Child Abduction Response Team

Some interesting news from Orlando regarding the forming of what is being called the Child Abduction Response Team, or CART for short:

It was images in 2004 of Carlie Brucia, 11, being abducted from a Sarasota car wash and news of her murder that finally had an agent with the Florida Department of Enforcement saying enough is enough, Forbes reported.

The agent formed a new kind of task force to deal with missing and kidnapped children called the Child Abduction Response Team or CART.

The force is made up of dozens of specialists whose only job is to find missing children.

"Forty-four percent of the children that are abducted by a predator are killed within approximately one hour," Palm Bay police Maj. John Blackledge said

Blackledge is part of Brevard County’s CART unit.

"In many cases of a missing child where there is malicious intent and where they’ve been abducted by a predator, it is highly likely we will find that child either alive or dead within one or two miles from the original point that they have been abducted from," Blackledge said.

Statistics also show that 74 percent of children were killed with in three hours of their disappearance, 91 percent were killed within 24 hours and 99 percent were killed within seven days, Forbes reported.

The CART team was successful in the discovery of a Winter Garden girl who was abducted in 2004, Forbes reported. Her abductor, Brent Mackinder was arrested and convicted.

In 15 of 19 times the CART team has been activated, they have been successful in finding a child they said would have been killed otherwise.

"Minutes make a difference," Blackledge said. "Minutes may save a life."