Portsmouth Herald Maine News: Protecting the kids

From left, Compassion for Children Director Suzanne Heyland, instructor Brenda Alexander and co-founder Debbie Zerbinopoulos pose with a dummy they use to give kids self-defense training.
Photo by Jackie Ricciardi

YORK, Maine - John and Magi Bish say they don’t want any parent in America to go through what they have.

Five years ago, on a bright June morning, their teenage daughter, Molly, disappeared, minutes after her mother dropped her off at her summer lifeguard job on a lake in Warren, Mass.

Although Molly’s remains were found not far away some three years later, no one has been charged with her murder. But that is not for lack of trying by the Bishes, who have formed a foundation that not only helps track leads into Molly’s death but, in a broader sense, works to promote child safety and aid in missing-children investigations.

And the Bishes will be sharing their story and what has become their life work on Nov. 1 at the York Public Library.

The Bishes said investigators into Molly’s death were aided by the fact that they had so many clear pictures of her. With that in mind, the couple has been working to ensure that parents of all children have child ID kits - with good, reproducible photographs and fingerprints. These, they say, are pivotal in helping police track down a missing child.

"They have no voice," Magi Bish said about children who have been abducted. "We are their voice, and they’re telling us they want to come home. And I believe as well that they want those found who endangered them so that no other child, no other family, will have to endure this immense sadness."

According to Magi Bish, investigators worked tirelessly for years to find Molly’s killer, and the case remains under investigation.

The couple has traversed the country, spending hundreds of thousands of hours talking to groups like the one in York and, to date, distributing upwards of 50,000 identification kits.

The Molly Bish Foundation (www.mollybish.org) also assists police departments following abductions by providing fliers, posters, buttons and Internet information.

The will appear in York at the request of Compassion 4 Children, a local nonprofit organization that works to prevent violence against children. Suzanne Heyland, who together with fellow parent Debbie Zerbinopoulos founded the group in 2003, said she found out about the Bishes’ work through a Portland detective who has worked with her organization. Heyland said Compassion 4 Children sponsors local sessions of RadKIDS, which provides self-defense training for children ages 5-12, with instructors from the York Police Department. The Bishes advocate such training, she said.

Police officers will be present at the Nov. 1 event with the Bishes, said York Police Chief Doug Bracy. He said the department’s involvement in the RadKIDS program is "another great partnership for community policing. This goes a step further than the school resource officer, for parents who want to train their children in self-defense."

GO & DO

What: "Molly’s Story and the Missing Children of New England," presented by John and Magi Bish, parents of a child who was abducted and murdered

Where: York Public Library, York, Maine

When: 7 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 1

For details: Call Suzanne Heyland at (207) 361-4343