Mother creates GPS safety device

BOCA RATON, Fla. (WSVN) -- An unsolved murder has inspired a South Florida mother to invent a device that could be a lifeline for those in danger.

It's a tale of two Boca Raton mothers: one murdered and the other turned that tragedy into an opportunity to save others.

On Dec. 7, 2007, Nancy Bochicchio and her daughter Joey were at the Boca Town Center Mall. Their bodies were found in the back of Nancy's sport utility vehicle. She had just withdrawn money from a Bank of America ATM.  

Another mother, Michele McCauley was supposed to visit the same mall and the same bank at around the same time. "We were on our way to Town Center Mall to see Santa, but fortunately we got delayed," said McCauley. "The next morning, the news was reporting a mother and daughter got abducted and brutally murdered at the same mall, and I was horrified because it could have been me and my five kids. Five kids, five car seats, you're a sitting target in a parking lot. "

Not wanting to be a sitting duck, McCauley created the Trax24 Pal. It works like a panic button, giving you a direct link to a security office and police. "It goes right to the central station, they get a signal, and now they can listen into the device, and they can track your location, if they feel you are taken away in a car, they can update your location and record everything," said McCauley.

Trax24 is a GPS device, and a signal can be received almost anywhere in the country.

McCauley met with Bochicchio's sister Joann Bruno, when she was developing the personal security device. After hearing how it worked, Bruno came away convinced had it been around in 2007, Nancy and Joey might have had a fighting chance. "All she would have had to do was push the button and chances are the call would come to our call center, and we would have heard her cries for help, and we could have changed the outcome on this crime," said McCauley.

Adam Black is a retired police officer who now owns a security business. He wants to see Trax24 in every home. "To have in an emergency the ability to have a connection to someone with a direct link to law enforcement so they can intercept a potential criminal act when someone's life is in danger is the true benefit of this product," said Black.

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