In today's troubling times, the nighmare of having one's child kidnappedor abducted has become a harsh and brutal reality throughout North America.The possibility of such an event occuring terrifys not only parents, butday-care centers, nursery schools, hospitals, and every institution whichserves as a caregiver or home for children.
In response to an overwhelming and pervasive outpouring of concern regardingthe dramatic rise in numbers of kidnapped and missing children, a New YorkPrivate Investigator with a long history of involvement in community andJewish causes has formed the "Bureau of Missing Persons, Inc.",a non-profit agency which provides Private Investigators and attorneys tofamilies of missing, kidnapped or abducted children.
The Bureau of Missing Person's founder is Steven Rambam, a Private Investigatorfor the past eleven years, whose long experience in the missing-personsfield of detective work has caused him to cross paths with parents leftheartbroken and without hope after their child's dissappearance, who havediscovered that they do not have the financial ability to hire Private Investigators- the average bill for a missing person investigation is $15,000 - and whoare then, tragically, left at the mercy of the police, whose immediate prioritiesare the solving of violent crimes, and not finding missing children.
That Rambam considers service to the community to be his priority isno secret to anyone.... "What makes the Bureau special", saysRambam, "is that for the past eighteen months we've been then onlyinvestigative 'foundation' in the country that provides Investigators orattorneys to people who otherwise couldn't afford to have a professionalInvestigator looking for their missing family member".
Rambam tells of another feature of the "Bureau" which is trulyspecial: "We have been able to focus a majority of the Bureau's attentionin New York on missing or runaway children, and have been able to matchvolunteer Investigators...with ...parents needing help".
Through Rambam's numerous contacts in the Investigative field, a "resourcelist" of nearly 800 Investigators and attorneys nationwide has beencompiled , each of whom have agreed to donate at least 20 hours a year tothe Bureau. Rambam's reputation hasn't hurt the Bureau's recruiting effortseither. According to Stanley Lumpkin, a prominent N.Y.C. attorney and theformer N.Y.C. Commissioner of Investigations: "In the instinces wherewe've needed Steve Rambam's help in locating witnesses or missing persons,he has demonstrated a remarkable level of success in locating persons whowe've assumed would be difficult or impossible to find".
Rambam, who sits on the Executive Board of the National Association ofInvestigative Specialists, the largest association of Private Investigatorsin the U.S., and who lectures for the N.C.I.S.S., another large associationof Investigators, has now been able to expand the Bureau's resources tothe point where he, and other Bureau volunteers, are in the process of openinga Bureau headquarters in New York City. Arrangements have already been madefor 24-hour "toll-free" telephone lines to be installed in thisnew office, and for the establishment of a national computer "BulletinBoard" system which will link the Bureau's, and other, Private Investigatorsin the first electronic link-up of its kind.
"Once this office is opened this summer", says Rambam, "parentswill be able to contact us literally at any time, and we will be able tomatch these familys with a volunteer Investigator, hopefully within hours.I'm very excited about this, because in many missing person cases, timeis a truly critical factor."
J.B. Tucker Investigations, a Los Angeles based investigative agency,has donated dozens of hours to the Bureau. J.B. Tucker's President, JanTucker, describes Steve Rambam as "the primary motivation" behindthe Bureau of Missing Persons, and says that his experinces in investigativework with Rambam have been "never less than extraordinary".
Tucker and Rambam recently worked together on locating a 13 year oldOrthodox Jewish girl, and returning her to her family in Brooklyn. "Injust hours", says Tucker, "Rambam and his people in New York determinedthat the girl was heading for L.A. on a greyhound bus". "Theyhad been able to find a cabdriver who drove her to the NYC Port Authority,and who remembered that she might have said something about heading to California.Then Steve found someone else at the Port Authority terminal who said thatshe had mentioned L.A. To make a long story short, we were able, along withthe L.A.P.D., to watch all buses from NYC, and when we spotted the girl- Steve had faxed us the picture - the L.A.P.D. and our men were able totake her off the bus two blocks before the terminal, and return her to herfamily who quickly flew to L.A."
"They were a really nice Orthodox Jewish family", adds Rambam,"and we were glad to be able to help them". (A footnote: girland family are doing well.)
Rambam, who claims that his "day job" as the Director of PalloriumInvestigations already keeps him busy with "more than enough missingperson cases", fervently hopes that the phones at the Bureau of MissingPersons' N.Y. offices are as busy as the Maytag repairman's phone. But ifthey are not, the Bureau is ready to provide help to any parent who calls- possibly the only help they may be able to get.