In The Pipeline: Ten years later, her joy lives on

"Schools act the same basic way the church did — by moving their own from one place to another," she said. "How many complaints does it take to arrest a teacher? A lot. They're overly protective when it comes to investigating sexual complaints — it takes three complaints over three years. Most kids wait three to 15 years to ever disclose, and most times teachers are reinstated upon appeal. It just comes down to a liability issue. That's how schools seem to view it."

Just after the horrific crime, she started the Joyful Child Foundation in honor of her daughter.

"I wanted to transform all of the instant compassion we received into ongoing prevention," she said. And so she did.

"I had no idea how common child sexual molestation is, and no idea how common abduction is," Erin explained. "There are 58,000 children taken every year in this country, and that has been consistent for a long time. And those are not crimes committed by a family member — that's just by acquaintances and strangers. Of those, about 115 are cases like Samantha's."

She also reflected on what else was happening 10 years ago.

"Think about 2002 — the media called it the 'summer of abductions.' Elizabeth Smart had been taken one month earlier. Danielle Van Dam's murder trial had just started. Maybe people remember six of the 115 that were taken that year — or the next year or the year after that. But that's not fair to all those kids."

Today she organizes, speaks out, lobbies, and perhaps most importantly, educates people. But it frustrates her that the California Megan's Law website main page has not been updated in 10 years, that so much of the information appears to be outdated, and that the state attorney general's office does not seem to consider any of this to be a huge priority.

Even in the face of the massive red tape and bureaucracy she deals with, Erin has still managed to make a huge difference over the years, getting bills passed, creating coalitions, changing the alert systems — and the fight is ongoing. Her energy, focus and sheer will have helped change the game, but to hear her describe it, it was just the natural thing to do.

"Not a lot of us end up in a position where law enforcement does everything right: The bad guy is caught, the family is able to focus on the grief and reach out and do something to honor their child and all of the others. That's why I do this. Not enough of us get put in this position so I did not want to waste the chance."