Search for Missing Girl Will be Paid for With Tax Dollars

More than 2,000 children are reported missing each day in the United States. So when Orono police received reports Tuesday afternoon that a little girl had vanished from her vacation Bible school, they didn't hesitate launching a massive search effort that brought in teams of law enforcement, Salvation Army personnel and others—working by helicopter, on foot and with dogs.

Jordan Arends was found at a friend’s house, safe, about four hours after she was reported missing. It appears simple confusion led to her unknown whereabouts. Orono Police Chief Correy Farniok said the parents of a friend picked up the little girl for a play date, and it's unclear why there was no contact with Jordan’s parents during the day.

“We’re still looking into what kind of communication did—or didn’t—take place that led to this individual picking the child up without the family knowing about it,” he said. “But this is the best possible outcome we can ever hope to achieve.”

Tuesday’s search involved dozens of emergency responders from a variety of state and local agencies, at costs that could climb into the tens of thousands of dollars. Still, Farniok said he would take the same course of action if presented with the same information and circumstances.

“Everybody, I think, can put themselves in the shoes of this child’s parents, whether they have a child or not,” he said. “This is what me as a father would want. She was already missing for about 90 minutes by the time we got the call. We started off by calling in a blood hound, which was already en route to the City of Mound for a report of a missing person there. That individual was found relatively quickly, though, so we already had a blood hound in the area from Hennepin County.”

Firefighters from Long Lake and other police and fire departments quickly joined the search and scoured nearby homes, businesses and parks. Agents with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension conducted interviews with registered predatory offenders within 20 miles of the site, and a officers from the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office began searching from the air by helicopter. Media were also contacted, and word spread through television, radio and the Internet that an eight-year-old girl was missing.

“This little girl had no physical or mental issues, and there were no custody issues,” Farniok said. “For any child missing under the same conditions, yes, we would repeat the same scenario."

As of right now, the Arends family won't receive a bill for any part of the costs associated with Tuesday’s search. 

“Right now, this is tax dollars that paid for this,” he said. “We have money in our budget that we allocate for situations like this. We don’t know what this is going to cost at this point, but at this point it’s a pretty minimal cost."