Donnie Shelton had a protective order forbidding him from contacting his estranged wife and their children. Authorities at the Pickens County Sheriff's Office in South Carolina said the order did not stop Shelton from breaking into the family home on Monday, November 22, 2010, and attacking his wife and 10-year-old son. The father found his 8-year-old daughter hiding in a closet and forced her into his truck.
Dispatchers received the initial call at 6 p.m. and investigators tried to find the child before contacting the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division at 11:40 p.m. about issuing an AMBER Alert. Lieutenant Cal Reighley said he considered the father's history of domestic violence and drug problems before sending the alert out just after midnight.
“We felt like the child was in danger because of his history of violence and how he took the child,” said Reighley. “It was better to be safe than sorry, and we decided to go ahead and issue the AMBER Alert.”
Reighley notified the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and contacted all AMBER Alert partners. He also made a courtesy call to Georgia and North Carolina about the alert. Every part of the South Carolina AMBER Alert Plan seemed to be working.
At 3:30 a.m. Tuesday, a man showed up at the Baptist Regional Medical Center in Corbin, Kentucky, with a girl who said she had stomach pains. A nurse became suspicious when the girl would not make eye contact with her. Staff members checked an AMBER Alert website and discovered the child had been abducted three states away in South Carolina. The police arrived at 4:05 a.m. and arrested Shelton.
Patti Ruff, the South Carolina AMBER Alert Coordinator, said she was about to relieve Reighley when the AMBER Alert was cancelled.
“I think the alert was awesome,” said Ruff. “Whoever took the initiative to check online to see if there was an AMBER Alert should be recognized. They could have checked the little girl and sent her on her way with her father. This is a lesson for all hospital staff members to check something out even if there is not an AMBER Alert in their state.”
Ruff became the state AMBER Alert Coordinator only seven months before this alert went out. She offered this advice for other new coordinators: “Work with someone who is experienced and has been involved with AMBER Alerts. If you are a parent and you are new to the process, you will want to activate the alert as fast as you can. However, it is important to get it right, so you do not desensitize the public with too many alerts.”
“You learn something with every alert, and nothing happens exactly the same with each one,” added Reighley. “The biggest surprise was where the suspect was located. The most important lesson we learned was to check other states because the suspect can pretty much go anywhere, and you do not know where they will turn up.”
Shelton has been charged with assault and battery, burglary, custodial interference, criminal domestic violence, and trespassing.