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The Molly's Law Project

In the Fall of 1985, we acquired our first Bloodhound for the purpose of training and getting involved in searching for missing persons. The impetus that kicked us into doing this was a missing child case that remains unsolved to this day. We felt that if a good Bloodhound had been used, there would have been a chance that little boy could have been found! By the time we got and trained our dog, too much time had passed to ever be able to help on that case.

However, we did assist our local and area police and sheriff's departments on other cases and did get to make a difference on several felony cases, including a missing person/murder case that was eventually re-enacted for the producers of The New Detectives on The Discovery Channel, in October of 2001.

But times changed, and departments and new personnel became much less willing to ask civilian volunteers for this help. We found that this problem extends across the United States, and many other handlers who had trained their dogs for this purpose were ALSO not being called out on those cases where they could have made a difference!

In the meantime, the news became saturated with so many cases of missing children and adults... and the crimes against these innocent victims were becoming even more heinous... that it reached an intolerable level with us! That is when the plan for a "Molly's Law" was brought up to search dog handlers in all areas of law enforcement and search and rescue across the United States for their input and support. We drafted a proposed law, named after a Bloodhound (then in California) that followed the scent-trail of a baby that had been stolen from his mother and taken in a pick-up truck.

Using the "drop-trail" method, "Molly" and her handler followed the trail over a two-day period of time, along more than 35 miles of busy highways and intersections; from one town to another; through residential areas... right to the front door of the kidnapper!

The baby was returned safely to his mother, and we chose to name our proposed law after "Molly", who exemplified the kind of success that is possible when a properly-trained dog is called in a timely manner! This case was re-enacted by "Molly" and her handler in the late Summer of 2001, and was aired several times on Animal Planet's program titled Wild Rescues!

It has been a long, slow and painstaking process... because we are not a true organization; we have very little outside help; we have no grant or other funds; and we have no voice in the media. Still, we have accomplished quite a bit on a shoestring... thanks to the internet being a free source of the little publicity we can get. So I have joined numerous online forums and it's past time, once again, to get the word out on the "Molly's Law" project and ask for people to visit our online petition, read the Preface to the law we have written, and sign in support of it... then pass the link and information on to as many others as possible!

We need to fight the problem of lost, missing and abducted children and adults on many different fronts, but because a scent-discriminating man-trailer (generally, a Bloodhound) can start the trail immediately, with only an uncontaminated scent article and a reliable "point last seen" (P.L.S.), it is the quickest and most direct way of establishing a direction of travel of the missing persons and, hopefully, following it to a conclusion. Because few people live in this world entirely alone, and most have children, elderly, or other adults at risk of these crimes... this is a subject that should be of concern to everyone!

At the moment, I have something over 1,800 online signatures and almost 2,500 signatures on hard-copy petitions. This isn't even a drop in the bucket to show for the untold amount of work I have put into this important project over the past few years. We should have hundreds of thousands, if not MILLIONS, of signatures by now... but because we have no grant or other funds to help us publicize, set up a website, etc. I have been joining various forums and message boards and posting whenever I can, but that is just not enough. I really need Everyone's help in getting signatures!

Please... if everyone would sign and pass it on to even a few family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, businesses, etc.... and ask each of them to do the same, on down the chain of E-mails, letters, phone calls, etc., the numbers would grow TREMENDOUSLY in a very short time! I have seen petitions with hundreds of thousands of signatures, having to do with subjects of FAR LESS importance than this one, and the comparison dismays and depresses me! Each person should think about what they would want done, if their child or adult loved one went missing! Again, the problem has to be fought on many fronts, and this is one of the most important... because a scent-discriminating man-trailer, called in promptly on a search, can do MUCH to help find or recover these victims and/or gather evidence! We have reams of documentation on the use of Bloodhounds, which is our BEST recommendation, particularly on cases where the victim may have been taken in a vehicle, and the trail is old and contaminated!

We should never allow a trail to become this complex or difficult, however, before a qualified man-trailer is called in! The only hope for change, nationally, is through "Molly's Law" and the attending aspects of our overall plan, which is to also educate law enforcement and the general public; to provide contacts for these resources; and to encourage further training of search dog teams to hone their skills! Your help in making this possible is most deeply appreciated! Please refer to the link below, and permission is given to forward this message in its entirety, or the paragraphs and link below, to any person, group or list that can be of help! Thank you!

Sincerely,

Joyce Phares