- [Narrator] Seven year old, Bonnie Lohman had an unusual upbringing. She moved about a lot as a
kid, spending most of her time in Hawaii and the small Island of Saipan. Where she lived mostly in shacks and rarely spent much time outdoors. Eventually, sometime in the early 1980s, her family consisting only
of herself, her mother and her stepfather
settled down in Colorado, where she slowly gained
a little more freedom. Life was simple enough until
one day when little Bonnie accompanied her stepfather
on the weekly grocery run. Unaware that she was about to make the discovery of a lifetime. (playful music) While innocently
wandering the dairy aisle, Bonnie noticed something
out of the ordinary. Sitting among the other
cartons of milk in the chiller, something strange caught her eye. Printed on one of the familiar containers was a face staring right back at her. When she looked a little closer, she realized it wasn't just
any face, it was her own. As she hadn't been formally
educated in school, Bonnie crucially could
make out the words printed above her picture in bold
letters, missing child. Feeling excited by her apparent local fame as any other little girl might be, Bonnie asked her stepfather
if she could buy the carton. In a moment of remarkable
hubris, he purchased the milk and cut out the picture for Bonnie to keep under one strict condition, that she never mentioned
it to anyone else. If there's one thing little
kids aren't known for, it's keeping secrets. Although she tried her best
to stick to her word, Bonnie wasn't awfully careful with the cutout she carried around with her. During a play date at
her neighbor's house, one day Bonnie left the
photograph in a bag of toys, and it was this simple mistake that would turn her life upside down. You see Bonnie Lohman
wasn't the only child, whose face appeared on a
milk carton during the 1980s. In fact, an estimated three to
five billion cartons printed with information about Missing
Milk Carton Kids like Bonnie were circulated during this
brief yet influential period in American crime history. Throughout the 1970s and early '80s, there was no legal distinction between a missing child
and a missing adult which meant authorities
rarely acted fast enough during the crucial window of opportunity, after a suspected abduction. In many cases parents who
couldn't provide concrete evidence of a kidnapping, like a ransom note were made to wait 72 hours
before any action was taken to locate their child. Even worse were cases where
a child had been taken by a family member because
police forces tended to class such situations as
insignificant domestic affairs and refused to intervene all together. And this is especially
worrying when you consider that most kidnappings in the US are actually perpetrated by a relative. In fact, one study from 2002 which looked into the nature
of 256,000 abductions of minors found that a whopping 78% were classed as family abductions
compared to a mere 22% which were considered non-family. The glaring lack of proper legislation surrounding non-custodial kidnappings left many parents at a loss. And eventually people who
shared similar experiences banded together to try and
reform the outdated treatment of America's missing children problem. Frustrated parents set up advocacy groups to raise awareness about how
easy it was for rogue relations to snatch children from under their noses and transport them across state lines before the police even started
faxing the information. Eventually a new term was
going to treat these cases like any other random
kidnapping, child snatching. Although it had gained some
traction by the early '80s, the campaign backed up, by the National Child Safety
Council still needed a way to circulate information
about missing children quickly and efficiently. Believe it or not, this was
the time when we were still nearly a decade away from
having the worldwide web at our fingertips. So a more unconventional
reporting method was chosen, milk. Most American households were
expected to purchase milk on a weekly basis. And its short expiration
dates meant that information about new cases could be kept relevant. The first milk carton
featuring a missing child came out of Anderson Erickson's
Dairy in Des Moines, Iowa in December, 1984. And by March the following year seven out of 1800 independent dairy companies across the country had
adopted the practice. At last, it seemed there was a ray of hope for parents desperate to have their beloved children returned to them. Among the very first kids to
have their faces mass printed in black and white sold in grocery stores and then placed on breakfast
tables around the country were Ethan Patz and Johnny Gosch. In 1979, six year old Ethan
Patz left his family's apartment in Soho, New York to make
the familiar two block walk to his bus stop. Except this time Patz
never boarded the bus. He didn't attend school that day and he never came home that afternoon. A search party of a 100 officers and police dogs, flyers
distributed by friends and family and even Times Square
billboard showing Ethan's face weren't able to turn up any clues. In 1983, Ronald Reagan declared the day of Ethan's kidnapping May 25th as National Missing Children's Day. And five years after his
disappearance in 1984 he became the first Milk Carton Kid. Johnny Gosch, whose face was also one of the first to be printed, suffered a similarly trebling fate. On one morning in 1982,
the 12 year old boy went out to complete his
regular paper round route in West Des Moines, Iowa. Everything seemed fine until his parents received a worrying phone call. Johnny's customers hadn't received their newspapers that day. His father searched their local area and found his son's red wagon
full of undelivered papers, just a couple of blocks
away, but no sign of Johnny. It took the authorities
45 minutes to respond to the call placed by his mother, Noreen shortly after the wagon was found. And police refused to declare
Johnny a missing person until three days after his disappearance. Feeling neglected by the
inadequacy of the police, Noreen set up the Johnny Gosch Foundation to raise awareness for
other missing children. Thanks to her campaigning, a new law known as the
Johnny Gosch Bill was passed in Iowa in 1984. Which would allow police
to start probing reports of missing kids right away and shortly afterwards, eight
other States followed suit. Despite becoming the
original Milk Carton Kids, neither Ethan Patz nor Johnny
Gosch were ever returned to their parents. After being declared
officially dead in 2001, the case of Ethan Patz
finally concluded in 2017 when a man named Pedro
Hernandez was convicted of abducting and killing Ethan, 38 years after his initial disappearance. Johnny's case did however
experience some strange twist. Like Noreen claiming that her son turned up on her doorstep in 1997 but ultimately the boy was never found and no arrests have ever been made in connection with his disappearance. Unfortunately, this was mostly the case with the missing children
pictured on milk cartons. Although no verifiable
numbers were recorded to track the progress of the campaign, it's thought that of some
200 kids who appeared on the cartons only two
were returned safely. One of these rare success stories was one very lucky little girl from
Colorado, Bonnie Lohman. When Bonnie Lohman's neighbor
came across the photograph, which had been left
behind in her bag of toys, they knew what had to be done. After contacting the
authorities, police turned up at Bonnie's house in Colorado and arrested her stepfather
for her abduction. In an instant, her life up
until this point was revealed as a lie, something which
she couldn't quite comprehend at such a young age. When Bonnie was just three years old she was illegally taken from
her biological father's care as a result of a bitter custodial dispute. Her mother and stepfather
then transported Bonnie out of her home state
to Hawaii and Saipan. Where she then grew up knowing no better than her new isolated Island lifestyle, until that fateful day
in the grocery store. Because it was officially classed as a non-custodial kidnapping at the time, the police deemed Bonnie's abduction to be a domestic dispute and little effort was made
to track her down at first. Desperate for ideas, her father came across the Missing Kids
Milk Carton campaign and decided it was worth a shot. Although her case was slightly different to the other kids featured
like Ethan and Johnny, Bonnie's father managed to
get her photograph printed. It just so happened that
fate was on his side though, because the person to recognize the image was little Bonnie herself. She just didn't know why
it was so important yet. Thanks to this unique reporting technique, Bonnie was safely returned
to her rightful guardian and continued to live her
life as it was intended. In 1990, a novel by
Caroline B. Cooney called "The Face On The Milk Carton," seemed to be loosely inspired by Bonnie's story and was even adapted into a film in 1995. It may have been responsible for reuniting Bonnie with her real father, but the Milk Carton Kids campaign wasn't without its criticisms. Sadly, most of the cases to be mass printed remained unsolved or it didn't have happy endings. And parents became so accustomed to seeing these faces
during their weekly shop that they stopped paying real attention. Kids were more likely
to focus on the faces as they sat down and ate
breakfast every morning but many famous pediatricians,
such as Benjamin Spock also worried that this was
having a negative effect. The main concern was
that American children might internalize their irrational fears of being kidnapped by a stranger. Despite the statistics
showing that they were far more likely to be
taken by a family member, resulting in a dangerous moral
panic about stranger danger. Although it was intended for good, the campaign had created
a strange juxtaposition, where stories of random kidnappings now infiltrated the
suburban American household which was supposed to
be a place of safety. What's worse, the campaign
also came under fire for being racially biased. One study found that
black children made up a whopping 42% of all
non-family abductions, even though they comprised only 15% of America's child population at the time. Despite such alarming figures, it was mostly white faces
who appeared on milk cartons during the campaign short lifetime. Partly as a result of its
controversial reception the Milk Carton Kids campaign fell out of favor from around 1987 onwards. Particularly as plastic jugs replaced the trusty cardboard carton
on grocery store shelves. One of the last known cases to
be advertised in such a way, was of 16 year old Molly Bish. Who disappeared during
a lifeguarding shift in Warren, Massachusetts in the year 2000. Molly's parents selected
the milk carton method as a last ditch attempt
to locate their daughter. But unfortunately it ended in tragedy, when her remains were discovered in 2003. Although it was short-lived
and highly scrutinized, this unusual practice
paved the way for many of the new reforms surrounding
missing child cases in the US. In 1982, Ronald Reagan passed a bill called the Missing
Children Assistance Act, which assured parents that
every effort would be made to locate victims after
reports were filed. For a while, pizza boxes, grocery bags and envelopes were also
printed with missing photos until the AMBER Alert system,
which we still use today. Came into effect in 1996. This new system follows the same logic but makes use of
technological advancements by delivering information directly by digital highway billboards,
email, SMS messages and even more recently,
people's Facebook feeds. Nowadays the strange legacy of
the Milk Carton Kids remains at the forefront of the
American imagination. Though they may not have
been around for long, that thousands of faces
staring out from milk cartons on those stock shelves, fridges
and family dinner tables is a constant reminder of the progress that was made to better the chances of reuniting broken families. At a time when police
inefficiency was rife, especially when it came to
non-custodial kidnappings Bonnie Lohman was incredibly
lucky to be recovered safely, thanks to the milk carton program. Although many others like Ethan, Johnny and Molly were not so fortunate. In a modern age where American households can no longer be counted upon to share the wholesome carton of milk in common, thanks to alternatives
like oat or almond milk such a ubiquitous symbol
would probably cease to exist. Next to this rudimentary technique though, more missing children like
Bonnie are being found than ever before. According to Justice Department data, 186 AMBER Alerts were issued in 2014 and 154 resulted in successful recovery. What do you make of the
Milk Carton Kids campaign? Do you think its successes,
outweigh its failures and would a similar
program still work today? Let me know in the comments below and as always, thanks for watching. (gentle music)
Was slightly shocked to find these kinds of laws were ony passed in the 90s.
That picture of "Laddie" Thompson sure looks am awful lot like Laddie in The Lost Boys....