“Operation Find Our Children” recovers 27 previously missing children

“There is no greater mission for law enforcement than rescuing an endangered child,” Acting U.S. Attorney Daniel P. Bubar of the Western District of Virginia said in a press release issued today by the U.S. Marshals Service announcing the recovery of 27 children that had previously been reported as missing in the state of Virginia.

Operation Find Our Children was a 5-day operation that saw federal, state, and local law enforcement partnering in an effort to recover endangered and missing children.

“The Department of Justice is dedicated to protecting the most vulnerable children in our society and ‘Operation Find Our Children’ does just that,” said Jeffrey A. Rosen, Deputy Attorney General. “While this Virginia operation is the most recent recovery of endangered and missing children led by the U.S. Marshals Service this year, we have also recovered more than 440 kids in Georgia, Ohio, Indiana, Louisiana and other states. Because of this initiative, the recovered children are now out of harm’s way.”

During Operation Find Our Children an additional six children that had been previously reported missing were confirmed to have returned to the custody of their legal guardian.

“The U.S. Marshals Service has a legendary history of finding fugitives and bringing them to justice,” said Thomas L. Foster, U.S. Marshal for the Western District of Virginia. “Because of this specialized skill set, finding missing children is a natural extension of the Marshal’s mission. Although many of the 27 recoveries occurred in Virginia’s larger population centers, seven occurred in the Western District of Virginia to include Roanoke and Abingdon. This operation brought missing and exploited children to a place of safety and those who made the decision to prey upon them to justice.”

“What a tremendous testament to the power of cooperation and the mission of federal, state, and local law enforcement,” said G. Zachary Terwilliger, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. “There is no greater mission than that of protecting and rescuing the most vulnerable.