CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (WJW) — U.S. Marshals in Iowa have located 21 juveniles and recovered seven children, including one in Ohio, as part of Operation Homecoming.
According to a release from the U.S. Marshal’s Service, officials have been partnering together since October, focused on recovering “vulnerable, critically missing children across the state.”
The children recovered were between the ages of four and 17 and are described as some of the “most at-risk and challenging recovery cases in the area.”
The children were found in nine different states, including Arizona, Nebraska, Minnesota, Florida, Mississippi, Tennessee, Illinois, Ohio and Indiana.
One of the children recovered had been missing since he was taken by a noncustodial family member in 2017. The child is now four years old.
In January, U.S. Marshals in Illinois recovered a missing 14-year-old from Iowa after investigators discovered ads featuring the juvenile involved in sex trafficking. The juvenile was recovered at a motel in the act of being trafficked.
The operation resulted in the arrests of two people along with the seizure of illegal narcotics, and two firearms. It also resulted in four independent human trafficking investigations.
U.S. Marshals in Iowa are still searching for Fredrick Workman, 15, last seen in Des Moines in August 2013. There’s a $5,000 reward for information that leads to his location.
“The goal of our involvement with missing child cases is not only to safely recover Iowa’s missing children, but also to aid our local and state partners who work these cases daily,” said Deputy U.S. Marshal Scott Cannon, Missing Child Investigations Coordinator for the Southern District of Iowa. “The Marshals Service is uniquely suited to provide assistance based on our expertise as the premier agency in tracking fugitives. We can use some of the same skill sets in recovering missing children as we use during fugitive investigations.”
