Police Get Quizzing About Missing Youths
by Houston (AP)
Mrs. Mildred Simoneaux was insistent. She wanted to know why her son Jay, 15, missing since October, has not been found. She has good reason: “My boy used to play with those two. You know what that means.” She explained that Jay was a friend of two teenage youths whose pictures had appeared in a newspaper as being among the possible victims in a weird sex-murder case that has already led to at least 24, teenage victims and could go as high as 30. Mrs. Simoneaux’s concern is one of many.
The Houston Police Department’s missing person’s bureau has been besieged with calls of anxious parents from across the nation since the case broke Wednesday. Identifying the young victims is no easy task. “Finding a missing youth is particularly difficult because there are no police pictures or fingerprints of juveniles,’ said Willard K. Branch, a police supervisor. All you have is a name and they sometimes use a different name.” Some parents with sons on the list of possible victims have been critical of the bureau at times and police acknowledge they have trouble convincing people they have a very difficult job.
Capt. R. L. Horton, chief of the bureau’s juvenile division, says about 99.9 per cent of missing youngsters turn out to be alive and well and happy wherever they want to be. But those other few-they’re the ones who turn up in shallow graves or the bayou or someplace like that,” said the 32-year police veteran. He added that most parents whose children have been gone longer than 24 hours say the children were victims of violence. The real reasons are varied, arguments or whatever,” Horton said.
It is extremely difficult for some young people to adjust to today’s society. What are they to believe: Leading a decent, honorable, lawful life can seem dull compared to the “exciting” life of those violating the law.” The bureau received 5,228 missing juvenile reports last year and 5,652 in 1971. Officer P. A. Lawson says running away from home is not a criminal offense but is a growing problem. “It seems like the runaways are increasing and were getting a lot of repeaters,” he said. “Something needs to be done. I don’t know, maybe the kids need more supervision.”
Horton says a new Texas statute complicates the situation in that it defines a missing child as one voluntary absent from home without consent for a substantial length of time or without the intent to return.” “What is a substantial length of time? Horton asks. What if we find a child who says he plans to return home, say, at Christmas? Does that constitute an intent to return? Here are brief backgrounds on some of the boy’s police list as possible victims:
James Stanton Dreymala, 14, son of Mr. and Mrs. James Douglas Dreymala of suburban Pasadena; missing since August 3 when he left home on a red bicycle and later reported by telephone he was staying at an all-night party. “The police didn’t go out looking for him.” said the Dreymala boy’s father. “They told us they would just pick him up if they saw him.” Mark Scott, 19, son of Walter Scott, Houston, missing more than a year. The police told us they couldn’t help us much,” Walter Scott said. “At the time, we were highly upset, but maybe they couldn’t do anything more.”
David Hilligiest, 13, son of Mr. and Mrs. Fred Hilligiest, Houston, missing since May 1971, when he and a friend left for a beach outing. “The police ought to get in there and go full blast to find a runaway,” said Fred Hilligriest, who said he hired a private detective without firm results after the police got no results. “I expected a more intensive search by police because they have trained personnel to find out a hell of a lot of where he might be.
