DETROIT – FBI agent Michael Glennon is part of a team that’s deployed specifically when a child is kidnapped.
The Child Abduction Rapid Deployment Team (CARD) is deployed when a child under 12 is believed to have been kidnapped.
Glennon has been called out for 100 child abduction cases, including the case of Wynter Cole Smith. The 2-year-old girl was kidnapped after her mother was attacked in Lansing.
More than two dozen local, state, and federal police agencies, aided in the search for Wynter. The CARD Team was among them. Glennon said the CARD Team had four agents and two intelligence analysts working Wynter’s case.
“Our intent is to first kind or organize everything. Establish a timeline, a summary of the events, identify all of the known associates that might be involved and then start to develop an understanding of the victim,” Glennon said.
In this case, an Amber Alert had already been issued. Police were looking for 26-year-old Rashad Maleek Trice, who had been identified as the man who assaulted Wynter’s mother before taking Wynter.
Trice was arrested in St. Clair Shores the morning after the assault. Wynter was found dead in a Detroit alley days later. Trice is facing numerous charges in the case.
---> Wynter Cole Smith case: Everything we know from Amber Alert to discovery of body to criminal charges
Glennon said technology is key in solving abduction cases. They can use information from cell phones to track the rate of speed and find travel patterns. This can help authorities pinpoint where to focus their investigation.
“In Wynter’s case, where we had an individual who was identified that had traveled from the Lansing area -- and had known that he had traveled from the Lansing area into Detroit -- and then we kind of take a look at his history. And, yes, we were able to create some anomalies based on that that we could then hone in those specific, that specific region. What we do there is that we start to look at any known associates within that area,” Glennon said.
The CARD Team has members all over the United States and has been deployed 203 times since it started in 2006. Of those cases, 98 were found alive, 24 are still missing, and 95 were found dead. Of the 95 found dead, 71 had been murdered.
“My team will come in from a number of different states, albeit everywhere from Illinois, South Dakota. And they’ll come in and augment as they arrive, but we can have a presence established typically within an hour or two,” Glennon said.
The FBI said 76% of child abductions that end in murder involve deaths that happened within the first three hours of a kidnapping.
“We’re individuals that have done, in many cases, more than 100 different child abduction matters. Our intent and hope is to be able to impart as much expertise and background and resources and infuse those within the local investigation as possible,” Glennon said.