalled the past seven years.

Branson was last seen at his Skidmore home in 2001. His mother says he took a pair of jumper cables to a shed next to his house and was never seen again, but the cables mysteriously reappeared two weeks after an investigation began.

The search for Branson is still an open case. Sgt. Sheldon Lyon, with the Missouri State Hwy. Patrol says troopers feel Branson’s case is solvable.

Branson is 27 years old this year. A $10,000 reward is out for information that can help find him. His family will hold a fundraiser to try to increase that amount Saturday in Skidmore. The Highway Patrol will also be on-hand to make free child identification cards.

Missing Man Not Forgotten

Dottie Botkin has been a friend of Becky Klino for years.

But ever since Klino’s son, Branson Perry, went missing seven years ago, friendship and support like Botkin’s has never been as important as it is now.

“I just think if it was my child,” explained Botkin. “Then I’d sure appreciate somebody standing beside me no matter what the outcome is.”

Lois Cowden met Klino while volunteering at the United Way of Kansas City, were Klino works.

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“Anything I can do to help,” said Cowden. “I don’t have any specific information, but if I can help support to get somebody else to step forward and say something.”

“It’s just doing what I can to support Becky.”

The support for Becky and her missing son came in the form of the first ever “RAMP Fest.”

Community members donated numerous items for the auction and raffle, everything from glass ware to autographed chiefs paraphernalia.

“It’s a good feeling,” said Klino. “It lets you know that people do care–and It’s not that i ever doubted that they care–but when you don’t see them for a long time or whatever you don’t know if they still remember, but they do.”

Perry dissapeared from his Skidmore home in 2001. The current reward to help find him is $10,000.

All money earned by the RAMP Fest will be used to increase that amount.

St Joe News.Net- St Joseph, Mo.

Friday, April 11, 2008

SKIDMORE, Mo. — Becky Klino always keeps her missing son Branson Perry close to heart, even as she prepares fundraisers for his reward fund.

Today marks the seventh anniversary of Mr. Perry’s disappearance from Skidmore, a mystery that law enforcement officials have yet to unravel yet continue to actively investigate.

Family and friends will help Ms. Klino arrange fundraisers Saturday on the former Skidmore school grounds. She says simply staying busy with the events — such as an auction — keeps her from dwelling on the case. But thoughts of her son never go far away.

“I think it’s been a little bit easier,” Ms. Klino said of the anniversary. “My mind’s been preoccupied … It’s been emotional, yes, but it’s been busy.”

Nodaway County Sheriff Ben Espey reported no new activity on the investigation for the past year. Mr. Perry disappeared April 11, 2001, from his Skidmore home when he was 20 years old. He left the residence on foot and was taking a pair of jumper cables to a shed on a lot adjacent to the family home.

“I wish we had some new leads,” Mr. Espey said.

Ms. Klino said she is usually unfamiliar with any activity in the case, but said she does occasionally speak with Mr. Espey.

A $10,000 cash reward is offered, along with a $25,000 recording contract at a Nashville studio. The fundraisers seek to increase the cash reward.

“They (investigators) think it definitely could be a help” by enlarging the fund, Ms. Klino said.

Another weekend event seeks to shine awareness on Mr. Perry’s case. A race car team will field an entry this season in Montgomery County, Mo., near St. Louis. The team will feature Mr. Perry’s photo on one of its mini-stock cars. The effort is a partnership with The Shawn Hornbeck Foundation, named after the missing eastern Missouri youth who was found alive last year in Kirkwood, Mo.

“I think it’s an awesome avenue of getting the information out,” Ms. Klino said.

The fundraisers will include item giveaways and the auction, set to begin at 4 p.m. A motorcycle poker run will begin at Terrible’s St. Jo Frontier Casino at 11 a.m. and end at 3:30 p.m. at Skidmore Park. Refreshments will be available.

Any money not used for the reward fund will help provide scholarships for Nodaway-Holt County senior students in Mr. Perry’s memory.

Racing team publicizes search for the missing

04/06/2008

WARRENTON — Next month it will be a year since Kara Kopetsky, then 17, was reported missing from her high school in Belton, Mo., near Kansas City.

Her mother, Rhonda Beckford, has not given up hope of finding Kara.

So when the Shawn Hornbeck Foundation contacted her earlier this week about putting Kara’s picture on one of the Team Hornbeck Racing cars, Beckford jumped at the chance.

“It’s all about creating awareness and getting the word out,” Beckford said Saturday at the annual Warrenton Home and Garden Show, where Team Hornbeck debuted six cars for this year’s dirt track season.

The team is a partnership of race car drivers that helps support the foundation’s mission through financial support and by featuring photographs of missing children on its cars.

The foundation was formed by Shawn’s family after he was reported missing in October 2002. Shawn was found in January 2007— along with William “Ben” Ownby of Beaufort, Mo. — in the Kirkwood apartment of their abductor, Michael Devlin.

Photographs of 30 missing Missouri children will be rotated throughout the season.

The team was founded last year and had three cars featuring photos of missing children. This year, said Craig Akers, Shawn’s stepfather, they wanted to have a driver in every category: This season’s first race was to be held Saturday night at the Montgomery County Speedway in New Florence, Mo., but was canceled because of weather.

Races are held every Saturday through September.

Ideally they would like to find all of the missing children, Akers said, but he hopes that through the team’s efforts, families might at least be able to find some information about whether the children are still alive.

“You hope for a positive outcome, of course, but even a negative outcome is better than not knowing,” Akers said.

That’s what Becky Klino, of Skidmore, Mo., is hoping. Her son, Branson Perry, who was 20 at the time, was last seen in 2001. Since then, the family hasn’t stopped looking for him, but they have heard nothing, Klino said.

“You never know where the leads may come from,” she said. “This may help us find him, or at least we will know what happened.”

Apr 05 2008

(KTVI – myFOXstl.com) –

It’s not unusual to see stock cars covered with advertisements and sponsor’s logos. In Warrenton they unveiled some cars with special signs. They are adorned with the pictures of missing children. It’s all part of Shawn Hornbeck Foundation and Team Hornbeck Racing. 17 year old Kara Kopetsky disappeared last May. Her mother is glad the teenage girl’s photo is on a stock car. The mother, Rhonda Beckford told Fox 2, “The public forgets so fast you have to do things to make sure it stays out there because if people don’t look she’ll never be found.”

Craig Akers the C.E.O. for the Shawn Hornbeck Foundation said, “The ultimate goal would have this lead to the recovery of one of the children featured on the cars.” They are using age progression photos in the cases of kids who have been gone for a long time. Becky Klino’s son Branson Perry disappeared 7 years ago, she said, “Does it get easier to live with? No. There’s still that emptiness still that heartache.”
The stock car drivers are happy to be part of a winning cause. Lane Ehlert is a driver, he said, “I really hope we can find them just keep awareness up saying we’re still looking for them.” Organizers say the program also promotes child safety.