Missing Child Found

The following is a success story. We don't hear enough of those.

RENTON, Wash. -- Shortly after an Amber Alert had been issued, a missing child's mother, Brittany Matthews, told KIRO 7 Eyewitness News that 3-year-old Brooklyn McDade has been found safe in Kent.

When Matthews arrived at work Friday morning, she realized she didn't have her keys. She asked her boyfriend, with whom she lives, to bring them to her. Matthews then called a neighbor to watch Brooklyn until the boyfriend would return.

The neighbor came to Matthews' apartment, found Brooklyn sleeping and returned to her own apartment. When Brooklyn awoke, nobody was at the residence, so she walked out of the apartment and was found by another neighbor, Sheila Porter.

Porter took Brooklyn back into Matthews' apartment to look for her mother. When Porter realized nobody was home, she wrote down a phone number that was posted in the residence and called and left a message on that number stating that she had Brooklyn.

Several hours had passed before the message left on a friend's phone indicating that Brooklyn was with Porter was relayed to Matthews. Brooklyn is safe, and Renton police reunited her with her mother at 1 p.m. Friday.

Nice story and a good example of how a little confusion can lead to a missing child call. However, you should never assume it is just something like that. You should always call and report your child is missing, just in case it's not this simple.

What is a shame, though, is that the National Center For Missing and Exploited Children, the NCMEC, will add this to their list of children that they tell the public they assited in finding.

Since the girl was reported missing, it went into their database and may have appeared on their website. The child was found and it had nothing to do with their website or them doing anything, but they will claim it anyway. They always do. Numbers look good when they are trying to make sure they keep their 40 million per year in funding.

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