WHAT STARTED WITH TRAGEDY, CONTINUES IN HOPE…
Mission Statement:The Heidi Search Center, Inc. assists families, communities and law enforcement agencies in the recovery of missing children and adults at risk by advocating community awareness, facilitating search and location efforts and offering assistance and referrals to those with missing loved ones nationwide. Provides community outreach programs to effectively protect and safeguard children from abduction and exploitation.
Heidi Seeman
The Heidi Search Center for Missing Children was established in August 1990 after the abduction of 11-year-old Heidi Seeman from her neighborhood in Northeast San Antonio. On August 4, Heidi was abducted while walking home from spending the night at a friend’s house. A search was initiated by her father and grew rapidly from a small group of family and friends to thousands in the community.
In the midst of the search for Heidi, another child, 7-year-old Erica Marie Botello was abducted while playing at her apartment complex playground in Southwest San Antonio. Within a matter of hours, team leaders were dispatched from the Heidi command post to assist in the search for Erica. This team included Heidi’s father, Curt Seeman.
On August 25, 1990, fear became reality when both girls were found murdered. Heidi’s body was found in a rural area in Wimberly, Texas, 60 miles from San Antonio. Erica’s body was found in a storm drain less than one mile from where she lived.
According to the FBI, the search for Heidi was one of the largest and most expensive searches in our nation’s history. Never before had so many people been involved in a search for one child over such an extended period of time.
Erica Marie Botello
For 21 days over 8,000 volunteers searched each day, covering 1,200 miles and using over 50 miles of yellow ribbon as symbol of the search. On August 11, 1990, then-mayor Lila Cockrell declared “Find Heidi Day”, a day in which over 300,000 citizens of San Antonio participated in a joint effort to search.
The Heidi Search Center has been in service for over 20 years and serves to educate the community on abduction to try to prevent tragedies such as these from occurring again. We offer guidance, assistance and emotional support to families in and around San Antonio. We are a non-profit organization funded solely by donations from businesses and private individuals.
Since it’s opening in 1990, the Heidi Search Center has assisted the families of 3,384 missing persons. And this is only the number of cases the Center has taken in. It is estimated that this many families or more have turned to the Center for emotional support and advice, with their loved one being located before there was even a chance to take in the case. Knowing exactly how many families the Center has helped is simply impossible.
