Mom shares viral TikTok tip that she says helped her find lost daughter

An Ohio mom is crediting a tip she says she learned on TikTok with helping her locate her missing daughter during a recent outing last month.

Krista Piper Grundey told "Good Morning America" she, her 3-year-old daughter Lily and her son Wyatt were visiting the Center of Science and Industry in Columbus, Ohio, with a friend and her kids back in March when the unexpected happened.

Piper Grundey said she had been talking to the other mom and keeping an eye on Lily, who was playing nearby, when she suddenly lost sight of the 3-year-old.

"At first, I wasn't panicking yet," Piper Grundey recalled. "It wasn't until I made that first loop down where I thought she would be that I just kind of started to panic."

When Piper Grundey didn't see Lily, the mom of two said she had a "lightbulb moment" and remembered a tip from another mom on TikTok who had suggested in a video more than a year earlier to loudly describe a missing child's description instead of calling out their name.

"I started shouting, 'Little girl, pink shirt, Minnie Mouse.' That was the first thing that kind of came to my brain of what to shout," Piper Grundey explained, saying that was when things "started to get a little scary" for her.

Piper Grundey said the play space where she and her children were at the time didn't have any staff members around, so when she started yelling out her daughter's description, it was other parents who started repeating it and looking for her child as well.

She estimated it was only a matter of seconds before they located Lily, and her fear and panic turned into relief, but she said it "felt like a really long time" as it was all unfolding.

"It was another mom that found her and it was probably maybe like 20 or 30 seconds later … that's when a mom was like, 'Hey, little girl, pink shirt, Minnie Mouse?' And I said, 'Yes.' And she said, 'She's right there' -- and she was," Piper Grundey said. "She was in one of the little alcove areas … just playing happily [and had] no idea what's happening."

After she and her children returned home later that day, Piper Grundey said she wanted to open up about her experience in her own TikTok post in the hopes of helping other parents who could just as easily have found themselves in a similar situation.

"I knew I wanted to at least tell parents, 'Hey, this is what you do,' just because I knew that I had seen that TikTok over a year ago and that is what helped me on that day. So I wanted to let more parents know, just in case they hadn't seen that TikTok," the 35-year-old mom told "GMA."

In a statement to "GMA" Thursday, the Center of Science and Industry said the "safety and security" of its guests, families and staff are its "top priorities" and shared its procedure for locating missing children within the establishment, which includes a multifaceted approach.

"To ensure the safety of lost children, COSI has implemented several measures, including safety and CPR-trained staff who rove the science center, as well as a detailed and comprehensive established protocol for responding to lost children," the center said. "In addition, for families with young children, we supply wristbands for them wherein parents include their immediate contact information, helping to expedite reunification on the rare occasion a child is lost. Lastly, we have a large specific exhibition and learn/play area dedicated specifically for our families with young children."

COSI also thanked Piper Grundey in its statement, adding, "As an institution that celebrates lifelong learning, we are grateful for Krista being vulnerable and posting her experience, sharing knowledge that may be of assistance or value to other families. It is through this exchange of experience that we can all participate in our educational and inspirational ecosystem, all the while ensuring a safe, secure, and enriching experience for us all."

Safety tips for parents

Experts agree that Piper Grundey's tip to call out a child's description and not just their name is a key tool in helping to find a missing child.

Child safety advocate Callahan Walsh, executive director at The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, shared three tips that parents can use both before and after a child goes missing.

• Share a child's description. "It's absolutely important, if you are looking for your missing child, to spread the word on what that child was wearing that day. Are they wearing a blue T-shirt? Are they wearing green sneakers? Spread that information," Walsh said. "The more people that can ... help search for that child, the more likely you're going to find that child safely and quickly as well."
• Take a photo. "If you are going somewhere where you think there's going to be a lot of people, maybe a sporting event, an amusement park, or even just shopping, take a quick picture of your child before you walk in," Walsh recommended. "Not only you're going to have a lasting memory, but God forbid that child were to go missing, you have an accurate image of what that child looks like, including the clothing that they were wearing."
• Alert authorities and others immediately. "It's absolutely important that parents make [others] aware that their child is missing, whether that's to a store employee, or even calling law enforcement," Walsh said, adding that "time is absolutely of the essence." "Law enforcement doesn't want to get that call 10 minutes, 20, 30 [minutes], [an] hour later, saying my child has been missing -- they'd rather get that call right away."

This article was updated to include a comment from the Center of Science and Industry, as well as information on the center's procedure for locating missing children.

Editor's note: This was originally published on April 19, 2023.