Lisa Thomas is working with Daniel Carey to build a database that could help connect missing persons with loved ones searching for answers.
HOUSTON — It is a parent’s nightmare, a missing child with no clue what happened. For one Houston-area mother, that nightmare lasted six months.
Her son ran away and was hit by a car, but because he was adopted, there was no DNA to link him back to her. Now, she’s channeling her grief into action in hopes that other parents don’t suffer the same heartache.
Lisa Thomas says her son, Israel, was always on the move.
“He was a natural runner, and he enjoyed it,” Thomas said.
Lisa adopted Israel when he was 2. He had been in the CPS system and was diagnosed as legally blind, bipolar and schizophrenic.
As he got older, Lisa said his need for independence took over.
“Israel began to run when he was 16 or 17, as soon as he started hitting puberty. Then, when he became a man, when he went into adulthood, that’s when we saw he was having some major issues: ‘I don’t want to be here. I want to be with my other friends. I want to have my own apartment,’” Thomas said.
Israel started to run away.
“It was heartbreaking. I went upstairs, went downstairs, and then all of a sudden, I was like, where is Isreal? He must be in a restroom, or he may be in the back. Immediately, everybody just starts looking. I’m making phone calls and we just looking around the neighborhood,” Thomas said.
Each time, the police brought him home. But it became a pattern.
“Later on he figured out if I stay away, I get the attention of police officers, my family will start looking for me. I get calls. So, it began to be like attention-seeking behavior,” Thomas said.
Lisa said that as Israel got older, the searches grew longer and more frequent until one day, Israel never came back.
“He left on March 8, (2024). They can’t find him,” Thomas said.
Months passed, and Lisa was still waiting for answers. They came six months later.
“August 31, 2024. That was my birthday. I got a phone call. ‘Hey, Lisa, happy birthday to you. I’m sorry to hear about Israel.’ I’m, like, what are you talking about? Israel was, he was killed? What?, I say, he’s just missing. He’s not dead,” Thomas said.
Lisa would not say who the friend was or how she came to learn that information.
Thomas said a few days later, on Sept. 3, 2024, the medical examiner’s office confirmed the heartbreaking news.
“Israel was walking down Highway 6 on the early morning of March 8 (2024). At 2:41 a.m. March 9, he was hit and killed by a vehicle.” Thomas said.
Without a DNA match, authorities had no way to link Israel back to his family.
“They told me ma’am; we can’t help you. What do you mean? Can you give DNA? No, I adopted my son,” Thomas said.
For six months, Israel had been buried without his family knowing.
“Oh, my God, that was so heart-wrenching. I say, so who buried him? She said Harris County. I say, with who? Nobody? I’m like, no, that’s not what we do. Israel has grandparents, aunties, uncles, sisters, brothers. He has a whole tribe,” Thomas said.
Lisa believes families deserve better.
“We need a system, a database, that will pool information DNA, fingerprints, photos, and we have to have this in place the day that individual has been born and someone says I don’t want my child. I want someone else to adopt. We need to get DNA, fingerprints, so they can carry wherever they go, because in a foster care system, the majority of the times the individuals will not stay in one home,” Thomas said.
Daniel Carey, who has a background in electrical engineering, created the “241 Runners Awareness” webpage last October to help Lisa raise awareness about runaways. Lisa named it after Israel’s time of death, 2:41 a.m.
Carey now has a new assignment — creating a database to archive DNA samples.
“It is so different because there’s so much code that has to go into the back end. We are going to have to link the database and have it encrypted so that any password biometrics that are uploaded won’t be able to be leaked to anybody,” Carey said.
But for Carey, this isn’t a job, it’s a calling.
“The night before Ms. Lisa contacted me, I got on my knees, and I asked God to please let my gifts open room for me in this world, not for the money or the fame, but really to give and be of service to my fellow man. The following day, she reached out to me,” Carey said.
It was a prayer met with a mission.
“This right here is for adoptive parents that we will have that database and a solution that people will be able to find their loved one and not ever experience what I experienced because that was heart-wrenching,” Thomas said.
Carey said he plans to have the database ready at the beginning of next year. Meanwhile, Thomas is in talks with state representatives about drafting a bill that would require law enforcement to refer to the database when a child goes missing.