Allison DuBois: Don't Kiss Them Good-bye

I chose to remain anonymous until the alert system was made public and put into use because I didn’t want to diminish its credibility in any way. (It made me sad, but I was just being realistic.) Meanwhile, a year passed and the alert system still hadn’t been introduced to the public. I was beginning to grow impatient. In March, three years to the very day since the little girl in Texas had been abducted, the alert system was spontaneously unveiled in Maricopa County. The Texas girl was not only the reason for my learning about the alert, but also, I believe, the reason that I had so much help moving it along.

A whole chain of events had to occur in order for me to bring my hometown alert alive. Now children in Arizona will have a chance to survive what the little girl in Texas didn’t. I think it’s no coincidence that the alert system was unveiled in Phoenix on the anniversary of her abduction. It is true that everything happens for a reason.

Two months after being unveiled, the alert brought back a little girl who had been taken by her non-custodial dad. He had made some questionable statements that could be interpreted as physical threats. A trucker spotted her dad’s license plate and she was recovered three hours later.

I was asked by a local news station whether it was a mistake to activate the alert in a parental abduction. My response was that parental abduction should not be exempted if a child may be in danger. It’s a call that the police have to make on a case-by-case basis, and I think they made the right one. The abducted girl was home safe and sound with her mother for Thanksgiving dinner that week.

The Maricopa County alert went on to save a baby who was in the backseat during a carjacking just two months later. Countless children have been saved thanks to this clever alert system.

The little Texas girl’s remains were recovered in January 2004, and she was finally brought home to her family. I was able both to confirm the correct information that I had provided to the police and to learn from the markers (physical clues and locations) that I misread.

For example, I kept seeing small airplanes (not commercial) and later I kicked myself for not being more vigilant: I should have narrowed the location of remains to areas near airports, Air Force bases, and so on. The body was located a mile from an Air Force base. I had said over and over she was by government land, large parks and barbed wire fences. I kept seeing the word “pueblo,” and as it turned out, Pueblo Trail was near the area of her remains. I also kept seeing “Timber,” and Timber Wolf Lane was near the area.

This type of search is not an exact science, and not all information may be confirmed. But many of the markers I receive can be helpful when properly applied. I could have narrowed the search to a square mile. That may sound like a huge area, but when police are looking for a small child in the state of Texas, narrowing the search to a mile is excellent. Sometimes it’s not in the grand plan that profilers ever find the murder victim. Sometimes others’ lives are supposed to be affected by the discovery of a body—for instance, a hiker may be meant to stumble upon someone’s remains.

Remember, real life is the only way for head-tappers to learn and become effective. In the four years since I worked on this case I’ve sharpened my skills considerably, but I will never forget that little girl in Texas who forever changed my life through her whispers.

Everyone I came across in 2002 wanted to know what I thought about Elizabeth Smart’s abduction. Since the outcome of her case was not only happy but miraculous, I will share some of the pertinent details. Before her return, I had shared this information with a reputable search-and-rescue team that was deployed to Utah.

In June 2002, Elizabeth Smart was abducted from her home. Her heartbreaking story was on every major news program in America. The nation watched as the Smart family searched desperately for their daughter. We were all witness to every parent’s worst nightmare.

I, like everybody else, saw Elizabeth’s picture on TV and wished I could help. But I don’t make a practice of giving information on a case unless I am asked for my input. Soon after the abduction, my friend Catherine asked me to provide a profile of the perpetrator to be sent to the search-and-rescue team in Utah. All the information I provided is on record and verifiable.

In my profile I stated that the perpetrator had the name Brian connected to him. I stated that he had worked for the Smarts as a groundskeeper/handyman. He was a transient, but he managed to function in society. He would often change his appearance, and I was picking up on a strong connection to California, so he might have fled there or been from there. He had pedophilic tendencies, with a possible history of acting on them. I also described a small town outside the city where Elizabeth was abducted as being a place that he’d reside or spend a lot of time. It was somehow significant to him. I also knew that he’d taken Elizabeth to a forest area, a setting with pine trees.

As the authorities later learned, the man arrested in the kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart was Brian David Mitchell. He had worked for the Smarts briefly as a groundskeeper/handyman. He was a drifter who just a decade prior had been a family man. When he abducted Elizabeth, he held her in a forestlike campground area; he later took her to San Diego, California. His ex-wife alleged that Brian was a pedophile.

Unfortunately, none of my information was acted on when I first shared it. It was only discovered to be accurate after Elizabeth was recognized on the street by an observant stranger, who notified the authorities.

These details could have helped much sooner if they had been used. If my information couldn’t help identify the perpetrator and thus help lead us to the victim, I wouldn’t even bother to profile. The name of the perpetrator and his association to the victim are key, but the information is only useful if it is put to use. I hope someday the system will recognize people like me who are legitimate so that our insights can be shared with the proper authorities as soon as a kidnapping occurs. Otherwise, what good is this gift?

Once again, ours isn’t a perfect science. Profilers are still human beings who will have margins of error, like everyone else. But there is no doubt that profiling can help victims. It is an ability that must be acknowledged, because the stakes are so high: human life.

One day I received a call from my mentor, Catherine, who is also a medium; she and I have held many group sessions as a duo. One of the ladies from a group session had a sister whose friends were missing. I had been watching the situation unfold on the news for a couple of days and it was receiving a lot of local coverage.

The general assumption was that the three missing people might have been carjacked and possibly killed. Steve Cerqua, his wife, Kathy, and Kathy’s mother had all disappeared. There were records of ATM withdrawals and a record of the family shopping at a local store, but they hadn’t been heard from since. I accepted Catherine’s request for me to help them, and received a phone call from some of the the missing people’s relatives on the second day after their disappearance.

I started by asking who drove the Toyota Camry. I knew the Cerquas and Sally Rosenwinkel weren’t driving one when they disappeared, because I’d seen a description of their vehicle on the news, but I needed to confirm that I’d made the right connection. I was told that the Cerquas’ daughter drove a Camry that she often parked in their driveway.

Good! I had the right person. I was connecting with Steve Cerqua. I told the family that all three were alive and not to worry. I added that the missing trio would be found within five days of their disappearance and that they would return safely.