HOUSTON — Texas Center for the Missing, Houston’s Amber Alert Provider, The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and Clear Channel Outdoor Americas (CCOA) launched a new month-long effort across Texas to generate leads in four individual missing childrens’ cases in Houston, San Antonio, the Dallas region and El Paso.
Coinciding with National Missing Kids Day, the campaign in each city will feature a different missing child’s case across Clear Channel Outdoor’s digital out of home (DOOH) displays. The child’s photo is included in each message, and in some cases, the child’s age progression photo is shown if the child has been missing for an extended period. Each child’s image will run across multiple digital billboards in each city 1,250 times per day on each display. The campaign will generate millions of impressions daily during the month-long campaign.
In perspective, the Texas Department of Public Safety Missing Persons Clearinghouse received 49,110 missing person reports in 2020, including 37,023juveniles. CCOA is providing this month-long public service campaign at no cost in partnership with the Texas Center for the Missing, Houston’s Amber Alert Provider.
“The purpose of this campaign is not only to highlight these four cases but to bring attention to the 37,023 missing children in Texas,” said Beth Alberts, CEO, Texas Center for the Missing.
In recent years, teens in San Antonio and Houston featured in previous digital billboard campaigns with CCOA and its partners, were found and returned home to their families. In 2019 San Antonio teen, Mariah Garcia, was featured in this program and was found and returned home in October of that year. A similar result happened in Houston with the safe return of Evanegelys Colon, 16, who went missing in 2019. Mrs. Angelica Colon Padua, Evanegely’s mother, credited the digital billboards and subsequent media coverage for bringing her daughter home.
2021 Missing Children Cases featured in this program include:
Houston: Thalia Macias, has been missing since December 2019 and was 15 when she disappeared. She may have been lured away from Mayde Creek High School in Katy, TX. She is an Hispanic female, now age 17 with brown hair and eyes, 5’1″ tall and weighing 70 lbs.
San Antonio: Alani McCaslin has been missing since May 15, 2015. She has frequently been in the Perrin Beitel area and was last seen on the 9000 block of Cordes Junction. Clear Channel Outdoor will broadcast Alani’s photo on a rotating basis on its digital billboards throughout the San Antonio region thousands of times over the campaign creating millions of market impressions. Alani McCaslin is a 14-year-old female weighting 110 pounds with brown hair and brown eyes. She has a medical condition and was last seen wearing a grey sweatshirt and jeans.
El Paso: Steven Campbell was allegedly abducted by his mother, Karla Campbell in 2011 at age three. A felony warrant for kidnapping was issued for Karla Campbell on August 9, 2012. They may have travelled to Mexico. This case was featured in previous campaigns and is being featured again in hopes of generating more leads.
Dallas Region: Maria Elizalde has been missing from the Dallas area since 2015. She may still be in the Dallas, Cedar Hill or Balch Springs area. She is biracial, Hispanic and American Indian, 5’0, weighing 140 lbs. This case was featured in this program in 2018.
Programs like these are a reminder to all parents and guardians of the need for high-quality photographs of their children for use in case of an emergency, and, for the need for everyone to pay close attention to posters and photographs of missing children.
