United States Marshals in northern Ohio have a new unit that is laser-focused on missing children.
“I definitely think it’s a good thing, “ said Linda Summers. Summers’ step-granddaughter, Ashley Summers, has been missing since July 2007.
The then 14-year-old disappeared from Cleveland’s West Side.
“The Cleveland police don’t have the resources and neither do the other smaller suburbs around Cleveland. And even in Ashley’s case with the FBI, their task force that helps with that, they’re also doing drugs and other crimes. They’re not just focusing on missing kids,” explained Summers.
An act of Congress gave the United States Marshal Service authority to get involved in missing, endangered, or abducted child cases when lawmakers passed The Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act back in 2015. In the past three years, US Marshals in Northeast Ohio have recovered roughly 200 missing children.
Marshals have been getting involved in finding missing kids on a case-by-case basis. But now, U.S. Marshal of the Northern District of Ohio, Pete Elliott, has formed a permanent unit that is laser-focused on tracking down missing children, and he wants to expand it even more.
“What I would like to see happen is kind of build this like we did 20 years ago with our Northern Ohio Violent Fugitive Task Force and expand it where we have partnerships in all with different agencies and when things happen we can be on it right away,” explained Elliott.
Since Summers disappeared 16 years ago, there have been leads but none have led to Ashley. Since then, the non-profit Cleveland Missing opened its doors to help families like hers. “I don’t have the exact numbers, but I would say at any given point in Cuyahoga County there’s a hundred missing juveniles and that number is ebb and flow with runaways and whatnot,” said John Majoy, President Board of Directors Cleveland Missing
Deputy U.S. Marshal Vincent Piccoli heads up the new unit. “It’s a big issue not only in Ohio but around the country. It’s a problem,” said Piccoli.
As for the Ashley Summers investigation, the FBI said, “The FBI does not provide updates on cases, but we again remind the public to step up if they have any information, no matter how small they may think it is or how long they may have kept it quiet. Their identity can remain confidential."
The USMS has set up a tip line for missing children. That number is 1-877-377-USMS.
