The Heidi Search Center for Missing Children was established in August
1990 after the abduction of 11-year-old Heidi Seeman from her
neighborhood in Northeast San Antonio. On August 4, Heidi was abductedwhile walking home from spending the night at a friend's house. A searchwas initiated by her father and grew rapidly from a small group offamily and friends to thousands in the community.

In the midst of the search for Heidi, another child, 7-year-old EricaMarie Botello was abducted while playing at her apartment complexplayground in Southwest San Antonio. Within a matter of hours, team leaders were dispatched from the Heidi command post to assist in the search for Erica. This team included Heidi's father, Curt Seeman.

On August 25, 1990, fear became reality when both girls were foundmurdered. Heidi's body was found in a rural area in Wimberly, Texas, 60miles from San Antonio. Erica's body was found in a storm drain lessthan one mile from where she lived. 

According to the FBI, the search for Heidi was one of the largest andmost expensive searches in our nation's history. Never before had somany people been involved in a search for one child over such an extended period of time. For 21 days over 8,000 volunteers searched eachday, covering 1,200 miles and using over 50 miles of yellow ribbon as asymbol of the search. On August 11, 1990, then-mayor Lila Cockrelldeclared "Find Heidi Day", a day in which over 300,000 citizens of SanAntonio participated in a joint effort to search.

The Heidi Search Center has been in service for 16 years and serves to
educate the community on abduction to try to prevent tragedies such asthese from occurring again. We offer guidance, assistance and emotionalsupport to families in and around San Antonio. We are a non-profit organization funded solely by donations from businesses and privateindividuals.

Since it's opening in 1990, the Heidi Search Center has assisted the
families of 2,328 missing persons. And this is only the number of cases
the Center has taken in. It is estimated that this many families or more
have turned to the Center for emotional support and advice, with their
loved one being located before there was even a chance to take in the
case. Knowing exactly how many families the Center has helped is simplyimpossible.

The following information comes from cases taken between 1990 and Juneof 2003.

 2,328 total cases have been actively worked

This includes:

467    missing
1,664 runaways
146    parental abductions
35      stranger abductions
14      non family abductions
2        unknown or unavailable

611    males
1,717 females

2,178 recovered alive
89      recovered deceased
61      status unknown or not located

182    under age 10
440    age 11-13
840    age 14-15
441    age 16-17
419    age 18 & up
6        unknown or unavailable

1,349 Hispanic
132    African-American
719    Caucasian
123    Other (includes biracial individuals and other races not
represented by the 3 main categories)
11      unknown or unavailable

Of 2,328 cases, 93% have been closed with the person(s) being returnedhome safely, 4% have been closed with the person(s) being locateddeceased and just 3% remaining open. 

This means the Heidi Search Center has a 97% recovery success rate.
Although not all people are located alive, it is still considered a
success to have deceased loved ones located to provide closure to thefamily. 

All services provided to families are completely free of charge.