Mailing features missing child

Coupons carrying images of missing children's faces, including Zach Bernhardt's, were sent to Orlando and Jacksonville.

By CHRIS TISCH

© St. Petersburg Times,
published August 30, 2001

CLEARWATER -- Maybe you toss them in the trash without a glance. Maybe you give them a quick look to see if you recognize the faces. Perhaps you study them intently, hoping you can help find a missing child.

Chances are, you've received coupons that include the faces of missing children in your mailbox. Though the faces and names often are unfamiliar to most, the latest coupon will be printed with a name well known in Clearwater.

Zach Bernhardt was 8 years old when he vanished from his mother's apartment Sept. 11. Investigators have logged thousands of hours searching for the boy but have found no trace of him.

It's a mystery that baffles the Clearwater Police Department and his family. Police don't know whether the boy is alive or dead, if he ran away or was snatched.

Placing Zach's photograph on the coupons is the latest effort to find him. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement formed a partnership with SuperCoups to place images of Zach and five other children from Florida on the coupons.

The coupons were sent to households in the Orlando and Jacksonville areas earlier this month, and more mailings in other parts of the state are possible.

The SuperCoups cards, which are distributed to 79-million households nationwide, have helped recover 111 missing people, said Jennifer McCord, an FDLE spokeswoman.

"It's proven to work," McCord said.

McCord said she wasn't aware of any tips that have been generated by the mailings. But Clearwater police say any publicity is positive.

"They (detectives) are determined to find Zach, and plans such as this will help us find him," Clearwater police spokesman Wayne Shelor said. "Someone somewhere will be able to tell us how to find Zach."

On Tuesday, Pinellas County Crime Stoppers announced that Zach will be featured on a billboard that will go up Thursday at U.S. 19 and Sunset Point Road. It is one of four billboards to be erected in Pinellas County to feature local unsolved cases.

A billboard with information about Zach also has been placed on I-75 in Pasco County. It remains up today.

The use of the coupons and new billboard come as the one-year anniversary of the boy's disappearance draws near.

"I think that is really great that there are still people who are interested in my nephew," said Billie Jo Jimenez, Zach's aunt. "Anything to get his face out there is great."

Zach's family plans to attend the third annual Florida Missing Children's Day on Sept. 10 in the steps of the Capitol in Tallahassee, where they hope to wear T-shirts emblazoned with Zach's photograph.

That will be one day before the anniversary of Zach's disappearance.

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