Representing North Carolina’s Ninth District                                                                        

MYRICK INTRODUCES KRISTEN’S ACT REAUTHORIZATION OF 2005

(Washington, D.C.) – Today, U.S. Representative Sue Myrick (NC-9) introduced a bill that would reauthorize Kristen’s Act, a law that created a national database to  search for missing adults as a result of foul play.  Kristen’s Act originally passed the US House and Senate and was signed into law in 2000, but it expires at the end of 2005.  This bill will reauthorize funding so the program can remain operational for the next 10 years.

 “We passed Kristen’s Act in 2000, because there was no system in place to help locate missing adults.  In the last 5 years this program has given families hope that there is a system in place that may bring their loved ones back to them.  I’m introducing this bill so that Kristen’s Act will continue to benefit missing adults for at least another 10 years,” said Myrick.  “A parent should never have to hear that they can’t be assisted because their loved one is too old.” 

 Kristen Modafferi, for whom the Act is named, was an 18 years old Charlottean when she vanished in June 1997.  The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children could not help her family search for Kristen because she was 18, and thus considered an adult.  Rep. Myrick took up the cause championed by Kristen’s family, and hundreds of other families in similar situations, and introduced Kristen’s Act. 

 The reauthorization of Kristen’s Act will authorize the Attorney General to make grants to public agencies, or nonprofit private organizations, to maintain a national resource center and information clearing house for missing and unidentified adults. These adults must be determined by law enforcement to be missing due to foul play.  It will also provide training to law enforcement agencies, state and local governments, and nonprofit organizations.  

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