Flash Folklore in the Internet Era: E-Legends of Missing Children; Column by Rosalie Stafford, Web Mystery Magazine, Spring 2005

Flash Folklore in the Internet Era: E-Legends of Missing Children

In October, I received this e-mail from the Dean of the college where I was teaching: "Typically, I do not by practice, forward personal items," the Dean's note said. "Situations such as this I put in a different category. Thank you for your understanding." The email read:

Subject: amber alert

please look at the picture, read what her father says, then forward his message on!

Maybe if every one passes this on someone will see this child, that is how the girl from Stevens Point was found by circulation of her picture on tv. The internet circulates even overseas South America, and Canada etc. Thanks

Please pass this to everyone in your address book.

We have a store manager (Wal-Mart) from Longs, SC who has a 9 year old daught! er who has been missing for 2 weeks. Keep the picture moving on. With luck on her side she will be found.

I am asking you all, begging you to please forward this email on to anyone and everyone you know, PLEASE. My 9 year old girl, Penny Brown, is missing. She has been missing for now two weeks.. It is still not too late. Please help us. If anyone anywhere knows anything, please contact me at: zicozicozico@hotmail.com I am including a picture of her. All prayers are appreciated!! It only takes 2 seconds to forward this on. If it was your child, you would want all the help you could get.

Stirred, I immediately forwarded the email to Ronnie D., founder of Unsolved-Crimes International Organization. Within minutes, Ronnie responded: "It's a hoax. There's no such child." I forwarded that message to my Dean. He never mentioned the incident.

As humans, it's our nature to want to protect and nurture children. We respond without hesitation to a heartfelt plea such as in the Penny Brown email. Sadly, this impulse to nurture is played upon by hoaxsters. This pleading 1998 email chain letter is certainly effective:

Subj: MISSING CHILD IN BKLYN, PLEASE FWD TO ALL YOU KNOW. PLEASE
PLEASE LOOK AT PICTURE THEN FORWARD I am asking you all, begging you to please forward this email on to anyone and everyone you know, PLEASE. I have a 5 year old son named Christopher John Mineo jr, Knick name C.J. I am from brooklyn N.Y. He has been missing since november of 98. If anyone anywhere knows anything, sees anything,please contact the origanial screen name that sent this.Which is CMINEO0295@aol.com
I am including a picture of him. All prayers are appreciated!! It only takes 2 seconds to forward" this on, if it was your child, you would want all the help you could get. Please. Christopher John Mineo Sr

Peter Kohler has thoroughly investigated the Christopher John Mineo Jr. case. He has concluded that CJ Mineo has never existed: the case is a hoax. Michael E. Brooks compared the CJ Mineo and the Kelsey Brooke Jones alerts; his textual analysis determined that the Mineo email is a "copy-cat" hoax -- virtually identical to the Jones email. (Kelsey Brooke Jones is a real little girl who once went missing; she was found in less than two hours, mere minutes after a helpful friend started the email chain letter which will not die.)

Unlike Penny Brown and CJ Mineo, Sabrina Fair Allen is a real child, although flash and hype on her email chain letter casts real doubts on her existence:

I need your help! Sabrina Fair Allen

You can't imagine what it's like to have a little girl get abducted. And I hope you never know the feeling. But if you have any compassion in your heart, please help find this missing little girl. She disappeared a few months ago and still hasn't been found. She's just 5 years old!

The Internet is huge and covers the whole world. If you pass this photo to just 5 friends, and they each pass it on to 5 of their friends, maybe this picture will reach someone who knows little Sabrina and can help find her.

Please, please help me find this little girl. If you've seen her, please call (512)-424-2812 or 1-(800)-346-3243.

If you haven't see her, please click here to pass this on to others who might. Sabrina's picture and case description are from the nonprofit National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. We hope you help.

BreaktheChain.Org has this to say about the Sabrina Fair Allen case: "If you click the link to send it on, you'll be taken to a 'funpage' tell-a-friend service where you're asked to enter your name and address as well as the addresses of up to ten friends. In addition, unless you opt out, sending this message will also sign you up for contests, special offers, and newsletters. This has led a lot of people to suspect it is a heartless scam to collect subscribers. Unfortunately, Sabrina's story is very true."

Sabrina, the pawn in a parental abduction case, is apparently living in Mexico with her non-custodial parent. However, with changed phone numbers, the Sabrina email has surfaced in South Africa -- as a hoax -- cynically functioning as a vehicle to enroll people in contests, special offers, and newsletters.

About.com's urban legends page provides a list of missing kids chain letter emails, including Penny Brown, Sabrina Fair Allen, and CJ Mineo. The next time you receive a heart-wrenching plea to forward an email telling the tragic story of a missing child, put your natural impulse to help on the back burner for a few minutes and do a little research. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children is a dependable source of information. If it is a bona-fide case, the NCMEC will probably have a record of its particulars; if you do not find the missing child's name in the NCMEC's database, quite likely your email chain letter is a hoax and should not be forwarded.

In my next "Flash Folklore in the Internet Era" column, I will discuss folklore as a field of study and characteristcs shared by folklorists, detectives, and writers.