The miracle of Social Media: Jerry Christmas to all

It is often that we are faced with shocking news of disappearances, abductions and kidnappings. They always seem to cause an impression on people, bringing communities together. This was the case of 10 year-old, Jerry Pfeifer, who almost a year and a half after being abducted by his mother, Maria Pfeifer, returns home to the arms of his father thanks, to Social Media. Once former president of Disney-owned Hollywood Records, Robert Joseph Pfeifer of Laurel Canyon divorces Maria, he was granted full custody of his son Jerry. Regardless of that, and with initial permission from Robert, Maria and her mother decide to take Jerry and her other son, Sasha to Eastern Europe. The last physical contact Robert had with Jerry was during Father’s Day 2012. Once in Eastern Europe, Maria would arrange for Skype meetings between Jerry and Bob until one day she vanished along with her mother and two sons. From that moment on, Robert never heard from Jerry again. This is when the FBI and Interpol came into the picture for violation of custody. Driven by father’s instinct and the desire to find his son, Robert took to Social Media and made it his mission to find Jerry. BringJerryHome.com came to life with the objective of creating awareness within the online community about Jerry’s disappearance, and contributing in the hope of finding clues to his whereabouts. The idea behind all this was to “make the world smaller for the abductors”. Marketing agency, InPulse Digital, met with the father and moved by the story decided to offer full support pro-bono. The agency then played a vital role in running Social Media campaigns on Facebook with the information provided by Robert, the authorities and the audience. The strategy of targeting the different advertisements by location according to the clues given by Interpol, helped the Facebook community expand exponentially. More and more, people started to push towards the goal of finding Jerry, resulting in a successful outcome for the cause. The awareness created by Social Media and the non-stop work of a fierce father, led to the capture of Maria Pfeifer on December 19th, 2013 at the children’s school in the French tourist town of Divonne-les-Bains, a few miles from the Swiss border. She will now be facing different charges for the abduction of both Jerry and Sasha who since the arrest remain in French custody. Almost a year and a half later, and thanks to the dedication of a father and a community of over 12K Facebook users, Jerry will be reunited with Robert. And the news came just in time for the most special time of the year. It is indeed going to be a Jerry Christmas.