Fact Check

Krystava Patients Schmidt

Krystava Patients Schmidt: missing child or Internet hoax?

Published Aug. 26, 1999

Claim:

Claim:   A little girl named Krystava Patients Schmidt is missing from her Minnesota home.


Status:   Not any more.

Example:   [Collected on the Internet, 1999]




Please forward this on and keep this family lifted in prayer.

My name is Christine Schmidt. I live in Mounds View, Minnesota and my little 20 month old girl is missing. Her name is Krystava Patients Schmidt. She was last seen with an acquaintance of mine named Becky (Rebecca) Lynn Dearmond on July 10, 1997. Becky took my grandmother's car and Krystava. The car is a 1997 blue Neon license plate number ANX 437.

I need your help....please! I am sending a photo with this letter in hopes that you will pass this letter to everyone you know on the Internet and print the photo of Krystava and post it wherever you can in your neighborhood.

If you have seen her, or suspect anything suspicious, please contact the Mounds View Police at (612) 484-9155 as soon as possible.

PLEASE forward this letter to as many people you know and post the picture of my little girl wherever you can. Please pray for us too!

Thank you in advance for your support and cooperation.

Christine Schmidt



<Origins:   It's hard not to be sympathetic to a plea to help find a missing child. The terror the parent is facing is unimaginable, and it strikes right to the hearts of all who receive the story.

There's one problem with turning to the online community for help in locating a missing child: how do you then tell them the hunt is off?

In

Krystava Patients Schmidt

this case, the missing child was safely returned to her home two days after her 10 July 1998 disappearance. Krystava had been taken by Rebecca DeArmond, the 18-year-old girl in whose care she'd been left. At first Rebecca claimed she thought she was supposed to be babysitting Krystava until Saturday and that it was all a misunderstanding. Later she admitted she'd taken the child as a way of getting back at the child's uncle, with whom she'd been having a relationship. Felony charges of false imprisonment and depriving a mother of parental rights were laid against her.

All's well that ends well. Unfortunately, for the police it didn't end for a long time. Concerned phone calls about Krystava continued to flood the City of Mounds View police thanks to this cyber-plea for help. Manpower that could have been going towards catching criminals and keeping other little kids safe was expended in explaining to caller after caller that the little girl had been returned unharmed and was now home. Meanwhile, even as police were reassuring callers, concerned netizens continued to forward this plea to even wider circles of acquaintance, thereby setting up the Mounds View police force to field even more inquiries.

If at this point you're still tempted to see the problem as one of asking the police department to handle the occasional call or two about the case, consider this: According to a 30 April 1999 article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune: "The Ramsey County Sheriff's Office, which dispatches for Mounds View, had 150 calls about the case last Thursday [April 22], some coming from as far away as Israel and China. 'This is unreal,' Mounds View Lt. David Brick said. 'If there was a way to stop it, we

would.'"

In the summer of 1999, a full year after Krystava was back from her two-day absence, the Mounds View police department revamped its phone system to include a recorded message about the recovery of Krystava Patients Schmidt. Callers now have to first listen to this message before their calls are connected to the dispatcher. So far there has yet to have been a case of an emergency situation made worse by the caller first having to sit through a message about the found child, but it's easy to see how such a delay in the wrong situation could have tragic consequences.

If you get a cybersolicitation to aid in the hunt for a missing child, still your natural desire to help long enough to first do a bit of checking. Look to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) for information about the child in question. If you don't find the child listed on their pages, call them at 1-800-THE-LOST and ask about the e-mail you've received.

We all want to make the world a better place, but sometimes in our haste to do so, we actually make it worse. Think before you hit the "forward to all" button.

Barbara "sometimes it's not the kid that's missing, it's the information" Mikkelson

Last updated:   27 March 2005





  Sources Sources:

    Channen, David.   "Hundreds Still Call About Girl Who's No Longer Missing."

    [Minneapolis] Star Tribune.   30 April 1999   (p. B7).

    Graves, Chris.   "Mounds View Toddler Found Safe in Mora; Teen Detained."

    [Minneapolis] Star Tribune.   13 July 1998   (p. B2).

    Gustafson, Paul.   "Mounds View Toddler Missing."

    [Minneapolis] Star Tribune.   12 July 1998   (p. B9).

    Associated Press.   "Mora Woman Charged in Toddler's Disappearance."

    24 July 1998.


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