WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal marshals have recovered 27 children reported as missing throughout Virginia as the result of a five-day operation, the U.S. Department of Justice said Friday.
A news release announced the completion of the effort dubbed “Operation Find Our Children.” The department also said the operation confirmed the location of six other children previously reported as missing but subsequently discovered by the U.S. Marshals Service as being with their legal guardian.
“While this Virginia operation is the most recent recovery of endangered and missing children led by the U.S. Marshals Service this year, we have also recovered more than 440 kids in Georgia, Ohio, Indiana, Louisiana and other states,” Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey A. Rosen said in the news release. “Because of this initiative, the recovered children are now out of harm’s way.”
The department said that since 2005, the U.S. Marshals Service has recovered more than 2,000 missing children. Over the past five years, the agency has recovered missing children in 75 percent of the cases it’s received. Of those recovered, 72 percent were recovered within seven days, the department said.
