There is some good news in the case of David Sneddon, my co-worker who went missing in China in 2004 and who is possibly being held in North Korea.
Utah's congressional delegation has introduced a resolution asking the State Department to look into David's case, by coordinating with the Chinese and South Korean governments as well as seeking the help of foreign governments who have diplomatic influence with North Korea. This is a huge step forward in the search for David, and the more support and attention this resolution can attract, the better.
Please contact your state's representatives to congress and ask them to support this resolution. You can find out the contact information for your state's representatives at this website. Your options may include by phone, email, or website contact form submission. If you choose either of the latter two options, I have prepared a short text at the bottom of this post that you can modify as you see fit (possible areas marked in brackets) and then copy/paste into the email/form.
The central website for updates about the search for David is Help Find David.
The text of the resolution is here. A video of Rep. Chris Stewart introducing the resolution is here. A video of Sen. Mike Lee's remarks is here.
With David missing in such a faraway country, his family's options for finding out what happened to him are limited. That said, over the last 11+ years, they have almost literally gone to the ends of the earth to bring their David home. This resolution is a chance for them to bring into the search people at high levels of multiple governments who have connections and resources at their disposal that could go far in discovering David's current whereabouts.
Sample text for use in contacting your state representatives:
[Date]
The Honorable [representative name]:
In August 2004, [my friend and co-worker] David Louis Sneddon disappeared from the city of Shangri-La, in China’s Yunnan Province. In the years since then, David’s family and friends have made repeated efforts to discover what happened to him, including traveling to China and retracing his last known steps. Their years of effort and research on David's behalf have yielded evidence of David's likely abduction and continued detention by North Korea. Experts in the field believe David is being used to teach English to North Korean intelligence agents, a clear threat to our national security.
On February 10, US Senator Mike Lee and Representative Chris Stewart introduced a concurrent resolution urging the State Department to investigate David's disappearance to the fullest extent possible, including coordination with the governments of China and South Korea, and cooperation with foreign governments who have diplomatic influence with North Korea.
Please join David's family and friends across the United States in solidarity by supporting this resolution.
David is a beloved son, brother, friend, uncle, and co-worker to many. We want to know what happened to him. Thank you for your efforts toward bringing him home.
Sincerely,
[Your Name]
[Your Address, etc.]
