Frederick missing child to be featured on 'In Pursuit With John Walsh' on Wednesday
Sep. 6—A Frederick child who went missing in 2017 will be featured on Wednesday's episode of "In Pursuit With John Walsh" on Investigation Discovery.
Maria Vasquez was last seen on July 7, 2017, when she left her home in the 1200 block of Danielle Drive, according to the Frederick Police Department at the time. She was 14 at the time and, according to a release from "In Pusuit With John Walsh," her loved ones haven't heard from her since then. They are "very concerned about her well being," the show's release reads.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which victims' rights advocate John Walsh helped found in 1984, created an age-progressed photograph of what Vasquez would look like today at age 18. The photograph is featured in a short video clip filmed by "In Pursuit With John Walsh," which will be included on the show Wednesday night and is meant to be shared by members of the public.
"If you have any information on the whereabouts of Maria Vasquez, please text or call our hotline," Walsh narrates over the photograph in the video segment. "I guarantee you can remain anonymous."
The show's online tip line is InPursuitTips.com. Its phone line is 1-833-378-7783.
Two months after Vasquez was first reported missing, another media release from the Frederick Police Department noted that detectives had recently found information indicating she could still be in the Frederick area, possibly staying with a friend. As of Sunday, there were no new updates in Vasquez's case, city spokesman Allen Etzler wrote in an email.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children listed seven other people, besides Vasquez, as having gone missing as children in Frederick. It lists one person, an unidentified child, as having gone missing in Thurmont in 2016.
"In Pursuit With John Walsh" first aired on Investigation Discovery in January of 2019. The show stars Walsh and his son, Callahan Walsh, and highlights a series of unsolved violent crimes, intending to mobilize viewers to help close them. It also features two missing children every hour, providing age-progressed photographs and a description of their cases with the hope that audience members will be able to help locate them.
Walsh, the long-time host of "America's Most Wanted," became involved in the victims' rights movement after his 6-year-old son, Adam Walsh, was abducted from a mall in Florida and found dead in 1981. He later helped push President George W. Bush to sign the "Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act" into law in 2006, which significantly strengthened registration and notification rules that sex offenders must obey and increased mandatory minimum sentences for those convicted of such crimes, among other steps.
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