In Wilmington, however,
these families have an advocate,
a fierce, hands-on assistant in the
search for missing loved ones. Her
name is Monica Caison, and she’s
the founder and director of the
Community United Effort (CUE)
Center for Missing Persons, a
Monica Caison and the CUE Center
nonprofit organization based in
Wilmington, which, since 1994,
has been aggressive in its attempts
to keep missing person cases from
going “cold” or “inactive.” By marshalling
nationwide resources that
include law enforcement personnel
and an army of volunteers, the CUE
38
WBM march 2011
Center has been instrumental in
returning loved ones to their families,
creating a sort of template for
families confronted by such a loss, a
blueprint for action that combines
elements of the actual search process
with a powerful family support tool
— hope.
The
Search
for
HOPE
work tirelessly to find the missing
by S k i p M a lo n e y Throughout all stages of a missing persons investigation, up to the point of its positive
or negative resolution, there is only one verifiable victim: the family of that missing
person. The missing person might have been abducted, or worse, but from the moment
that someone considers the absence of a loved one to necessitate a 911 call, the family
that makes that call is going to be caught in a whirlpool of fear, panic and helplessness
that most people don’t understand and law enforcement officials rarely have the
resources to address in any sustained way.