Thirty-four missing children, three days: the operation that brought them home

Some had been gone a few days. Others had been missing for ten years. This week, a command center in Garden City, New York, became the unlikely place where 34 disappearances ended — 18 children from Nassau County, 12 from Suffolk, 4 from Queens, ages 7 to 18. More than 100 professionals from nearly 40 agencies spent three days chasing leads and sharing intelligence, the result of months of quiet planning by the state's missing-persons clearinghouse, child-welfare office and the National Child Protection Task Force. Every child found was connected to medical care, counseling, food, clothing and safe placement. 'Every missing child deserves our full attention, and every family deserves answers,' said Governor Kathy Hochul. It was New York's fourth such sweep — the earlier three found 168 children.