Some church groups devote their weekends to bake sales and bingo. But a South Florida group, Missing Children Ministries International, spends its time diving into gloomy canals, searching for human remains. Saturday, volunteer divers for the group came up empty-handed after hours of searching through the murky water and deep silt at the bottom of a nondescript canal in Sunrise.
Most people would drive by the canal without noticing it. But Dinorah Perry, founder of the ministry, said she spotted a gap in the guard rail that stirred her fears. Perry said she was inspired to search for missing children in 1995, when she watched a father beg for help on TV as police hunted for his kidnapped son. Perry got the idea to focus on canal searches in 2006 after divers hired by the family of a missing teen found his body in his truck at the bottom of a canal. Perry’s decided that South Florida’s canals must surrender their secrets.