Missing Florida Child

[SpanishLottoFan]

First, let me say hello to my fellow UM fans. Been viewing this board for a while, but this is my first post.

I was wondering about a case that I believe was quickly profiled during the first episode of season 4. Stack mentions a child that has been missing from Florida since 1972. I'm unclear on the spelling of the name; it sounds like he says Patrick Ackles. I couldn't find any info online, but I'm confidant that one of the experts here can point me in the right direction.

[Charli-Ann]

Originally Posted by SpanishLottoFan

First, let me say hello to my fellow UM fans. Been viewing this board for a while, but this is my first post.

I was wondering about a case that I believe was quickly profiled during the first episode of season 4. Stack mentions a child that has been missing from Florida since 1972. I'm unclear on the spelling of the name; it sounds like he says Patrick Ackles. I couldn't find any info online, but I'm confidant that one of the experts here can point me in the right direction.

This is a long shot, but could it have been Paul Allan Allard? He was 14 when he disappeared from the Miami area in 1976.

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/a/allard_paul.html

Charli-Ann

[crystaldawn]

Welcome!

Do you happen to know what segment it was after? I think there are one or two segments where they quickly profile missing children and if you knew which one I could look it up on my dvds.

[SpanishLottoFan]

Thanks, CD!

I believe it was after the Carla Downing segment. It was part of a trio of quick cases that they ran through.

It's strange that I haven't been able to locate anything on the case.

Charli-Ann, I think that is a different (still very sad) case, as Stack mentions the Florida child was age 7 when abducted. Thanks for looking though.

[crystaldawn]

I did find it on the episode from 11/20/91 after the Carla Downing update. It does sound like his name is Patrick Ackles (could also be spelled Eccles). RS said its thought to be the oldest missing person child case in Florida. The strange thing is I can't find anything about it on the net. When this segment aired it said Patrick would be 25.

[RobinW]

I actually found this Websleuths thread on Paul Allan Allard, the aforementioned missing Miami kid from 1976. Apparently, this is officially considered the "oldest" missing child case in Miami's history simply because the records for children who went missing in Miami before then have been lost or destroyed!
http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=35096

In the 1970s, Florida used to be notorious for their lax attitude towards missing children and simply writing them off as runaways. I'm willing to bet that the records for this Patrick Ackles no longer exist, which is why no one can find any information about him. Putting his photo on UM may have been the very last resort for his family since they had nothing else to go on. I'm sure there were probably other children who went missing in Florida before 1972, but there's just no record of them any more.

[MegtheEgg86]

Originally Posted by RobinW

I actually found this Websleuths thread on Paul Allan Allard, the aforementioned missing Miami kid from 1976. Apparently, this is officially considered the "oldest" missing child case in Miami's history simply because the records for children who went missing in Miami before then have been lost or destroyed!
http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=35096

In the 1970s, Florida used to be notorious for their lax attitude towards missing children and simply writing them off as runaways. I'm willing to bet that the records for this Patrick Ackles no longer exist, which is why no one can find any information about him. Putting his photo on UM may have been the very last resort for his family since they had nothing else to go on. I'm sure there were probably other children who went missing in Florida before 1972, but there's just no record of them any more.

Wow, I had no idea the pre-1976 records simply don't exist anymore!

The first thing I thought of after I read your post was Little Miss Panasoffkee. How discouraging.

[SpanishLottoFan]

Thanks for looking CD and thanks for that interesting info Robin! It's disconcerting to me, to say the least, that pre-1976 records would no longer exist.

Meg, I also thought of Little Miss Panasoffkee when reading that. I understand that these cases are very old and law enforcement has limited resources, but no longer maintaining a record of these cases makes the odds of solving them virtually zero...and that just isn't fair to the memories of these missing children.

[nohwheregirl]

Originally Posted by MegtheEgg86

Wow, I had no idea the pre-1976 records simply don't exist anymore!

The first thing I thought of after I read your post was Little Miss Panasoffkee. How discouraging.

First person I thought of was Amy Billig. If her mother hadn't kept up a constant tireless media campaign, we wouldn't know anything about her.

[dks64]

Originally Posted by RobinW

I actually found this Websleuths thread on Paul Allan Allard, the aforementioned missing Miami kid from 1976. Apparently, this is officially considered the "oldest" missing child case in Miami's history simply because the records for children who went missing in Miami before then have been lost or destroyed!
http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=35096

In the 1970s, Florida used to be notorious for their lax attitude towards missing children and simply writing them off as runaways. I'm willing to bet that the records for this Patrick Ackles no longer exist, which is why no one can find any information about him. Putting his photo on UM may have been the very last resort for his family since they had nothing else to go on. I'm sure there were probably other children who went missing in Florida before 1972, but there's just no record of them any more.

Whoa. That's very disappointing to hear.

[RobinW]

Yes, I do fear that if Little Miss Panasoffkee was ever reported missing by anybody, all the paperwork for it is long gone. In fact, the only reason she's become this well known is because Sheriff Jamie Adams took a very enthusiastic personal interest in getting her IDed many years after she was found. Unfortunately, so many missing persons and UIDs don't have anyone like that in their corner.

But, yeah, if you ever browse the Websleuths forum, you'll come across some horror stories about a missing person's loved ones trying to get their cold case reopened after many years have passed and finding out that the police have lost or destroyed all the original paperwork. You'll often find old missing persons cases on Charley Project where the only photo posted is of poor quality, but that's sometimes because better photos of the person are nowhere to be found anymore!

[unsolved243]

Today, I was on the "UM Expanded Episode Guide" and found in one of the descriptions it said "a viewer tip that led a Miami woman to the son she hadn't seen for 23 years". The episode was February 9, 1996, and about twenty three years before that was 1972, when Patrick Ackles vanished. When it was aired briefly, all Stack said was that he was from Florida, and Miami is in Florida, so it could be possible, but somewhat unlikely that Patrick was found alive and reunited with his mother. Has anyone found anything else about Patrick?

[kittehkrueger]

This isn't hard to believe if you consider the standards that used to be in place for hiring officers. It wasn't so long ago that becoming a cop in a lot of places meant just going in and filling out a job application.

I am not saying that today's strict standards will eliminate all incompetence but we should hope that some of these cold case nightmare stories about lost evidence and files are a thing of the past.

Mishandled evidence will keep cases from getting solved and also keep criminals from being convicted.

[crystaldawn]

Originally Posted by unsolved243

Today, I was on the "UM Expanded Episode Guide" and found in one of the descriptions it said "a viewer tip that led a Miami woman to the son she hadn't seen for 23 years". The episode was February 9, 1996, and about twenty three years before that was 1972, when Patrick Ackles vanished. When it was aired briefly, all Stack said was that he was from Florida, and Miami is in Florida, so it could be possible, but somewhat unlikely that Patrick was found alive and reunited with his mother. Has anyone found anything else about Patrick?

I corresponded with someone close to Patrick's family several months ago. He is still missing. They said he was abducted from his mother's home. She said a condition of the UM showing was not to comment on the identity of the abductor. She also said to my surprise that after the brief segment aired on UM a young man showed up at Patrick's mothers home claiming to be him. He brought along a pregnant girlfriend and two children (UM did update the case as she stated she actually watched the update on an old vhs tape back then). He was asked to take a dna test and refused and him and his family took off in the middle of the night. He was eventually arrested and found to have quite a rap sheet and may have been deported.

Does anyone remember seeing this update? She thought it may have aired around 1995. It seems as though UM airs the update and never bothers to further update that it was an imposter that was claiming to be him and thus not a solved case.

[tiddlywinks950]

Originally Posted by crystaldawn

I corresponded with someone close to Patrick's family several months ago. He is still missing. They said he was abducted from his mother's home. She said a condition of the UM showing was not to comment on the identity of the abductor. She also said to my surprise that after the brief segment aired on UM a young man showed up at Patrick's mothers home claiming to be him. He brought along a pregnant girlfriend and two children (UM did update the case as she stated she actually watched the update on an old vhs tape back then). He was asked to take a dna test and refused and him and his family took off in the middle of the night. He was eventually arrested and found to have quite a rap sheet and may have been deported.

Does anyone remember seeing this update? She thought it may have aired around 1995. It seems as though UM airs the update and never bothers to further update that it was an imposter that was claiming to be him and thus not a solved case.

This seems really familiar for some reason...I think I did see something like this years ago, although I was very young and I can't remember if it aired on Lifetime or NBC. I want to say NBC, because my grandmother watched the show frequently back then.