OIL CITY, Pa. (EYT) — The Oil City Police Department issued the following press release concerning missing children that occurred sometime between April 30, 2015, and May 1, 2015, in Oil City:

The Oil City Police Department reports that over the last two days they have received reports of two children — a three-year-old boy and a five-year-old girl — who were missing.

In each of the cases, the persons responsible for the children waited two hours and twenty minutes respectively before reporting to the Police Department that the child was missing. It was very fortunate that both children were located safe and reunited with their families not long after being reported missing.

It is so important that when a child cannot be located that the resources of the Police Department be utilized right away.

According to the Center for Missing and Exploited Children, in 2014 there were 115 stranger abductions that occurred in the United States. The Center states that the first three hours are the most critical when trying to located a missing child.

The murder of an abducted child is rare, and an estimated 100 cases in which an abducted child is murdered occur in the U.S. each year.

In 2014, approximately 800,000 abductions occurred in the U.S.

A 2006 study indicated that 76.2 percent of abducted children who are killed are dead within three hours of the abduction.

Our city does not want the distinction of being part of that statistic as we have so in the past. The Police Department implores parents and guardians that if a child goes missing that the first call be to their Department in order that a search can be started immediately.