HOUSTON — Tim Miller, Texas EquuSearch founder and owner, has been the face of search and rescue operations in Houston for a long time. He's a tireless advocate for the missing because his own daughter was a victim years ago.
It was 1984 when 16-year-old Laura Miller disappeared. A year later, her body was found off Calder Road in what's become known as the "Texas killing fields."
"I really wish they had taken action in League City like they did in Alabama early on. We may have some girls that are still alive," he said.
He said he was about to go to Alabama to help search for Carlee Russell when she was found. The case, according to police, appears to be the latest made-up story about a kidnapping.
"When we go on these and spend a lot of time and spend a lot of money when it should be going somewhere else, it's disturbing," Miller said.
Miller said that while he will always answer the call, he's concerned about "missing persons fatigue" among volunteers and donors who help fund search and rescue operations.
"It's not the first case that something like this has happened, unfortunately," Miller said. "When I look at these cases where things like this happen and the whole world stops to go there, you know, I will get a little choked up, you know, it's been this many years and when Laura went missing, nobody gave a damn."
In Houston, Miller said he worked closely with law enforcement on the case of 38-year-old Bret Detamore, a father of three from West U who was found after police said there was evidence that he might have pre-planned his disappearance. On that search, Miller said, he had three volunteers suffer from heat exhaustion.
"When we are out there in these types of conditions and then we are out there doing this and then it's a false alarm ... I don't know that they (volunteers) will come back when they are needed," Miller said.
He said it's hard to put a firm price on the searches but they can easily top $1,000 per day.