The Wall Street Journal describes the extensive efforts New York City police officers are making to find a 7-year-old boy who has been missing for four months from a housing project in Brooklyn near J.F.K. Airport. Within 90 minutes after Patrick Alford went missing, precinct commanding officer Jeffrey Maddrey began to search. The Alford case haunts Maddrey and chief of detectives John Tennant, who regard it as the most important in their decades-long careers.
It is among the most intense searches in recent history with 9,100 apartments at 214 buildings canvassed and 14,000 people interviewed. They’ve even devoted a situation room to Patrick at the precinct house. Maps and photographs cover the walls. On the main table, a chart connects at least 40 people related to the case, from Patrick’s mother to a member of the Bonanno crime family.