Mother of slain Calif. girl gives advice to local officials

By Jeremy Twitchell

Friday, May 15, 2009 | 1:24 p.m.

The mother of a young girl who was abducted and murdered in California in 2002 spent this morning in Henderson training local volunteers as part of a nationwide effort to spare other families from her experience.

Erin Runnion launched the Joyful Child Foundation in 2004, less than two years after she lost her 5-year-old daughter, Samantha. The foundation’s largest undertaking has been the Samantha’s PRIDE Neighborhood Child Protection Program, which recruits and trains volunteers to watch over children at parks, community events and the walk to and from school.

This morning, she trained representatives from the Henderson Parks and Recreation Department’s after-school programs, Henderson Police officers and concerned parents in how the program works so that they can reach out to the community and teach parents how to form PRIDE groups in their own neighborhoods.

“In a nutshell, it’s neighborhood watch with a focus on child protection, instead of property crime,” Runnion said.

So far, Runnion has trained 50 instructors in 14 states about Samantha’s PRIDE. The goal, she said, is to cut down on the easy opportunities on which child predators rely.

“These are not brave people,” she said. “They are cowards.”

The training session was part of a weeklong seminar with the radKIDS program, which teaches children safety practices and physical resistance tactics to use against would-be abductors.

The teaching has been credited with helping six Nevada children foil abduction attempts in the last two years, according to Nevada Child Seekers, a local non-profit agency that helps search for missing children and provides education in abduction and exploitation prevention.

By creating the Samantha’s PRIDE program and partnering with radKIDS to spread it across the nation, Runnion said she has been able to ease her own pain.

“Before this happened, I couldn’t even imagine my daughter being kidnapped,” she said. “I couldn’t even imagine it. Then when it happened, all I could imagine is how terrified she must have been and how much she must have screamed. … The combination of Samantha’s PRIDE and radKIDS — it takes away the screams. To say it is healing is an understatement.”

After her daughter’s death, Runnion said the courtyard in her condominium complex where all the children used to play — the one from which Samantha was taken — became deserted. That, she said, is another outcome the program hopes to help prevent.

“Our kids should not be held captive because there aren’t enough concerned adults out there to watch them,” she said. “All it takes is minimal coordination.”

Stephanie Parker, executive director of Nevada Child Seekers, said she is reaching out to after-school programs, churches, schools, neighborhood organizations and anyone else who might have an interest to help launch PRIDE programs in their area.

“I think this gives another tool to the community and that’s what we’re always looking for — more tools to protect children.”