GROUP HELPS RUNAWAYS GET LIVES BACK

Cops May Lack Resources To Bring Youths Home

Dave Rogers studied the picture of teenage runaway Makayla Cleaveland for
months. Still, he wasn't prepared for what he saw when they finally met
face-to-face.

Makayla left her family's Centennial home days before her 16th birthday,
driven off by an unquenchable thirst for methamphetamine.

Rogers, who runs the Missing Children Task Force, a Littleton-based
nonprofit that reunites missing children with their families, tracked her down.

"She looked like death," he said.

Makayla was one of more than 3,000 Colorado 15-year-olds who ran away from
home last year, according to Colorado Bureau of Investigation statistics.

Runaways make up about 95 percent of the state's missing children - more
than 15,000 last year alone. But teenagers who leave home are not top
priorities for police who must also look for children who have been
abducted, kidnapped or lost.

"Agencies are so busy, and it's not a crime to be a runaway," said Kristina
Koellner, supervisor of the CBI's missing persons unit. "Police agencies do
not have the manpower or the resources to be out there looking for these
children. They work on the high-profile cases, the ones where we know the
child is in danger."

Teens typically do eventually return home. In the meantime, though, family
and friends face fear and anxiety.

Rogers' task force helps bridge the gap between authorities who can't keep
up with the staggering caseload and desperate families looking for their
children.

Makayla celebrated her 16th birthday on Sept. 19, 2001. She was hooked on
meth, moving from one seedy motel room to another.

After four months searching and studying her photograph, Rogers finally met
Makayla at Fort Logan Mental Health Center in January. He barely recognized
her. Her eyes were sunken and circled with black rings. Her once-smooth
face was marked with acne, and at 5- foot-8, she weighed 93 pounds.

Makayla said she ran away so she could continue to use meth. "Just going
out at night and doing it and coming home wasn't enough. I figured I'd run
away so I could do it all the time," she said.

She smoked meth around the clock, along with three packs of cigarettes a
day. "That was my food," Makayla said.

To pay for her drugs, she and her 22-year-old boyfriend stole, burgled and
sold drugs.

They even stole a computer from her mother, Kathy Bacon, sneaking into her
home when they knew she was at work.

It got so bad that Makayla was ready to sell her body for drug money.

"I thought I could become a prostitute," she said. "I thought, 'What a
great idea."'

Today, she's enrolled in a counseling and substance-abuse program. She's
living at home with her mom and stepdad, and their relationship is good.

Since 1986, Rogers has reunited 697 children with their families. About 75
percent of his cases are teenage runaways. Other cases involve parental
kidnappings.

Last year, the task force returned 98 kids to their families in Colorado,
Rogers said.

Most of Rogers' work involves surveillance, watching homes where a runaway
may be staying. Usually, it's the home of a friend or a house shared by
young adults.

With a laptop computer at his side, Rogers works out of a 2001 Jeep Wrangler.

Usually, teenagers run away to a friend's house, and most return after a
few days or weeks, Rogers said. Some, however, wind up out on the street.

"The street is the most dangerous place to be," Rogers said.

On the streets, criminals befriend runaways and recruit them to deal drugs
or commit other crimes, Rogers said.

Pedophiles and pimps also prowl the streets looking for new faces among
homeless teens.

Nationally, about 5,000 runaways die from exposure, illness, assault or
suicide on the streets.

When searching the streets, Rogers concentrates on 16th Street Mall in
downtown Denver, where "mall kids" have come to know him as "Mr. Clean"
because of his cleanshaven head.

Other local havens for teenage runaways are along East Colfax Avenue and
Federal Boulevard between Alameda Avenue and Interstate 70. Cheap motel
rooms, drugs and prostitution are the lure.

In the four months she was away from home, Makayla said, she smoked so much
meth she couldn't carry on a conversation. "I use to lock myself in the
bathroom and beat myself up," she said.

Luckily, Rogers eventually traced her to a home and alerted police, who
picked Makayla up and brought her to Fort Logan.

Bacon, Makayla's mom, praised Rogers' task force.

"I live one day at a time now. I don't like to go back and visit that
place," Bacon said of her daughter's flight.

While Makayla works on staying sober and staying home, Rogers keeps in
touch with her and Bacon.

But other cases call.

Brianna Hand ran away from her Douglas County home on Aug. 13, the first
day of school.

Like Makayla, Brianna turned 16 while away from home.

On a typical weekend, Michael Branch, Brianna's stepfather, combs the 16th
Street Mall and East Colfax Avenue handing out fliers with her photo.

Brianna's family recently used bloodhounds in an attempt to track her. They
said they hope she hasn't left the area near their home.

It's not the first time Brianna has run away, but it's the longest period
she has been away.

"She has never been gone this long," said her mother, Kim Hand. "Most of
the time she was gone three days at the most. The weird thing is, she
hasn't contacted us once."

Kim Hand and Michael Branch said they don't know why Brianna ran away. But
the void she's left at home is hard on the family, including her younger
half-brother.

"It affects everyone," Hand said. "Brianna has a lot of people that love her.

Hand said her family isn't mad at Brianna over her running away.

"I think maybe sometimes kids feel like they may come home, and they may
get killed" for taking off, Hand said. "I would tell her that we could work
things out if there was a problem. We just want her home and off the streets."

The majority of teenagers who run away have issues with alcohol or drugs,
Rogers said.

Hand said she wasn't aware that Brianna was using drugs.

Makayla, meanwhile, said her life will stay on track as long as she stays
off drugs.

"As long as I'm sober, I'll be OK," she said. "I have the ultimate choice
in what I do."

[PHOTO - PHOTO CREDIT - CAPTION]

Post / Helen H. Richardson

When Makayla Cleaveland left her family to do drugs, she was saved by Dave
Rogers, right.