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Bv PETER REYNOLDSwThe Maureen Shannon story had a happy ending, but according to Tinley Park Police Chief Robert Long the book isn t closed yet and may not be closed for quite sometime Maureen Shannon, an 11 year old spe cial education student from Orland Park, a student at the Bert Fulton school, ran away from classmates, entering Vogt woods early Tuesday afternoon She trig gered the largest land search in the history of the Tinley Park police departmentDuring the 24-hour period the girl was missing over 250 police, fire. Emergency Service Disaster agency (ESDA), civic volunteers and canine tracking teams from several agencies combed an estimated 2.990 square acre area of Tinley Park on foot, horeseback, in cars trucksand even a motorcycleMAUREEN SHANNON walked rapidly in an eastwardly direction, leaving the area of the search shortly after it began She was found nearly 24 hours later hiding in a utility shed in the Homewood Estates area of Homewood In the wake of the ordeal Chief Long and other officers of the police department met with school officials Friday in an attempt to piece together what really happened and to formulate a policy for his department to follow in the event it should happen again “We made some mistakes this time,” admitted Long “But we learn from our mistakes and we won t make them again,” he vowed in an interview with The Star Herald Friday afternoon “We learned of a whole lot of them this afternoon after meeting with school of ficials and the girl s parents,” said LongTHE GREATEST mistake made by the police was, according to the chief, “...We paid too much attention to the parents, who we felt knew the child a lot more than they did We should have gone right to the school psychologist who tests and examines these kids and has insights into their personalities that parents don't even have ”Long stated that they did however get in touch with the girl’s teacher, Mrs Peggy Leeney, asking her for a list of Maureen’s closest friends The teacher supplied a list and investigators swung into action interviewing the children and parents and searching the homes for the missing girl These attempts unfortunately proved futile.The meeting we held this morning was very worthwhile, said Long Another one is scheduled for next week “We are asking for a seminar involving all school officials including experts from the special education co-operative to help us formulate a policy in dealing with special needs students in this type of situation It hasn’t occurred before so we had no policy on what to do first or who to call.“OUR MISTAKE was we didn’t utilize their knowledge and expertise in dealing with this type of student. Hopefully this will never happen again, but if it does we certainly want to be better prepared for it,” he said.“Our job isn’t nearly finished yet, Long said. “We have to thank everybody for all they did We owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to everyone who helped us.” Involved in the search from the beginning was the Tinley Park ESDA headed by Jim Zdurny Said Long, “That whole operation couldn't have run as smoothly as it did without Jim He’s a super guy.” Cook county forest preserve police and mounted riders entered the search at mid-afternoon on Tuesday Commander Gerald Palacios mobilized 15 officer immediately and requested more support as(Continued on Page 2
Newspaper Details
Midlothian Star Herald
Midlothian, Illinois, US
Sun, May 23, 1982
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Carolyn H.
GA, USA 16 Jan 2022
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