Capital District Assemblyman James Tedisco joined the families of long-missing people and other officials in Clifton Park Thursday morning to announce the second round of a program they hope will help solve cold cases.
Tedisco joined Saratoga County Sheriff Michael Zurlo, Clifton Park Supervisor Phil Barrett, and Doug and Mary Lyall of the Center for Hope to announce a second round of the Coasters for Hope program.
The Center for Hope was formed by the Lyalls, whose daughter Suzanne Lyall, a University at Albany student, has been missing since 1998.
Working with Mechanicville-based DeCrescente Distributing Company, the coasters sent to bars and restaurants feature pictures and information about missing people and unsolved homicides.
“All these people are children of somebody. They all have families, and they’re desperately searching for them,” said Mary Lyall.
In the second round of Coasters for Hope, 25,000 coasters with the images and information on eight different local missing people are being distributed. In the first year and a half of the program, businesses in 11 counties in upstate New York ordered the coasters.
Ross Piscitelli of DeCrescente said that orders for the coasters flooded in after the program’s initial announcement in December 2013.
“We printed 5,000. I think we were a little bit conservative on that and by the end of the press conference we had so many calls. We were overwhelmed. There was no way we could have kept up with demand. We immediately printed another 25,000, which lasted about three or four months, maybe, and then another 25,000 on top of that. So it was over 50,000 coasters that we produced and supported this effort.”
The Center for Hope has come up with other ways to spread the word about missing persons, including printing faces on playing cards handed out in prisons.
Assemblyman Tedisco, chair of the Assembly minority task force on missing children, said the coasters serve as an important tool for law enforcement…
“And it only takes one little notice, one little situation, one little remembrance or reminder from some of these coasters that can help jog somebody’s memories and maybe make the difference in the lives of that person and their family members,” said Tedisco. “And that’s what the hope is of this particular program and the second round of it.”
In the 1980s Tedisco helped initiate a program under then-governor Mario Cuomo to print the photos of missing children on Thruway toll tickets.
Saratoga County Sheriff Michael Zurlo encouraged anyone with information on a missing person to make an anonymous call.
“Any type of lead, whether people think its minor, we will take it, we will investigate it. But it’s a great investigative tool for, I know, my department, and for local law enforcement.”
The coasters all have information about how to contact law enforcement.
To submit an anonymous tip on a missing persons case call 1-800-448-3847; text NYMISSING (plus tip) to 274637; or visit www.troopers.ny.gov and click on CrimeTip Link.
