GREAT FALLS — Thirty years after the disappearance of Zachary Ramsay in Great Falls, law enforcement officials say child abduction and missing child investigations have changed dramatically — with faster response, stronger coordination and new technology reshaping how cases are handled in the critical early hours.
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Investigators say today’s approach emphasizes speed, structured response and rapid information gathering — a shift from practices common in the 1990s.
“I think probably the biggest change I noticed is that our reaction is much quicker,” said Brian Black, a captain with the Great Falls Police Department. “We're going to act very fast, we're going to pour a lot of resources into this, and we're going to investigate it very quickly up front.”
Remembering Zachary Ramsay:
Black oversees GFPD's Investigative Services Bureau, which includes general case investigators, special victims detectives and school resource officers.
Nationally, child abduction response has also become more standardized through specialized multi-agency teams and formal training programs.
Derek VanLuchene, the National Child Abduction Response Team program manager for the National Criminal Justice Training Center, helps train Child Abduction Response Teams — known as CART teams — across the country. His work is rooted in personal tragedy.
“My experience with child abduction comes — I basically been involved since I was 17 years old,” VanLuchene said. “In 1987, my little brother Ryan, who was eight years old, was playing in our backyard and was abducted. He was there one minute, gone the next.”
Ryan was later found dead, and a recently released repeat sex offender was arrested in the case. VanLuchene said the loss shaped his career path.
“I had made a promise to him on the day of his funeral that I would do something to remember him, something to make sure that that didn't happen again to another child or to another community,” he said.
CART teams are designed to ensure agencies are organized before a child goes missing, rather than building response plans during a crisis.
“Those are multidisciplinary teams that are in the community that respond when a child goes missing,” VanLuchene said. “When they get that call, they can respond — they already know what their resources are — they're responding with the full set of resources and people.”
Technology has also expanded the amount of evidence available to investigators. Doorbell cameras, social media data and advances in forensic testing have increased the number of leads that can be developed — and reopened older cases.
“Almost everybody's got a camera on their front door,” VanLuchene said. “DNA has come so far. We're solving a lot of these cases that are years old.”
Research has also changed how investigators view the earliest hours after an abduction. According to the US Department of Justice, approximately one in 10,000 child abduction cases result in murder. But VanLuchene said timing is everything in the worst case scenario.
“There’s a statistic that says 74 to 76% of those kids are killed within the first three hours after they’re abducted,” he said. “What can you do in those three hours?”
Public alert systems now play a larger role than they did decades ago. AMBER Alerts — which send emergency notifications to mobile phones and broadcast systems — have helped recover abducted children when the public recognizes vehicles or suspects.
The AMBER Alert program started in Texas in 1996 after 9-year old Amber Hagerman was abducted and murdered. In response to community concern, broadcasters in the area teamed up with law enforcement agencies to establish a program capable of quickly distributing information about child abductions to the general public. In memory of Amber, the program was called the AMBER Plan – America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response.
“AMBER Alert is a tool in the toolbox,” VanLuchene said. “With the successful recovery of — I think it's over 1500 kids now — those are cases where the child was abducted, somebody in the public saw the vehicle and reported that.”
Still, modern investigations bring new challenges, including the sheer volume of digital evidence and legal barriers to accessing private data.
“Sometimes it's just the amount of data coming towards us,” Black said. “All those tips are coming in — those have to be vetted, have to be looked at, have to be sorted through.”
He added that privacy laws can slow access to some records.
“Montana's a big privacy state and a lot of the technology companies are very private about their data,” Black said. “We have to work through certain legal steps to be able to get that data.”
Both officials stressed that families should contact law enforcement immediately if a child is missing.
“If your child's missing — gone — you can't find them — don’t wait,” Black said. “Report it immediately to us.”
For families waiting on answers in long-running cases, VanLuchene said he hears a consistent message.
“Never give up hope,” he said. “The repeated thing that I hear from those families is never give up.”
