DA Murphy joins Lyalls, Tedisco and C.J.
DeCrescente
MECHANICVILLE — Saratoga County District Attorney James A. Murphy III joined Assemblyman James Tedisco, Doug and Mary Lyall (Center for Hope founders and parents of missing daughter Suzanne Lyall), C.J. DeCrescente Jr., president of DeCrescente Distributing Company and a number of families who have a missing child at DeCrescente Distributing headquarters in Mechanicville today to announce a program to create more than 5,000 drink coasters which will be distributed through the capital region each depicting one story of seven missing persons.
Each coaster contains a photo of the missing person, the date of birth, the last seen date, the circumstances where he or she were last seen and the anonymous tip line to call in, text or email information.
The idea behind the coasters is to distribute the coasters in every bar and restaurant in the capital region with information about missing persons on them in the hopes that someone will have information about a particular case and call in information to the New York State Police (NYSP.) DeCrescente Distributors, through its drivers, will distribute the coasters to bars, restaurants and taverns immediately.
Studies have shown that the quicker the information on the missing person goes out the greater the chance of finding the missing person.
District Attorney Murphy said, “The Lyalls came up with putting the missing persons information on a coaster and went to C. J. DeCrescente to fund it. He did so immediately with private dollars and Jim Tedisco got the NYSP on board. What a simple but brilliant idea.”
“Everyone reads their coaster.” Murphy continued. “Getting the most information out to as many people as possible is the concept. We have “amber alerts” in place for immediate information dissemination, but the coasters will keep the information active long after the “amber alert” fades away. Look at success stories like the girls from Cincinnati who were abducted 10 years ago and have been alive held against their will in a man›s basement. Look at Elizabeth Smart who was kidnapped, taken from her home, found alive and was able to make it back to safety. Parents don›t ever stop searching and neither should we.”
The coaster idea is the second program created by the Lyalls, the first being the missing person playing cards now in its sixth year. Visit www.hope4themissing.org/cfh/page.php?13
