Here is a link: There are several articles on Suzanne Lyall
http://www.crimeandjustice.us/forums/lofiversion/index.php?t7007.htmlhttp://www.troyrecord.com/site/news.cfm?ne...=7021&rfi=6Lyall's parents applaud Campus Safety Act By: Paul Post, Special to The Record
08/16/2008
BALLSTON SPA - The parents of long-missing Suzanne Lyall on Friday praised President Bush's signing of a bill named after their daughter that mandates prompter response to college campus crimes.
The Suzanne Lyall Campus Safety Act mandates colleges and law enforcement agencies develop procedures for investigating violent crimes on campuses.
Suzanne, the daughter of Douglas and Mary Lyall, was a sophomore at the state University at Albany when she went missing on March 2, 1998. She hasn't been heard from since.
"It means that families won't have to go through what we went through," Mary Lyall said of the bill, sponsored by U.S. Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-Hudson. "We waited for three days before the campus did anything about her disappearance. It requires campus police to have some kind of plan in place to find missing people and to help victims of violent crime."
The legislation is patterned after a 1999 state Campus Safety Bill.
"Kirsten Gillibrand was the driving force behind it," Lyall said. "We discussed it with her office about a year ago, and she's been working on it ever since. She really took the ball and ran with it."
Gillibrand said the bill is intended to minimize confusion and delays during the initial investigation of a violent felony.
Skidmore College safety official Larry Britt said the school already has missing person protocols and procedures in place and that city police are notified within two hours if a subject isn't located.
Last April, the Lyalls were disappointed by President Bush's refusal to sign legislation to make April 6, Suzanne's birthday, a national Missing Persons Day, which has already been established in New York. The measure passed the House and Senate, but the president said the date conflicted with another crime victims' observance.
On Tuesday, the Lyalls will be featured on a CNN newscast about their missing persons playing card program. The segment is tentatively scheduled to appear between 7 and 8 .m.
Playing cards depicting missing persons and violent crime victims have been distributed to county jails throughout New York, where they're given to inmates with hopes that they might identify someone.
It's one of many projects the Lyalls are involved with in their ongoing plight to learn about their daughter's disappearance and help families in similar situations.
"Every time we do something her name gets back out in the news," Lyall said. "That's important because people have a tendency to forget and get on with their lives."
At the state level, the couple has been trying to get legislation passed that would create assault and abduction-free school zones. The intent, from grade schools to colleges, would be to impose tougher penalties for crimes committed in school settings.
The bill has passed the state Senate, but not the Assembly. A spokesman for Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, could not immediately be reached for comment.
For information on missing persons programs see the Web site:
www.hope4missing.org.
Posting GoddessAug 19 2008, 09:04 AM
http://www.dailygazette.com/news/2008/aug/19/0819_lyalls/Local couple’s advocacy is rewarded
New law aimed at response to missing college students
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
By Lee Coleman (Contact)
Gazette Reporter
SARATOGA COUNTY — A new federal law providing faster and better coordinated police response when a college-aged student is reported missing carries the name of a young Saratoga County woman who went missing 10 years ago.
President George W. Bush signed the Higher Education Opportunity Act late last week. The law includes the “Suzanne Lyall Campus Safety Act.”
“I’m so gratified and so pleased,” said U.S. Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-Greenport, of the legislation she introduced and successfully moved through Congress.
“It’s been 10 years since her disappearance,” Gillibrand noted.
Suzanne Lyall, then 19, was a student at the University at Albany on March 2, 1998. She was last seen at the Crossgates Mall in Guilderland where she worked.
Douglas and Mary Lyall of Milton, Suzanne’s parents, said campus police were first to respond to the missing person case, then the Guilderland Police Department became involved and later Albany city police and the Albany County Sheriff’s Department. The state police finally took over the case.
The investigation was confusing and time consuming, the Lyalls have said, as they encouraged state and federal lawmakers to pass legislation to provide faster and better coordinated police response to abductions and missing persons cases.
“We can never, with 100 percent surety, guarantee the safety of every student on every campus,” the Lyalls said in a joint statement.
“But we can guarantee to do everything in our power to have laws and procedures in place to protect our students as much as possible,” the Lyalls said.
“Congresswoman Gillibrand’s amendment will help protect more students on college campuses,” the Lyalls said.
Gillibrand said Monday, “This is something the Lyalls had a passion about.” She said Suzanne’s parents took a tragedy, and through their long and effective advocacy for better response to such crimes, have turned the tragedy into something positive.
“This is something that will really make a difference,” Gillibrand said in a telephone interview.
“The first 24 to 48 hours are the most important hours in solving abduction cases before the victim is killed,” Gillibrand said.
The Suzanne Lyall Campus Safety Act requires all colleges and universities to have a clear policy outlining the role and responsibilities for campus, local and state police if a violent crime, such as an abduction, occurs on campus.
The Lyall amendment is intended to minimize confusion and delays during the initial investigation of a violent felony, according to Gillibrand.
Then-Gov. George Pataki signed a similar state campus safety act into law in 1999.
Gillibrand said it is “quite special” to have a person’s name attached to a piece of federal legislation, such as the Suzanne Lyall Campus Safety Act.
She said she has seen only a handful of such personalized bills adopted during her tenure in Washington representing the 20th Congressional District.
“It is unusual,” she said.
“These provisions will protect more college students from serious danger, which is perhaps the best way that we can honor Suzanne’s life,” Gillibrand said.
Gillibrand, who is serving her first term in Congress, said she was also pleased that this was the first bill she has sponsored that has been signed into law in its entirety.
“It’s all due to the Lyalls’ advocacy,” she said.
The amendment was to the College Opportunity and Affordability Act, legislation that reauthorizes the Higher Education Opportunity Act, which outlines the federal government’s funding commitment for postsecondary institutions.
Gillbrand said that children are protected by the federal Amber Alert legislation in cases of abduction. With the Suzanne Lyall Campus Safety Act, college-aged students will have a similar protection in cases of abduction, she said.