Claudine Ryce Dies
January 21st, 2009 by Mike VasilindaClaudine Ryce, mother of Jimmy Ryce, died today at age 66 of a heart attack. Claudine was instrumental in pushing sex predator legislation and has for the last twelve years served on The Missing Children’s Information Clearing House and Advisory Board. She has advocated tirelessly for the use of bloodhounds in tracking missing children and often provided the dogs free of charge to law enforcement agencies.
On September 11, 1995, 9 year old Jimmy Ryce was abducted, raped and murdered at the hands of a sexual predator. For three months, his parents led a massive search. Little Jimmy was “every-one’s son.” On December 9, 1995, Juan Carlos Chavez was arrested. He was later found guilty by a jury and sentenced to death. He is now on death row pending appeal.
After Jimmy’s death, the Ryce’s founded the Jimmy Ryce Center and have worked to teach children how to escape from predators. At their urging, on January 19, 1996-President Clinton signed an Executive Order in the Oval Office of the White House allowing pictures of missing children to be posted.
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