Since Sept. 1, 2008, 117 child runaways have been reported in Johnson County. All 117 children have been found.

“That’s a miracle and a blessing,” Sheriff Bob Alford said.

But many missing persons stay missing. And if they’re ever located, they may not be alive.

Two cases in point were presumed homicide victims Jill Jackson and Donna Williamson, whose remains were discovered in the early ’80s.

Jackson’s bones were in the vicinity of Percifield Road and U.S. 67 near Alvarado. Williamson’s were several miles south of Alvarado in brushy terrain adjacent to Interstate 35W.

Both were last reported seen in Fort Worth. Serious investigations into their disappearances did not begin until their remains were unearthed. Those cases have never been closed.

Closure in such instances will be more likely in Johnson County in the future.

“We’re going to start treating a runaway like a bank robbery,” Alford said. “We’re going to make a full response.”

Alford is more convinced of that than ever since attending a recent conference in Washington, D.C., at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

“It’s a great tool for law enforcement, parents, everyone,” he said.

It’s been used by Johnson County in the past.

“Several years ago, a boy disappeared for four days before we found him over near Grandview,” Alford said. “He didn’t run away. He wandered off and got lost and then got more lost. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children sent an expert here at my request to monitor our search. Sometimes you miss something you should be doing. They go through a checklist. They go to the parents and say, ‘This is what law enforcement is doing and why, and this is what we can do for you.’ It’s called Team Adam. There are 56 of those personnel nationwide who respond to help agencies and families. Since December of 2008, there have been 340 deployments for 383 missing kids.”

Johnson County has been fortunate in the last year, but many runaway cases don’t have happy endings.

A recent murder case featured two Granbury teenagers who were believed to have left home to be together in another location. That was eventually determined not to be the case.

Like Williamson and Jackson, their bones were discovered well after the fact.

The only concrete evidence in the case was not processed because Hood County law enforcement treated the teens as missing persons, not homicide victims.

Sometimes there is a happy ending. The child returns home, willingly or otherwise.

“We follow up with the child when we get them back,” Alford said. “We interview them. Probably 90 percent of the time, they blame the parents. The parents came down on them for their grades or attitude, and they loaded up and took off. Those runaways are potential homicide victims. They are definitely potential victims for sexual abuse and sexual assault.”

Or eventually, out of necessity, they give in to those who prey on them.

“They learn to do what they have to do to survive,” Alford said.

Johnson County could have done more in the past to follow up runaways, Alford said.

“We probably should have done more on initial reports, and we’re going to start doing more.”

Agencies such as Alford’s are limited.

“Manpower is an issue,” Alford said. “Each detective gets about six new cases a day. It’s a matter of priorities. Still, you have to do all you can with what you have.”

New laws have helped officers track runaways.

“Now, any time you have a runaway, you can report it immediately to [the National Crime Information Center] and [the Texas Crime Information Center],” Alford said. “You also call the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and they will produce posters you can put out. There used to be a 24 hour waiting period on runaways. Some agencies still may be going on that. Well, statistics show that some of these children are dead within the first three hours.

“When a perpetrator gets a runaway, the first thing they tell the child is, ‘I have you because your parents didn’t love you.’ They start a brainwashing process. Then the child realizes, ‘If I want to eat, I have to do what this guy says.’ The survival instinct takes over. That’s why you see pictures of the children going shopping with the perpetrators. The children are so brainwashed that they won’t run. There are a lot of those.”

It’s not illegal for an adult to disappear without a forwarding address. If a child runs away, the parent can be held responsible.

“Parents have an awesome responsibility,” Alford said. “Was the kid truly mad when he ran away? We’re going to ask the child that. We’re going to ask him, ‘Do you want to go home? If not, why not?’ They could be some physical or sexual abuse.”

Often, the home is not the problem.

“One in five missing children has been solicited online,” Alford said.