Drawing Strength from Sorrow: The Surviving Parents Coalition
United in heartbreak – and friendship – these parents are banding together to battle child predators
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Smart: I felt like, "Which one of my friends wouldn't give their lives to have this happen to them – their child walks back in?" And I couldn't talk to any of them. Finally Colleen Nick called me. She said she was so happy for me, and I said, "I really wanted to call you. I can't tell you how happy we are, but ... you're still missing your child." And she said, "Ed, it just gives me such hope. There's one more child that's been found, and it gives me hope that Morgan's out there."
Birthdays and other special occasions can be particularly hard:
DeMauro: This year it was eight years for us on the 15th of May, but Andi's birthday is April 10, and I had a very difficult time because Melanie [her daughter] was going to be graduating from high school, and I never saw Andi graduate. And then Kirsten, my youngest daughter, was going to be turning 12, and Andi was murdered on her birthday. So I called Colleen, and I said, "I can't breathe. I'm having a panic attack." And she just sat on the phone with me while I tried to breathe. She's just been amazing.
Magi and John Bish know their daughter Molly is never coming home. She disappeared from her lifeguard job in Massachusetts in 2000, and her remains were found three years later. Her killer has never been caught, but the Bishes have become crusaders for child ID kits, which have a child's picture and fingerprints.
Magi Bish: The police came to the house on the second day after Molly disappeared, looking for one of these ID kits, and her picture was outdated, and there were no fingerprints. Marc Klaas said he'd send us some ID kits. We said, "What good is that going to do? We just want Molly." But it gave us something to do; so when we got them, we went to the school board and asked if we could use them in the schools, and we did 1,500 children in two towns. It kind of spiraled after that, and other schools asked us to come and do these. We formed a foundation in Molly's name, and one of the cornerstones is to get out there and do these. John and I go out and do this every weekend. We've now done 128,000 for free.
