What Operation Desert Dawn’s discovery of 31 missing kids reveals about Phoenix-area runaways

The work of finding missing children in initiatives like Operation Desert Dawn can be emotionally grueling, especially when many had already fled abusive homes before they were exploited, according to acting U.S. Marshal Van Bayless.

“They do break your heart, but at the end of the day, you feel like hopefully you made an impact and you made a difference, and you hope that these kids have a different future,” Bayless told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Arizona’s Morning News Thursday.

Operation Desert Dawn, a three-week effort led by the U.S. Marshals Service, recovered 31 missing children across metro Phoenix, including some considered critically endangered.

“This was another successful operation,” Bayless said. “I can’t think of a better thing than going out and finding these endangered kids.”

Initiatives like Operation Desert Dawn take an emotional toll, leader says

Bayless said many of the children investigators encountered were runaways who had already been living in unsafe or abusive situations before they disappeared.

“There are folks that are being abused. They’re in a terrible environment, and so they leave that environment, but unfortunately, there’s predators that are out there that take advantage of their displacement,” Bayless said.

He said the dangers many of these youths face often grow worse once they are on the streets.

“Sadly, a lot of these kids — they’re suspected of being sex trafficked, being abused, people hooking them on drugs,” Bayless said.

31 missing Arizona children were identified. What dangers were they in?

All of these kids who were found in metro Phoenix. The U.S. Marshals Service teamed up with the Phoenix and Glendale police departments, as well as organizations including the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

Talking face-to-face with runaways on the metro Phoenix streets can be emotionally taxing, especially because some of them have signs of abuse, he explained.

“You see some physical signs of bruising or marks,” he said. “There was one case where a 16-year-old girl was contacted. … She’d been registered missing for a while. She showed signs of being physically abused and through the conversation, she was absolutely being sex trafficked.”

This information was passed on, which is another benefit of this operation: It helps investigators find trafficking and abuse suspects.

“Another case of a 16-year-old, same type of background and situation with a 26-year-old male,” Bayless said. “He obviously is now being investigated.”

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