text size

Phylicia Barnes Father Speaks Out of Passing of New Law for Missing Children

Updated: Tuesday, November 27 2012, 11:56 AM EST
It's been almost two years since, 16 year old Phylicia Barnes went missing.  Her body was later found near the Conowingo Dam. 

Saturday November 17, 2012, her father traveled to Baltimore from Georgia to promote Phylicia’s law. He made the journey hoping it will change how police and volunteers in Maryland go about finding missing children. 

In a center dedicated to jazz pioneer Eubie Blake, Russell Barnes, Phylicia’s father, hopes to become a pioneer for missing children. 

“We have to spot it, change our laws, and put a ne around situations like this faster,” Phylicia’s father advocated during Saturday’s event. 

During the month of December 2010, 16 year old honors student Phylicia went missing while visiting relatives in Northwest Baltimore. Her disappearance gained national attention, and search parties ensued.

A high-profile ant-terrorism expert Don Rondeau was part of a search effort to find the young missing teen.  He says the Barnes missing person case exposed a broken system.  He believed it showed that Maryland was lacking a plan when it came to finding missing children. So he and Phylicia’s father drafter Phylcia’s law. 

“And just this May, Governor Martin O’Malley signed a bill named after Phylicia.  As soon as a child goes missing there would be better coordination between police and community volunteers.”

The law also rises the age that police consider a child “critically missing” from 14 to 17 years old.  Phylicia Barnes Father Speaks Out of Passing of New Law for Missing Children