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Police search for missing four-year-old boy in Green Lake Park

What do you think? (14 Comments) August 26, 2010 at 8:42PM

8:40 p.m.

We just heard from My Green Lake reader Christina, who wrote with some scary news.

At about 8 p.m. tonight (Thursday, August 26, 2010), Christina, who was walking at Green Lake Park, encountered some police.  They were looking for a missing boy.

Cole, age four, was last seen riding a green bike.

As of 8:50 p.m., Cole is, as far as we know, still missing.  Christina’s husband is heading down to the lake to help with the search effort.

In the meantime, we are listening to the police scanner.  As of yet, there is no new news to report, but we will let you know as soon as we know anything (and, if you hear anything, please let us know as well.  We can be reached at tips [at] mygreenlake.com).

Update, 9:10 p.m.:

Christina reports that, when she left the park at 8:15 p.m., police were on the streets surrounding the lake, and there was a Seattle Parks and Rec employee driving around the park in a truck alerting people to the situation.

It seems as though the boy may have been lost from the aqua theater on the west side of Green Lake, as the boy’s father was located there as the police searched.  However,  we haven’t confirmed that yet.  We’ll keep you posted.

Update, 9:20 p.m.:

Two bits of information that point to good news: Seattle Police Department’s Media Officer, Det. Mark Jamieson, has not heard anything about this event.  And, tipster Christina’s husband, who went to the park to help with the search, did not, as of 9:10 p.m., see any police still at the lake.

We are assuming, unless we hear otherwise, that Cole was found. (yay!)

Update, 9:15 a.m., Friday:

Last night we received the following comment from a reader about this story:

An assumption does not qualify as news, great or otherwise. Can anyone confirm that the boy was in fact found?  As one of the public voices of the Green Lake community, there needs to be a higher journalistic standard for what gets reported as fact.

Please see the comments, below, for our response.

We really appreciate this feedback, and would love to hear from you how you would have liked to have seen this story, which developed in real time, reported differently.  Thank you, in advance, for any thoughts or suggestions that you take the time to share.

Update, 10 a.m.

Seattle Police Department’s Media Officer, Det. Mark Jamieson, just confirmed to us that the boy was found and reunited with his family.

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Location: Green Lake Park
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What do you think? (14 Comments)
  • Guest

    An assumption does not qualify as news, great or otherwise. Can anyone confirm that the boy was in fact found?

    As one of the public voices of the Green Lake community, there needs to be a higher journalistic standard for what gets reported as fact.

  • Anonymous

    Thanks for your comment, Guest, and your concerns, that (1) assumptions are not news and (2) only facts should be reported as facts.

    Yes, assumptions are definitely not news. The news in this story is that there was a large police presence at the lake, and they were looking for a lost boy. This is something that needs to reported, whether or not we know – as fact – the results of the search.

    And – we are 100% in agreement – only facts should be reported as facts.

    At this point, here are the facts: the police were looking for a missing boy at 8:15. By 9:10, they were gone from the lake. The police’s media office has not even heard of the event.

    If we learn anything further, we will be sure to update this post right away.

    Thanks again for your feedback – in the future we will work to be even clearer in our reporting about what is fact and what is assumption.

  • Anonymous

    Quick follow-up – SPD has confirmed that the boy was in fact found. I’ve updated the post above.

  • Jason

    Thank you for the update! My son and I were at the aqua center last night when the father had first started looking for Cole. We did our best to help, did a lap around the lake with eyes peeled and went home hopeful but still fearing the worst. Although I have to say it was amazing to see how many people were racing around the lake looking for him. Very heartening! Love the community response!

    Now we feel much better knowing Cole is home safe.

  • Guest

    As the original commenter, I just wanted to say that I really appreciate the community service you provide through your regular posts and Twitter updates. Thanks also for responding to my comment thoughtfully. In this case, the reporting was really solid up until the point where you tweeted “GREAT NEWS: Looks like Cole … has been found.”

    It’s fine to say what you don’t know, and even to speculate as to what you think the current information means. It was really just the last sentence of the 9:20pm update that I had an issue with. You can’t assume something and report it as fact. And the absence of information (“unless we hear otherwise”) doesn’t confirm a story.

    Again, thanks for all that you do for Green Lake and for the practice of community journalism in Seattle.

  • Anonymous

    Thank you, Guest, for taking the time to follow up. I’ve thought a lot about your feedback and definitely learned something for the next time around. In the future, I will absolutely be clearer about stating assumptions.

    Thanks again – great to know that you’re out there, keeping me on my toes! :)

    -amy

    -amy

  • horseknuckle

    Dear Guest:

    Thank you for your unsolicited and anonymous opinion. I can assure you, based on my avid readership of this blog, that if an answer were available last night, MyGreenLake would have known it and posted it. Might I suggest you pick up the phone and call the police yourself next time you want “facts.” Or, perhaps you should resort to other media outlets for your facts, like King 5 or Komo, always known for 1) their journalistic integrity (“Got Jesse” anyone?) and 2) their in-depth coverage of lost children at Green Lake, Northgate Mall, or my attic.

    As for facts, let me dig out a couple of them for you from Amy’s blog post: 1) The media officer is one of the first people to know when a true crisis is unfolding. The “fact” that he did not know is a pretty good sign that a true crisis was either not unfolding at Green Lake or had been adverted. 2) With a missing or possibly abducted child, you can bet your hind-quarters that the police would still have been on scene if the child continued to be lost, particularly only an hour into the search. That’s a “fact.”

    It is not only reasonable but smart to draw conclusions based on facts (Ever been a juror?). Unless you were relying on MyGreenLake’s coverage to postpone your own search for the missing child (which I highly doubt), I simply cannot understand or appreciate your criticism.

    Because reading between the lines and making implications is obviously not your strong suit, let me be clear: The type of news and information that you get from a neighborhood blog like MyGreenLake is not generally available from other media outlets at all, and if it is, it isn’t available nearly as quickly (and, therefore, it is not nearly as helpful). Live reporting has its limitations, and if you can’t live with them, then a neighborhood blog is not for you. Again, I commend to you a big, network broadcast news program, where this type of local story is not at all newsworthy, unless and until it is too late for any of us to lend an immediate hand.

    Thanks for nothing,

    HK

    [Confidential to MyGreenLake: Thank you for alerting the neighborhood so that we could all keep an eye out for the child and take immediate action to help avert a tragedy. Thank you for keeping us all abreast of the situation by giving us the best information you had at your disposal and helping us to draw conclusions based on that information until better information was available. Thank you for being very diplomatic in your response to "Guest" (Jean Enerson, is that you again, picking on the neighborhood blogs?). Lastly, thank you for understanding that I HAVE NO PATIENCE for anyone who looks the gift-horse in the mouth, or any other horse for that matter. We are lucky to have you.]