Crime & Safety

Why the Delay on Palos Child Abduction Attempt Information?

A bit of background on a recent child abduction attempt in unincorporated Palos Heights.

On Monday, Jan. 6 Patch published a story detailing a child abduction attempt that was made on Dec. 18 in unincorporated Palos Heights. 

The information was posted less then an hour after the Cook County Sheriff's Office sent out a press release to members of the media alerting them of the investigation and asking for help in identifying a suspect. 

The release reported that a man tried to lure a 9-year-old girl into his van in the area of 129th Place and Moody Avenue. The suspect was described as a white man in his late teens who was clean shaven and wearing a black jacket or sweatshirt.

Normally police departments release information on incidents like this relatively quickly to alert nearby residents of the potential danger and encourage individuals with possible leads to come forward. 

Information about this incident was not released by the Cook County Sheriff's Office, the agency handling the investigation, until the afternoon of Jan. 6. A full 19 days after it occurred. 

Patch asked the sheriff's office why there was such a delay in the release and why it was just sent out now. A spokesperson responded with this statement: 

"Sheriff's Police Detectives are looking to gather additional leads in this ongoing investigation."

Sometimes incidents are not reported until many days later, maybe that was the case here, so I contacted the Palos Heights Police Department to see if they had any further information. 

Palos Heights PD was made aware of the incident by the victim's father the day after it happened and then requested their own copy of the police report. 

"We did not directly investigate nor were we asked to assist in the investigation by them," Dep. Chief Dave Delaney told Patch by email. 

I'm glad this information is now widely disseminated to residents in the area, and hopefully anyone who may have seen something comes forward to help the investigation.

You can call the Sheriff's Police Investigation Division at (708) 865-4896 if you have information to share. 

In the meantime, I'm here to get the word out about incidents like this and bring them to the attention of residents via our widely followed breaking news alerts and Facebook page


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