Photo of people looking at a gravesite decorated with flowers. Another photo showing Ashley Johnson-Barr holding a container of freshly picked blueberries. — Left: Ashley Johnson-Barr's gravesite is awash in purple, her favorite color. Right: Ashley shows off a pail of just-picked blueberries.

By Denise Gee Peacock

On a quiet September evening in 2018, 10-year-old Ashley Johnson-Barr walked to a nearby park in Kotzebue, Alaska, to meet a friend—and never made it home.

“Her legacy will live on through educating others,” says her father, Walter “Scotty” Barr. “Keep your children close. Talk to them. Do what you can to keep them safe.”

Kotzebue is a predominantly Iñupiat community of about 3,200 residents, located above the Arctic Circle in the northwest part of the state—a place accessible only by air or water. It’s a closely knit region where neighbors know one another, where children play freely in the longsummer light, and where the idea of a child vanishing feels unthinkable.

Yet within hours of Ashley’s disappearance, that sense of safety was shattered. Residents fanned out across tundra and shoreline, and hundreds of volunteers joined the search.

Eight days later, Ashley was found dead on a remote stretch of tundra more than 2 miles from the playground where she was last seen. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled. “I screamed. I cried. It’s a moment that never leaves you,” Barr recalls. “Then I had to tell Ashley’s mother, her siblings, our family. That part was unbearable.”

Ashley’s death shocked Alaska. But it did something more: It forced the state, and the nation, to confront a painful truth long known within Indigenous communities. Her story was not an isolated tragedy. It was part of a pattern that many Alaska Natives were keeping silent about.

“No more silence,” Barr says.

Two smiling little girls at a fast-casual restaurant--Ashley Johnson Barr and her sister Amber Barr

Ashley Johnson-Barr, left, with her sister Amber Kasey Barr

Two men (teachers) near a display screen showing a missing person

AMBER Alert in Indian Country Associates Matthew Hall, left, and Julian Garcia instructing in Chickaloon, Alaska.

Four people near a sign that reads "Alaska's Angel"--at Ashley Johnson-Barr Memorial Park

From left: AMBER Alert in Indian Country Associates Walter "Scotty" Barr (father of Ashley Johnson-Barr) and Mary Ferguson with Janell Rasmussen and Tyesha Wood of the AMBER Alert Training & Technical Assistance Program/National Criminal Justice Training Center.

Group of people in front of a IRA Kotzebue sign

From left: Walter "Scotty" Barr, Saima Chase, Tyesha Wood, Mary Ferguson, Janell Rasmussen, and Steven Rexford at the Tribal government office in Kotzebue, Alaska.

Woman standing in front of a screen in a classroom

Participants of a AMBER Alert in Indian Country class in Sitka receive a warm welcome from a local nonprofit representative.

A Tanana Chiefs Conference dedication sign at a new missing and murdered Indigenous persons (MMIP) memorial in Fairbanks, Alaska.

Join us for a powerful two-part webinar series exploring the challenges of responding to abducted and missing child cases in Alaska. Using the tragic case of Ashley Johnson-Barr as a catalyst for change, these sessions highlight the critical need for community coordination, law enforcement training, and the impact of the AMBER Alert in Indian Country (AIIC) program.

Part 1: The Case & Response (Recorded)
Discover the investigative hurdles and the importance of rapid, coordinated action in rural Alaska. Available now on-demand.

Part 2: A Path Forward (Live Panel)
Delve deeper into the systemic changes needed with a panel discussion led by AIIC Associate and Alaska Native Tribal Court Judge Mary Ferguson. Mark your calendar for May 19 and register!

SB 151 & Mandated Reporting: Ashley Johnson-Barr’s case accelerated the push for mandatory entry of missing persons into federal databases (NamUs), ensuring that jurisdictional lines no longer hinder the search for the vulnerable.
Investigative Specialization: There has been the recent establishment of dedicated MMIP investigators and Tribal Liaisons within the Alaska Department of Public Safety. These critical roles bridge the gap between rural communities and state resources.
Data Integration: The ongoing work to reconcile state records with community-led databases is a testament to the fact that better data leads to better outcomes.

A Crisis Hidden in Plain Sight

For decades, Indigenous communities across the United States and Canada have raised alarms about the disproportionate rates at which Native people—particularly women and girls—go missing or are killed.

In Alaska, those disparities are especially stark. The state is home to 229 federally recognized Tribes, and Alaska Natives make up about 19% of the population. Yet they account for a disproportionately high share of homicide victims and missing persons cases. (See “By the Numbers,” below left.)

Advocates refer to this epidemic as the missing and murdered Indigenous people (MMIP) crisis. It is not defined by a single case, but by a troubling pattern: disappearances that receive little media attention, investigations slowed by geography or jurisdictional complexity, and families left searching for answers.

Ashley’s case broke through that silence. “It made people feel not as safe here as they once felt,” Barr says. Her death also underscored the role of substance abuse, a factor in many violent crimes in Alaska. Barr says his daughter’s killer, Peter Wilson, admitted to being on a drinking binge at the time of the attack. Wilson would be sentenced to 99 years in prison.

Barr now speaks openly about the need for prevention, treatment, and accountability. He works as a trauma-informed trainer for the Southcentral Foundation of Kotzebue. He also serves as a surviving family member Associate for the National Criminal Justice Training Center (NCJTC) of Fox Valley Technical College. As part of that work, Barr’s insights are molding trainings hosted by NCJTC’s AMBER Alert Training & Technical Assistance Program (AATTAP) and its AMBER Alert in Indian Country (AIIC) initiative.

Jurisdictions, Geography, and Delays

To understand why cases like Ashley’s can be challenging to investigate, it is necessary to understand Alaska itself, not just its daunting geography but its legal landscape.

“Alaska is a Public Law 280 state,” says Mary Ferguson, a Tribal court judge for the Sitka Tribe. The MMIP advocate, who started her career in law enforcement, is a member of Alaska’s Tlingit people. “What that means is that Tribes don’t have criminal jurisdiction. We can only handle civil matters.”

That distinction is critical and widely misunderstood. “When someone goes missing, families often turn to the Tribe,” Ferguson says. “But legally, we can’t step in the way people think we can.” (See "ANCSA and PL-280 at a Glance," below.)

Unlike much of the Lower 48, Alaska does not operate under a traditional “Indian Country” framework. There are no reservations in the same sense (except for the Metlakatla Indian Community), no Tribal police forces with broad criminal authority, and no casino revenue streams funding public safety services.

The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) fundamentally reshaped land ownership and governance in the 1970s, creating a system that continues to affect how crimes are investigated. “All of that impacts what happens when someone goes missing,” says Ferguson.

The result is a system that can be difficult to navigate—not only for families, but for professionals working within it.

To help others alleviate uncertainty, Ferguson volunteers to help families struggling with MMIP issues while also serving as a NCJTC Associate who educates law enforcement professionals about the complexities faced by Alaska Natives. For AATTAP-NCJTC she is moderator of two webinars that focus on Ashley’s case. (See “Missing in Alaska: The Webinars,” above left.)

Even when jurisdiction is clear, the physical realities of Alaska present enormous challenges. The state spans more than 665,000 square miles, more than twice the size of Texas.

Within its extremely remote environs, many communities are accessible only by bush plane or boat. Law enforcement coverageis thin, and response times can stretch for hours, or days.

”When someone disappears in an Alaska remote area, with no road system, there could be a delayed response from law enforcement assigned to these vast regions, and specialized investigators can be hundreds of miles away,” says Tyesha Wood, Program Manager for AMBER Alert in Indian Country.

Weather adds another layer of unpredictability. “If conditions are good, it might take three hours by plane,” Wood says. “If weather prevents flying, it could take up to three days by boat.” Ferguson says these delays are compounded by infrastructure limitations.

“There’s only one crime lab for the entire state,” shesays. “Evidence, even digital evidence like cellphones, sometimes has to be sent thousands of miles away for analysis, as was thecase for Ashley’s phone.”

All of this takes time. And as Wood says: “In MMIP cases, those first hours can determine outcomes.”

Ashley’s case reflected those realities. While local responders and volunteers mobilized immediately, additional resources took days to arrive. Barr says forensic analysis of Ashley’s phone ultimately helped locate her, but it required time and specialized capabilities not always readily available in rural Alaska. “This is not unique to Ashley’s case,” Wood says. “It’s a structural issue.” For families, those delays can feel unbearable. “Families deserve urgency,” Ferguson says. “They deserve answers.” But she also emphasizes the complexity facing law enforcement.

“I want people to understand both sides,” Ferguson says. “These cases are extreme and complex. Resources are limited. Distances are vast. The constantly changing weather alone can stop searches entirely.”

Even when agencies are doing everything possible, Ferguson says, it may not feel that way to families waiting for answers.

“Sometimes people are doing everything they can, and yet it still doesn’t feel like enough,” Ferguson says. That’s because the system itself is stretched to its limits due to staffing shortages. And that tension between urgency and limitation sits at the heart of many MMIP cases.

Beyond geography, legal complexity can further slow investigations. Depending on where a crime occurs and who is involved, authority may fall to Tribal, state, or federal agencies. Those distinctions are often invisible to families, but their consequences are not. “This fragmentation can slow investigations and create confusion,” Wood says.

Data gaps have also long obscured the scope of the crisis. For years, cases involving Indigenous victims were underreported or inconsistently tracked. “But without reliable data, it’s difficult to allocate resources or identify patterns,” Ferguson says.

Advocates say these systemic challenges are compounded by a history of mistrust between Indigenous communities and institutions. And when cases receive limited attention from law enforcement or the media, mistrust can deepen.

A Community in Grief—and Action

In Kotzebue, Ashley’s death left a lasting scar. The search for her had united the community. The outcome brought collective grief and resolve. Vigils were held. Families shared stories of their own missing loved ones, many of which had gone unheard. Ashley’s name became a rallying point and March 12 (her birthday) was officially designated by the state legislature as Ashley Johnson-Barr Day.

Across Alaska, similar MMIP-focused conversations began to emerge. What had once been spoken quietly was now being said aloud. Her case helped prompt change, including expanded rapid-response efforts for missing children and increased federal attention to MMIP cases. Alaska also established a task force focused on the crisis, with an emphasis on improving data collection, coordination, and support for rural communities. (See “Ashley’s Legacy in Alaska,” below.)

The changes did not solve the problem, but they marked a shift “from awareness to action,” Barr says. One of the defining features of the MMIP crisis is invisibility. Many victims’ names are never widely known. Ashley’s is. “Names matter,” Wood says. “When names fade, so does urgency.”

Awareness, she says, creates pressure—and pressure leads to resources. “These stories matter. People are still going missing. When we keep telling these stories, it helps the entire system respond.”

Ashley’s story resonated beyond Alaska because it challenged assumptions about who is at risk. She was a child, not an adult. She was playing in a park, not living on the margins.

Barr works to ensure people remember Ashley as more than a victim. “She was a kind, loving girl,” he says. “She loved playing outside, going to church, swimming, and basketball. She loved picking berries, and purple was her favorite color.” (Read Barr’s moving online letter to Ashley to mark what would have been her 18th birthday.)

The Work That Remains

Despite increased awareness, factors driving the MMIP crisis continue to persist: geographic isolation, limited resources, jurisdictional complexity, and longstanding mistrust.

Advocates emphasize that awareness is only the beginning. “Families often don’t know what to do first,” Ferguson says. “They don’t know who to call or what steps to take.”

In some cases, she says, families feel as though nothing is happening at all. “I’ve helped families start searches, connect people to resources and push agencies to act,” she says. “Families are desperate, and they deserve someone who understands the system.”

Helping families understand how to advocate for themselves can make a critical difference. “That knowledge matters,” Ferguson says. “It can help bring attention and resources when they’re needed most.”

Ashley’s life was brief, but her impact endures. Her story brought national attention to an overlooked crisis. It helped change how missing-person cases are approached in Alaska. And it gave voice to families who had long been searching for answers.

“Every person matters. Every story matters,” says AMBER Alert in Indian Country Associate Alica Wildcatt. “Every life deserves to be seen.”

Barr agrees. “Ashley’s life will continue to have meaning as long as we honor it through action,” he says. “We need better training, stronger laws, and more prevention, not just awareness.”

84.3% of American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) women have experienced violence in their lifetime, while 56.1% of AI/AN women have experienced sexual violence.
Despite being only 19% of Alaska’s population, Native women represent 47% of rape victims and are 250% over-represented in domestic violence cases.
Alaska accounts for a disproportionate share of the 4,200 unsolved nationwide MMIP cases.
AN people make up about 40% of the United States’ 575 federally recognized Tribes.

Sources: Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA); compiled from multiple sources by National Congress of American Indians (NCAI).

September 6, 2018:

5:20 p.m. Ashley Johnson-Barr’s convicted killer, Peter Wilson, departs on a four-wheeler after being asked by friend “JJ” to pick up her child and another child (not Ashley) at Rainbow Park (now the Ashley Johnson-Barr Memorial Park), about a mile away.

5:30 p.m. Ashley is last seen alive near Rainbow Park; her parents’ calls go unanswered.

7:20 p.m. After two hours, Wilson returns to JJ’s mother’s house without children, upsetting JJ.

LATE NIGHT JJ finds a ringing phone in Wilson’s jacket, sees Ashley’s name on it, and calls Ashley’s mother; Wilson claims he found it outside.Ashley’s father retrieves the phone.

September 7:

EARLY MORNING Wilson goes to the Kotzebue Police Department and repeats the story about finding the cellphone downtown. He says he’s heard about a missing girl by the name of “Chelsea” or “Kelsie.”

September 10:

Kotzebue Police and Alaska State Troopers ask the FBI to join the investigation.

September 13:

Wilson is interviewed by the FBI. He denies using a four-wheeler on Sept. 6; ever knowing Ashley (despite them being relatives who knew each other, Scotty Barr says); and ever seeing Ashley’s name appear on the cellphone while it was ringing.

September 14:

EARLY MORNING Guided by GCI records, investigators search an area 2 miles east of downtown Kotzebue.

4:15 p.m. Ashley’s body is found in remote tundra a quarter-mile off the road, concealed by thick brush and a depression in the ground.

The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) and the state’s PL-280 status leave Alaska Native communities with limited authority, fewer resources, and heavy reliance on a strained state system. These challenges help explain why MMIP cases like Ashley Johnson-Barr’s face extraordinary challenges from the start.

ANCSA: Land Without Reservations

The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) was passed in 1971 to resolve land ownership in Alaska.

What it did: Replaced reservations with Native-run corporations; transferred 44 million acres and nearly $1 billion to those corporations; and made most Alaska Native land corporate-owned, not Tribal or federal.

Why it matters: Most of Alaska is not “Indian Country.” Tribes do not control land the way reservations do, and Tribes lack the type of funding and authority that is common in the Lower 48.

Impact on MMIP cases: ANCSA limits Tribal control over land and resources, complicating coordination when someone goes missing and reducing the tools Tribes have to respond.

PL-280: Why Jurisdiction Works Differently in Alaska

Public Law 280 (PL-280) is a federal law passed in 1953. Alaska became a mandatory PL-280 state in 1958.

What it means: The State of Alaska has primary criminal jurisdiction; Tribes do not have criminal authority (Tribal courts only handle civil cases); federal law enforcement plays a limited role.

Why it matters in missing-person cases: Tribes cannot lead criminal investigations or detain suspects (local police or Alaska State Troopers are responsible), and in some rural areas responders may be hundreds of miles away.

The impact: PL-280 limits Tribal sovereignty and local response, leaving families dependent on an often under-resourced state system—especially during the critical first hours after someone goes missing.

Effective law enforcement response to the missing and murdered Indigenous people (MMIP) crisis requires moving beyond standard procedures toward active coordination and trust-building.

Acknowledge the Scale: Alaska Native women and girls are disproportionately affected, though men and elders are also victims. Understanding this systemic context is vital.
Turn Awareness Into Action: Awareness only protects families when combined with cultural respect, specialized training, and rapid collaboration.
Respond Immediately: Never assume a disappearance is voluntary. In rural Alaska, distance and weather already cause delays; do not add to them by waiting to engage search resources.
Prioritize Accurate Data: Ensure cases are entered into the NCIC quickly with correct racial and Tribal identification to prevent the historical issue of misclassification.
Act Despite Jurisdictional Complexity: Do not let confusion over Tribal, state, or federal authority stall an investigation. Initiate the response first, then coordinate with agencies like the FBI or State Troopers.
Build Community Trust: Past neglect has created reporting hesitance. Overcome this by partnering with Tribal leaders and providing families with regular updates, even when there is no new information.
Partner With Families: Treat families as essential sources of information rather than obstacles. Avoid victim-blaming language and take their concerns seriously.

By Denise Gee Peacock

As the 30th anniversary of Amber Hagerman’s murder approaches, the search for her killer continues. Mark Simpson, the case’s original investigative supervisor at the Arlington Police Department (APD) from 1996 to 2007, reflects on a crime that transformed policing.

“We realized ... we didn’t have a major case response plan,” he recalls. The tragedy forced advancements, most notably the AMBER Alert system, but for Simpson, the goal remains: “to see the case solved.”

Today, that mission falls to APD Detective Krystalynne Robinson. She keeps Amber’s portrait near her desk as a daily reminder. Despite thousands of leads and decades of work, the case is far from cold; tips still arrive weekly. Robinson is now vetting labs for advanced DNA testing, driven by the same unwavering goal: “to get justice.”

*Retired Arlington (Texas) Police Department Sergeant Mark Simpson served as the Investigative Supervisor for the Amber Hagerman case during its earliest days.*

As we approach the 30th anniversary of the Amber Hagerman abduction and murder, what goes through your mind?

The likelihood that whoever committed the crime may still be out there troubles me. But I also look at everything that resulted from Amber’s death—the advancements law enforcement has made, not only in training but also investigative tactics, and our ability to respond to child abductions, including the AMBER Alert system—that we didn’t have before. It’s horrible that it took this little girl’s death to do that, but at least her death was not in vain.

What were some advancements within the Arlington Police Department?

We realized pretty quickly into Amber’s investigation that we didn’t have a major case response plan. For a situation requiring immediate, extensive deployment of personnel, who would we deploy? How long would we deploy them? In a major deployment, you can push people 18 hours, 20 hours, sometimes more, but then they start to make mistakes. And afterward, if you haven’t accomplished what you set out to do, what is the follow-up plan? There’s got to be a transition into another group of detectives who can keep the investigation moving. We had a lot to learn—and rapidly.

Was this a precursor to a child abduction response team (CART)?

I wish we’d had the tremendous forethought to create a CART back then, but our work was more reactionary. Later, when I began teaching for the National Criminal Justice Training Center (NCJTC) of Fox Valley Technical College, the emphasis on CART creation was bringing in people from different disciplines, from different jurisdictions, people who each brought something different to the table. But at the time, our team was learning as we were going.

How did you keep up with all the investigative leads?

Leads management was a huge learning curve. Unless you’ve ever been hit with a case like the Hagerman one, it’s hard to describe the amount of intelligence that comes in very quickly. We investigated more than 7,000 leads during my tenure. And a lot of that information was time sensitive. To manage it, we needed to learn how to get the information into a searchable database, how to collate it, how to determine what needed to be dealt with immediately, and how to quickly get the information to the people who could use it. We also had endless rows of three-ring binders with hard copies of investigative reports to organize. That was extremely labor- and resource-intensive, but we didn’t want to be in a situation where we might be reinvestigating the same lead over and over.

How has Amber’s case weighed on you?

Well, justice has yet to be served to the killer. That bothers me. And what was done to Amber is not the kind of thing that you go into a bar and have a few drinks and brag to your buddies about. It’s something you either take to your grave or wind up letting slip to someone very close to you. So I can only hope that someone will one day talk, and that will lead to a reckoning for Amber’s death. Someone needs to be held to account.

And as for the investigation?

I know with certainty that we did everything that we could do to push the case forward, so I have no regrets. I was given every resource I asked for, and even got to handpick the people who investigated the case. They were considered some of the brightest minds around.

Tell us about the investigative task force.

When Amber was first abducted, the city devoted 45 detectives and four sergeants to her case alone. I was one of those four sergeants. Within about 30 days, we pared it back to 15 detectives and one sergeant, with that sergeant being me. I chose people who were very good at their jobs—at interviewing, at interrogations, who had strong attention to detail, who had a deep sense of integrity. We were a standalone task force for about 18 months until our time came to a close, which was hard. The people on that task force, when they left, they left in tears. These were grown men who did not want to quit. But after the task force disbanded and I went back to working homicide, the case followed our team there and we kept it alive.

Did that spur your decision to open a cold case unit?

It was one of the reasons. We wanted to stay focused on Amber’s case as long as we could. For context, we decided a cold case would be one that had gone 120 days without a viable lead. But interestingly, during my time with the Arlington Police Department, Amber’s case never went 120 days without actionable intelligence. So technically it never went cold.

What was the most challenging aspect of working the case?

Keeping an aggressive investigative stance. Time is your enemy during child abduction investigations, since the longer they go, the more likely that people’s memories will fade, and crime scenes yet to be identified will be corrupted or disappear. You’ve got to keep moving very deliberately, with as much speed as possible, and leave no stone unturned. But you also have to be mindful not to investigate so many things at one time that you wind up not doing any of the tasks well. My job was to make sure that the 15 detectives on our task force had the resources they needed to do the job, that they had the freedom to make good decisions, and I could help them keep extraneous baloney at bay. For the most part, that was allowed to happen. The goal was to keep everyone from feeling overwhelmed. That’s when you lose track of your priorities. How did you try to boost morale? One way was in our command post. I kept a timeline of our work that ran all the way around the room and continued yet again. The reason I did so was twofold. One reason was for easy reference. But the other was to have a visual representation of what we were doing as a team. Leads were coming in hand over fist, and I wanted them to see what they were getting done—not only to develop new strategies from what everyone was finding, but also to underscore that while we didn’t have an arrest, we were still making progress. Tell us about your relationship with Amber’s family. Relationships in such cases can be complex, but we all became pretty close. The family knew they could call us 24/7/365, which was important. Most people do better when they approach something from a position of knowledge, so we made sure lines of communication stayed open. We had several formalized briefings with them, but over time we slowed that down simply because there wasn’t much new to share. It was about that time when I could see Donna losing patience with us. She appeared on television and said some not-very-nice things about me. But I realized it wasn’t personal. She was just frustrated because she didn’t know exactly what was happening.

How did the situation resolve?

Our victim assistance coordinator, Derrelynn Perryman, told me that Donna wanted to visit the command post. I said, ‘No. We have sensitive information in there; nothing good could come from that.’ Well, Derrelynn worked on me for about a week until I relented. I said, ‘OK, Donna can come up, but here’s a list of things she can’t do in there. She can’t be left alone, or take any pictures, that kind of thing.’ So Donna comes up to the post, and all the detectives clear out except for me. She sits down and looks around for what seemed like an hour but was probably only 10 minutes. She then gets up and walks out. And I thought, well, that wasn’t so bad. A few days later Derrelynn returns and says, ‘Donna wants to come back to the command post.’ So again, I say no, but again I get talked into it. This time Donna comes in with a paper sack. And in that sack is a framed photo of Amber. It was a Christmas picture, one that wound up being used on many of Amber’s flyers. She wanted us to hang Amber’s picture on the wall, which we did. She also gave us a Native American Kokopelli figurine. She wanted that in there with us too for some reason. Then she took a piece of paper and a Sharpie and wrote ‘Amber’s Room’ on it. She wanted that on the door of the command post. So I had an actual sign made that read “Amber’s Room’—one that could replace ‘Conference Room 3.’ And that was the beginning of the change between the Arlington Police Department and Donna. She just needed to see we were doing something. She wasn’t sure exactly what we were doing, but she could see it was progress. She also felt a personal connection to the space. It dawned on me then that you have to think outside the box in your work with families, especially if you feel like you’re losing touch with them. I’d been too focused on what you might call less holistic things until Derrelynn, and Donna, helped me see that.

What do you remember about the public’s reaction to the case?

When I think about when Amber was abducted, I don’t know exactly how to describe it, but the city and the news media was like an animal that had to be fed. People were just absolutely incensed that this type of crime could happen in our community.

What do you think most resonated with people?

Looking back on it, one difference was the media’s use of video. WFAA Channel 8 had been shooting a documentary about Amber and her family for a story about families living on, and off, welfare, and that footage really struck a chord with people. People felt like they knew Amber. We didn’t just have a photograph of her, but we had moments with Amber—her riding her bicycle, her doing homework, her playing with her little brother, Ricky. That video really brought that little girl to life, and made so many people want to do something to help.

Tell us about your relationship with the media during that time.

Historically, law enforcement has tried to keep the media at arm’s length. But my philosophy was to give the media anything and everything if it didn’t negatively impact our investigation. The more they knew, the better off we could be with our police work, especially since the media helps us connect with the public. If we’d chosen to shut out the media, they would have hunted for information on their own that may not have been accurate.

What do you think about how technology has changed in the past 30 years?

Unfortunately, our work occurred during a very different time. We didn’t have the ability to geolocate cellphones in a certain area or have license plate readers check tags near a specific location. There were no doorbell cameras. Back then there was only one security camera at a convenience store across the street from where Amber was abducted—and the camera wasn’t outside, but inside, pointed down on a register, so they could watch themselves get robbed. The electronic fingerprints people leave behind now are huge. But there’s one skill that need not get lost among the technological advances. Investigators should maintain the ability to simply talk with people. That also yields important results.

What did you know about DNA evidence at the time of Amber’s investigation?

We knew enough about it to hang onto whatever evidence we could to await future advances in the technology, which was in its infancy at the time. There are so many options for DNA testing now, so many potential strategies that we didn’t have back then. As time goes on, that will do nothing but expand.

What advice do you give law enforcement about improving responses to missing child cases?

What’s important is to have a plan. Know what you’re going to do if this type of case happens so that you can move rapidly and deliberately to get the investigation off the ground. Also, get trained. Nobody has any better instructors or better materials or message than the NCJTC and AMBER Alert Training & Technical Assistance Program. It’s no good trying to figure things out in a parking lot somewhere while your suspect is fleeing somewhere with your victim. Lastly, stay current on your resources—personnel, equipment, specialized assistance. Because over time, resources will change. You might have people with a particular investigative strength today, but in six months, they may have moved on. Who will replace them? That’s a planning reality that shouldn’t be overlooked.

Detective Krystalynne Robinson looking through evidence binder with picture of Amber Hagerman on easel behind her — Arlington (Texas) Police Detective Krystallyne Robinson keeps a framed portrait of Amber Hagerman in her office. "It's the first thing I look at every day," she says. "That means there's literally not a day that goes by that I'm at work and I don't think about her."

What’s your perspective on the 30th anniversary of Amber’s case?

It’s a huge milestone—one that gives us the opportunity to keep the focus on Amber while encouraging the public to share what they may know about the case.

On the 25th anniversary the Arlington PD discussed the possibility of DNA testing being used for the investigation. What’s the latest on that?

Since the amount of physical evidence that we have is very limited, I’m in the process of vetting labs to make sure they can do what we need them to without consuming the entire sample. Given the advancements in technology—that are just continuing to advance—I’m hopeful about the work the labs can do.

What else should we know about the case?

I want people to know this case isn’t on the backburner for the Arlington Police Department, or for me. It’s important for our department to solve this crime.

What drives you forward to do that?

I keep a framed portrait of Amber in my office. It’s near my desk, and it’s the first thing I look at every day. That means there’s literally not a day that goes by that I’m at work and I don’t think about her.

What’s your investigative approach, given the years that have passed?

It’s important that I continually have a fresh approach to the case, and keep an open mind. I teach a lot at the academy, and tell the recruits, you have to be self-consciously aware of the things that you’re doing and in the way you approach your investigations. That’s true for any case, but especially Amber’s. We have to just keep digging—digging into the leads and the evidence.

How often do you get leads on the case?

We get phone calls, emails, and letters about the case at least weekly. I know I don’t go a month without receiving an email or phone call related to it.

What would you say to Amber’s family?

As Amber’s mother knows, I’ve put a lot of work into this case—going through every report and previous detectives’ narratives. Our goal is always to get justice, and that’s what we’re aiming for. We also never want Amber’s name to be forgotten.

Amber Hagerman holding her baby brother, Ricky, in front of wrapped Christmas packages — *Amber Hagerman with her baby brother, Ricky*

By Denise Gee Peacock

On January 13, 1996, 9-year-old Amber Hagerman’s life was stolen by a stranger who dragged her kicking and screaming from her bicycle in broad daylight. Despite an unrelenting search and dedicated efforts by law enforcement, the media, and the public, Amber would never make it home. She was found brutally murdered. Her loss devastated her family and community, leaving a wound that has yet to heal.

In the months following the third-grader’s abduction and killing, Dallas-Fort Worth-area broadcasters worked with local police to establish what they hoped would be an antidote to future crimes: the America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response (AMBER) Alert—named in Amber’s honor, both to remember her and to protect children in the future. It would harness the power of technology, the media, and community action to spread urgent news when a child’s life was in danger.

It took almost a decade to get every U.S. state to adopt the alert system, but as of Dec. 18, 2025, AMBER Alerts have helped recover more than 1,292 children nationwide—241 of them rescued because of wireless emergency alerts (WEAs).

Though Amber’s life was heartbreakingly short, her legacy has been to save countless lives. Each time an AMBER Alert flashes across a screen or sounds on a phone, her name is carried forward—not just as a reminder of tragedy, but as a symbol of hope, protection, and action.

Janell Rasmussen Administrator, AMBER Alert Training & Technical Assistance Program / Director, National Criminal Justice Training Center

Amber’s case also underscores fundamental lessons that child protection professionals should consider as they navigate missing child incidents.

Rapid public communication is vital.
Before Amber’s case, police lacked a formal framework for instantly broadcasting information about child abductions to the public.

The AMBER Alert system was created specifically to fill this gap, leveraging radio, TV, and eventually wireless technology to send out critical information like descriptions of the child, suspect, and vehicle.

“Amber’s case was a witnessed abduction—the rarest of all—and there was credible information available about the suspected abductor and his truck,” says Chuck Fleeger, Region 3 Liaison for the AMBER Alert Training & Technical Assistance Program (AATTAP). “There just wasn’t a mechanism then to get that information out quickly and to the widest possible audience.”

AATTAP’s Region 3 spans 10 states, from Louisiana to Nebraska to Arizona. It also encompasses Fleeger’s home state of Texas, where since 2003 he has served as executive director of the AMBER Alert Network Brazos Valley, a non-profit in central Texas that assists with regional AMBER Alert coordination, provides public education, and partners with local law enforcement and other responders in alerting, response, and investigative readiness.

In 2020 Fleeger retired as Assistant Chief of Police with the College Station Police Department, where he served for more than three decades. He now teaches AMBER Alert investigative best practices courses for the AATTAP.

Time is of the essence.
Experts recognized that the first few hours are the most critical in a child abduction case. The AMBER Alert protocol emphasizes speed, ensuring that law enforcement, broadcasters, and transportation agencies react swiftly to reports.

Balancing that need for speed with a desire for accuracy can be a struggle for AMBER Alert Coordinators. “Law enforcement wrestles with the desire to verify information is complete and accurate, but then it’s not timely; conversely, you can have timely information but some of it’s not completely accurate. That’s OK. It’s better to get the process going even if an activation package isn’t perfect,” Fleeger says. “We all know how crucial time is, so any moments that can be saved could potentially make the difference in a child’s recovery.”

Successfully navigating such a high-stakes process “takes a combination of continuing education, experience, and good communication with others,” says Fleeger’s colleague Joan Collins, Liaison for AATTAP’s Region 1 (encompassing 11 states in the Northeast, from Maine to West Virginia).

Collins’ career has involved 39 years of work for Rhode Island law enforcement. She spent 28 of those years with the Rhode Island State Police, where she helped audit and train users of the Rhode Island Law Enforcement Telecommunications System (RILETS); was central to increasing the state’s various emergency alerts; managed the state’s sex offender/“Most Wanted” databases; and worked with the state’s Internet Crimes Against Children task force.

The creation of the AMBER Alert system has become an important public global safety tool for child abductions, and there is ongoing hope for the resolution of Amber Hagerman’s case. The goal is to safely recover an abducted child. The decisions made by AMBER Alert Coordinators are often stressful, made quickly and under pressure, following established protocols and using their best judgment based on the information at hand.

Joan Collins Region 1 Liaison, AMBER Alert Training & Technical Assistance Program

“Doing this line of work involves being an active listener—of knowing what questions to ask,” she says. Collins now teaches such AATTAP courses as AMBER Alert: To Activate or Not Activate as well as 911 Telecommunicators and Missing & Abducted Children (aka “911 T-MAC”).

Coordination is key.
The AMBER Alert system functions through the seamless cooperation of multiple groups, including law enforcement, broadcasters, transportation agencies, and the media.

Reviews of every alert help to improve the process over time by getting input from these various partners.

Collins recommends that partners include not only those within one’s own law enforcement agency, but also those from surrounding states (“with whom you’re likely to work with more often than not”). “It’s important to connect with your counterparts elsewhere and build relationships with them early so you can act together quickly and successfully,” she says. “It’s always a relief to know others are ready and willing to help out during times of high stress, and they in turn will appreciate your advice and support.”

Protocols must be followed carefully.
For any case—which can potentially become a high-profile one—there is a need for law enforcement to meticulously follow established protocols. This includes the difficult decisions an AMBER Alert Coordinator must make with the limited information available at the time, which may be criticized by the public later.

“With any missing child case, law enforcement should first assume the child is at risk until evidence presents otherwise,” Fleeger says.

He also recommends patrol first responders consider the long-term implications of their efforts, avoiding any pass-the-buck mentality of case stewardship. “Think about the officers dispatched to Amber’s case. They certainly didn’t know when they started their shift that three decades later the case would be unsolved—and how dramatically changed available resources and response models would become.” It’s essential to remember that “the right documentation of information really matters. And if we’re doing good, solid police work from the earliest moments, that work should stand the test of time and hold up well.”

Use targeted, advanced technology.
Modern AMBER Alerts benefit from geotargeting, which focuses alerts on the people most likely to have seen the child. This prevents citizens in a wider area from being desensitized and ignoring alerts.

The public can help.
AMBER Alert’s success is a testament to the power of community vigilance. It allows millions of people to serve as the “eyes and ears” for law enforcement by reporting tips to the authorities. To keep the public from “information burnout” on a case, Fleeger recommends using multiple photos of a missing child at different times. “If someone is scrolling through their feed on social media and see the same photo time and again, they’ll assume they’ve already read that information,” he says. “A new or different photo will make somebody pause and think, ‘I didn’t realize he is still missing.’ The goal is to keep the case a priority in the public’s mind until we can get that person found.”

Don’t assume benign circumstances.
Before the AMBER Alert system, bystanders witnessing a child struggling with an adult may have assumed it was a family dispute or the child misbehaving. Amber’s case highlights the danger of assuming an abduction is a benign event and reinforces the importance of reporting suspicious activity immediately—even if it seems inconsequential.

Collins refers to the barking dog analogy in her teaching. She encourages dispatchers in training to ask questions and gather more information. “For example, is the dog that someone is calling about normally outside barking, or does it rarely bark? This could indicate whether something unusual is occurring. It’s important not to make assumptions, as callers may have relevant information that can be discovered by asking further questions

Stranger abductions are real.
While statistically rare—the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children reports that stranger abductions account for 1% of reported abductions—they are a real danger. Amber’s case serves as a reminder of the vulnerability of children, especially when a predator targets them. According to NCMEC, victims are most often girls, and the average age for attempted abductions is 11 and completed abductions is 14.

Justice is a long process.
Despite the creation of a system that has saved countless lives, Amber’s murder remains unsolved decades later. The lesson is that the fight for justice continues, and the public can still assist by reporting any strange observations. “Long-term cases like Amber Hagerman’s are solvable,” Fleeger says. “Technology continues to evolve and so do peoples’ lives. People will decide to talk for whatever reason when circumstances change. Consider the Austin [Texas] yogurt shop murder case that was recently solved. You just never know.”

Group of people filling out big white sheets of paper

Police officer talks to group of seated men

Woman with dark hear talking to seated audience

A year and a half ago, nationally recognized CART expert Stacie Lick became AATTAP’s CART Liaison.

Man speaking to group of seated men and women

James Holmes joins Stacie Lick in providing guidance from the perspectives of former CART Commanders who know the ins and outs of a rapid response team’s creation and sustainability.

Men in front of a digital flow chart of information

Organizational charts help first responders see the big picture of how a CART will be structured during a missing child incident.

By Denise Gee Peacock

“Sometimes the solution to a problem is right in front of you, which may be a good sign you’re on the right track,” says Derek VanLuchene, AMBER Alert Training & Technical Assistance Program (AATTAP) Program Manager for child abduction response team (CART) training and certification.

VanLuchene’s task was to help others overcome a significant hurdle: “Certain CARTs were struggling with getting up and running, despite days of training and support. And our goal is, and always has been, to create more active teams across the country.”

With all that law enforcement agencies juggle and with seemingly fewer resources to tap, “maybe the agencies were just feeling overwhelmed,” VanLuchene says. Knowing that the burgeoning CARTs needed more follow-up and mentoring, one way to help struggling teams was to connect them with “the best of the best.” A year and a half ago, nationally recognized CART experts James Holmes and Stacie Lick became AATTAP’s CART Liaisons. Lick and Holmes now offer guidance to CARTs from the perspectives of former CART Commanders who know the ins and outs of a rapid response team’s creation and sustainability. So, problem solved, right?

Not quite. In some cases, fledgling CARTs also needed reminders of the core essentials needed to build a strong team. To resolve that, “maybe we needed to look again at how we were teaching the implementation course,” VanLuchene recalls.

For two decades, the AATTAP—part of the National Criminal Justice Training Center (NCJTC) of Fox Valley Technical College—has been providing CART training and certification support funded by the U.S. Department of Justice. The process for managing and updating its training curriculum involves continually reviewing participant evaluation feedback, current research and case law, updated investigative resources, case studies, current trends, relevant adult learning strategies, input from subject matter experts, and more.

As a result, scores of CARTs have received assistance to create (and ultimately, federally certify) an effective, efficient, organized response team prepared for a missing child incident.

A eureka moment hit VanLuchene last fall, when he found himself updating the CART program’s two essential instructional manuals (see related sidebar, page 9) streamlining their content for ease of understanding.

Essential to any CART’s implementation are “12 Core Components” (see related sidebar)—which include agreed-upon deployment criteria, experienced and committed team members, well- crafted callout methods, and the like. But as important as those core concepts are, it dawned on VanLuchene that the instructional module centered on them received only two hours of focus time during three days of CART training. Perhaps that’s why the essential information wasn’t sticking, he wondered. They needed to spend more time on the components. “And frankly, while the old curriculum was good stuff, those components were worthy of their own course—or at least an updated course,” VanLuchene says.

After discussing it with AATTAP Curriculum Manager Cathy Delapaz and Deputy Administrator Byron Fassett, the group agreed. “Derek’s observation was brilliant,” Fassett recalls. As a team they set out to restructure the CART implementation course. The 12 Core Components would be front and center throughout a new two-day intensive course. What’s more, the class wouldn’t just address CART theory and best practices, “it would become a hands-on workshop, one in which the 12 Core Components are used to actually create a working CART in real-time,” VanLuchene says.

A Three-Pronged Approach
The reformatted curriculum—the CART- smart restart, if you will—is achieved via a three-pronged approach to building a CART in real-time as opposed to discussing its eventual creation.

The first prong involves a pre-meeting with agency stakeholders who will review the types of CART members that are needed and resources available. “That’s when we confirm that they’re ready to make the CART happen via the second prong of planning”—the new two-day class, or workshop, on the 12 Core Components—a deep dive into a successful CART’s key ingredients, which can be applied to the agency’s matrix of strategic personnel through a sample organizational flow chart that’s proven its value in CARTs across the country. “This way they can better visualize and understand the CART’s standard operating procedure (SOP),” VanLuchene says.

The third prong is a post-workshop meeting to confirm the CART team members and resources; it also includes mentoring from VanLuchene and one of the AATTAP Liaisons to help tie up any loose ends in CART configuration. “After all the prep work we’ve provided, when they come out the other side, they’ll be ready,” he says.

Louisiana as Pilot Project
Nine months ago, Louisiana State Police (LSP) Captain Jay Donaldson, who oversees Region 3 Criminal Investigations, was tasked by his superiors to form a statewide CART team that could work independently in each of the state’s three regions while also working as a cohesive whole in case of a major disaster involving missing people (one on the scale of Hurricane Katrina, he notes).

To create the regional/state CART, Donaldson knew right where to turn: to Derek VanLuchene, whom he had gotten to know over the years during various AATTAP-NCJTC trainings. Progress was swift, VanLuchene says. “No grass was growing under their feet; they wanted to get right on it.” The meetings took place over a four-month period, “which was fantastic considering some CARTs can take a year or more to form.”

After hearing about the updated CART curriculum, Donaldson was eager to get started. The first meeting was on February 19, with the more intensive hands-on sessions occurring on May 28 and 29. “I’m more of a workshop person myself,” Donaldson recalls of the two-day workshops. “I was just hoping everyone else on our teams would be too. Thankfully they were.”

With Louisiana serving as the new pilot project for the CART course that would soon play out around the country, Donaldson watched closely.

“What Derek did for us was exceptional,” Donaldson says. “Whenever we were doing tabletops, he broke us up by region. He said, ‘let’s put people together who are going to actually work together. That way we’ll see what happens, what ideas form.’ And then, once he did that, everything just started working, everything just started clicking.”

Finding the right people to be involved in planning and execution of the CART details is crucial. In any agency, people will do things because they’re told to. Then they’ll want to do so because their heart is in the mission. The commitment Donaldson witnessed in the room during the two-day planning session “had me realizing we had all the people whose hearts would be in the right place,” he says.

Donaldson had faith that the new way of learning-by-doing was working not only for his team, but also for others.

VanLuchene was equally pleased: “If they get a call tomorrow about a missing child, they could activate their CART team in whatever region it was needed. Their organizational chart is in place, their SOP is in place. They’re ready for deployment.”

Smart Solutions Ahead
A key obstacle to creating a CART is falling prey to misconceptions surrounding them. Some administrators may look at a CART as another task force that needs to be managed—without the budget or staffing to do so. They need as many resources as possible for their regular caseload of crimes.

“But in helping teams formulate a CART, we’re not asking people to suddenly put aside their normal duties. We’re asking people to think differently about how they work together on a missing child case,” VanLuchene says.

“Why not take the 12 Core Components of a CART and apply them to your response so you get the most effective, organized, efficient outcome?” he asks. “It’s just that simple.”

In other cases, where there are preexisting major incident response teams to tackle emergencies, those groups of responders can learn the 12 components of a successful CART and walk away with an SOP. “You become an active CART team based on your ability to respond to cases involving missing kids,” VanLuchene says.

Finding the resources can also seem overwhelming until stakeholders are invited to become a part of the process, says LSP Captain Donaldson. He cites one partnership in particular. “We invited the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries to be involved in the training for the first time,” he says. “They were keen to observe and see if being in a CART was a space they wanted to share with us.”

That decision would be a natural. “Louisiana has so many bodies of water, and these guys know the camps or lakes or rivers or streams—which is where a child with autism, for instance, may be drawn to after a wandering incident,” Donaldson says. “And thankfully, they’re all in. They have the tools and resources, and these guys love what they do. Now they’re waiting for a mission. They’re all about saving children, if they can.”

The methodology for the new CART implementation course will also be used for AMBER Alert in Indian Country (AIIC) trainings. AIIC Program Manager Tyesha Wood and her team are currently observing the new curriculum in action and will be applying it to a forthcoming Tribal Response to Abducted Children (TRAC) initiative, which will help Tribal law enforcement bridge any gaps in child recovery knowledge and planning.

Meanwhile, CART Liaisons Lick and Holmes are working daily to ensure all current CARTs and ones in the making are taken care of. Both have managed CART teams so they relate to others’ challenges. “They say, ‘Here’s what we recommend based on our experience,’ ” VanLuchene says. “The Liaisons are helping bring the total CART training package together.”

12 Core Components of a CART

Response Criteria: This is a memorandum of understanding about the CART’s criteria and area of service and should have complete buy-in by all of the stakeholders involved
Team Composition: The predetermined callout team should include an experienced and committed group of subject matter experts in areas including search and rescue, interview and interrogation, expert witness testimony, command post operations, major case investigations (including cold cases), and more.
Notification and Deployment Protocols: For the CART to respond in a quick, preestablished timeframe, it must have a well-constructed and agreed-upon method to activate the callout and an updated list of contacts.
Communications: Each team should have a plan for how it will communicate with the CART commander, command post, and others during an activation. This includes having a well-staffed call center for public tips and dedicated personnel monitoring social media accounts. A leads tracking and management system is crucial for disseminating leads for follow-up.
Command and Control: This involves the structuring and outfitting of a command center, incident command system (command structure), and operational team leaders (search leads, volunteer management, and others).
Search, Canvass and Rescue Operations: Establish a plan for searching, canvassing, and rescuing that includes response time and deployment logistics, as well as tactics for the successful use of volunteers with predetermined tasks.
Training: Individual and CART agency training provides an opportunity for the team to test activation and callout procedures, revise rosters and contact information, update team members’ training and specialized skill records, inspect equipment inventory, adjust assignments, and review protocols.
Legal Support: The goal in an endangered missing or abducted child case is to rescue the child, develop a solid prosecutorial case against the offender, and do both without violating the constitutional rights of members of the community. Issues such as search and seizure and the role of the prosecutor in the CART command post should be incorporated into the CART protocols. Every CART should include a prosecutor and/or legal adviser who should be involved in all trainings.
Equipment/Resources Inventory. The inventory list goes well beyond tangible deployment needs, but includes detailed instructions on how every possible resource (including experts not part of the CART core team) can be accessed regardless of time or day. Every resource should have backup contact information (telephone and email), as well as procedures for making an after-hours callout.
CART Protocols: Established protocols, along with operating procedures and manuals, will help ensure consistency in a CART’s functionality. These documents must be shared among and accepted by all participating agencies, and any changes to policies and procedures must be documented in a consistent, singular location.
Victim Assistance and Reunification: When a child is recovered, it is critical for a variety of services to be made available as soon as possible—not only to address and physical/medical needs, but also the psychological distress resulting from the incident.
Community: Utilizing members of the team to provide training and awareness to the public may generate volunteering when an incident occurs.

— From A Guide to CART Program Components and Implementation.

>> Find AATTAP’s two recently updated implementation- and certification- focused guides at AMBERAdvocate.org/CART/resources.

>> Find all the information you need to stay up to date on CART training objectives at AMBERAdvocate.org/CART/training

Woman wearing police vest — Corporal Josée Melanson of Canada’s National Centre for Missing Persons and Unidentified Remains. All 10 Canadian provinces have an AMBER Alert program in place. The three Canadian territories have not yet implemented AMBER Alert systems in their jurisdictions. (Photo credit: Royal Canadian Mounted Police).

By Jody Garlock

Early in her career with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), Josée Melanson realized that having a strong sense of urgency is essential in missing child cases. It’s an urgency she now thrives on. About six months into her job as a patrol officer in the northeast province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Melanson responded to a call from a frantic mother who had reported her young son missing.

As Melanson and ther officers ran in search of the child, she saw a dumpster in her periphery. Drawing on her training, she stopped. The boy was next to the trash receptacle, hiding and scared from hearing his name being yelled by unfamiliar voices.

“That was one of my success stories I’ll never forget,” Melanson says. That feeling of franticness related to having a lost child “is very different from the other types of calls we received,” she says.

After 13 years as a patrol officer (also known as a General Duty member on patrol) and five years at the RCMP Training Academy, Melanson shifted to a position with RCMP’s National Centre for Missing Persons and Unidentified Remains (NCMPUR), headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario. For the past two years, she has coordinated NCMPUR’s National AMBER Alert Working Group, comprised of AMBER Alert Coordinators from provincial law enforcement agencies across Canada.

Melanson’s work is a critical component of the AMBER Alert Training & Technical Assistance Program’s (AATTAP) Northern Border Initiative, which formalizes the long-standing cooperation between the two nations. We spoke with Corporal Melanson about her transition from patrol officer to national coordinator, the structure of Canada’s AMBER Alert system, and why international partnership is non-negotiable when a child’s life is on the line.

After being on patrol for more than a decade, how has it been settling into your role at NCMPUR?
One of the positive experiences with the RCMP is that you can work in different units, and this one is very different from what I did as a patrol member. I don’t have a police car here. I don’t wear my full uniform every day. It was definitely an inviting change—I could focus on the unit here. I’ve learned a lot and am still learning. I find as a police officer, it’s important to challenge yourself and learn every day. That’s what keeps my drive going.

Do you have the chance to work with AMBER Alert associates in the United States?
In my current position as the chair of the National Amber Alert Working Group (NAAWG), my role is focused on gathering training opportunities and best practices from our U.S. associates. Once we communicate about that, I share the information with AMBER Alert Coordinators here in Canada.

What type of work does NAAWG do?
First, we’re not involved in investigations. One of our mandates is to facilitate an information exchange—and providing training opportunities for members here and support for AMBER Alert conferences. We meet virtually at least twice a year. We had one of our recent NAAWG meetings where we discussed courses that are available through the National Criminal Justice Training Center (NCJTC) at Fox Valley Technical College (FVTC) to AMBER Alert Coordinators in Canada.

What about your AMBER Alert program—how is it structured?
In Canada, each province develops its AMBER Alert program independently, and the provincial committees have developed criteria to respond to the needs of their jurisdictions. Each province appoints an AMBER Alert Coordinator to oversee the program and each province has its set criteria. We will be made aware that an AMBER Alert has been issued, but it is the provinces—the coordinators— that take full responsibility of it. Here at the National Center, we’ll maintain and collect statistics on issued AMBER Alerts.

Tell us a bit about those statistics.
In 2024, there were eight total activations of AMBER Alerts in Canada. All of the 10 children involved were located safe and sound. In the first six months of 2025, two AMBER Alerts have been issued, with a total of four children involved. And again, all four children were found safe.

That’s impressive. How does 100 percent success make you feel?
Amazing. It’s a great day at work, right?— for all police officers throughout Canada. You feel the urgency when you know all the criteria are met and the AMBER Alert is issued. And then once the children are located, it’s a very powerful feeling.

What are your thoughts on cross-border collaboration via the AATTAP’s Northern Border Initiative?
I feel it’s crucial to have that, especially for the effectiveness of AMBER Alerts here in Canada. Since I’ve been in the unit for the past two years, Canada and the United States have established partnerships, making it easier to work together, share information, and coordinate efforts when it is believed that a child has been abducted across our borders. All the information and the training that we can see from [AATTAP and FVTC’s NCJTC]—and me sharing that with the AMBER Alert Coordinators in Canada and with the NCMPUR team as well—is very beneficial.

Woman with brown hair — *Yesenia "Jesi" Leon-Baron*

Child protection officials in the U.S. and Canada have had a longstanding working relationship. The Northern Border Initiative of the AMBER Alert Training & Technical Assistance Program (AATTAP) formalizes that as it focuses on strengthening preparedness for effective response to child abduction cases.

The collaboration, which is between northern states and Canada’s southern provinces, parallels AATTAP’s Southern Border Initiative with Mexico.

Yesenia “Jesi” Leon-Baron, Project Coordinator for International and Territorial Programs at AATTAP, says that partnering with Canada’s National AMBER Alert Working Group has helped pinpoint areas to address, such as additional training on alert activations that involve cross-border abductions. “Together, we’re building an understanding of Canada’s AMBER Alert coordination while developing training and technical assistance,” she says.

A virtual tri-national meeting with respective AMBER Alert Coordinators from Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. is being planned, likely for 2026.

The one-day training would cover topics such as initial investigative responses and how the AMBER Alert system works in each country.

“Child abduction knows no borders,” Leon-Baron says. “Evil doesn’t discriminate, and it’s not going to worry about borders either. So we need to make sure we are supporting each country’s investigations when it comes to abducted children. We can be a force multiplier.”

Photo illustration of a blue blanket with a pink heart pillow — In 2023, 59% of AMBER Alerts were for family abduction cases, according to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. The abductions tend to occur at transition points, such as when court-ordered exchanges of the child are scheduled to take place. Staff photo illustration.

By Jody Garlock

Engaging the public has always been at the heart of AMBER Alerts. The program, after all, was built on the premise of instantly galvanizing citizens and motorists to serve as an extra set of eyes to help law enforcement safely locate an endangered missing or abducted child. The power of that concept played out literally and figuratively in a case that gripped the quiet county-seat town of Fallon, Nevada.

On March 31, 2025, the Nevada Department of Public Safety issued an AMBER Alert that was disseminated to broadcast media and cellular devices around Washoe County. Ten-month-old Lyric Smitten had been taken by his noncustodial mother, Chelsea Daniels, earlier that day. According to information released by the Churchill County Sheriff’s Office, authorities were advised that Daniels had been distraught after a court removed the boy from her care and custody. She was reported to have a handgun and had threatened to harm herself and her son.

The case solidly met the criteria for activating an AMBER Alert. These criteria included the belief that the child was in imminent danger and there was enough descriptive information for the public to aid in the recovery.

Unlike most AMBER Alerts, this case had an additional layer of urgency: The child was scheduled to undergo heart surgery the following day.

As news of the missing boy quickly spread around Fallon and the other high desert communities of western Nevada, tips to 911 came in. Because the vehicle Daniels was driving was relatively common—a black SUV (specifically a Ford Explorer) with a Nevada license plate— several tips matched a general description.

Although the AMBER Alert provided the license plate number, motorists aren’t always able to capture the exacting details. Officers knew the dire situation required taking all tips seriously, even those where the information matched just a general description of the SUV. One such tip led to a Fallon elementary school being placed on lockdown until authorities confirmed that the vehicle reported on the grounds wasn’t Daniels’.

One particular tip, however, stood out. A caller reported seeing a vehicle matching the description and that was being driven by a woman in an area that aligned with earlier cell phone pings from the mother’s phone. Patrol and investigative units were already in the area and took swift action. They spotted the SUV traveling on a mountain road.

Collage of four images showing the AMBER Alert cell phone message, a Walmart, an elementary school, and a news report — **HOW IT UNFOLDED** (from left, top to bottom): The AMBER Alert pinged cell phones shortly after 2 p.m. for the Nevada infant taken by his noncustodial mother and believed to be in imminent danger. The last reported siting of the child was at a Walmart. An elementary school was placed on lockdown after a tip matched a general description of the mother’s vehicle there. About an hour after the alert was issued, authorities acting on another tip spotted the vehicle and safely recovered the boy. Local media reported the news, to the relief of residents.

After initially failing to stop, Daniels pulled over the vehicle, heeding the emergency lights and sirens from a sheriff’s deputy’s patrol vehicle. The infant was found safe; emergency medical responders also assessed the child’s health.

Authorities did not release information on the boy’s heart condition or surgery.

The Fallon Police Department took Daniels into custody on various charges, including kidnapping. Fallon authorities noted after the incident that concern about the child’s medical condition played a factor in the case rising to the level of an AMBER Alert.

Similar to how the public responded with tips, local authorities were quick to praise the public for its vigilance that contributed to the safe resolution. Churchill County Sheriff Richard Hickox also credited the multiple agencies and emergency medical responders who were involved. “We are grateful for the citizens who called in with sightings and information,” Hickox posted on Facebook. “The successful resolution of this situation is a prime example of a collaborative effort by many agencies striving toward one goal—and that is the safety of the public.”

Residents greeted news of the child’s safe recovery with similar gratitude. “Thank you to the people who spoke up and reported!” one person wrote on the Churchill County Sheriff’s social media page.

Carri Gordon, AMBER Alert Training & Technical Assistance Program (AATTAP) Liaison for Region 5 (which includes Nevada), considers the case an example of the AMBER Alert system working as it was intended: by engaging the public to prompt a swift recovery. “I’ve activated alerts in the past where the tip came in within six minutes of the Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) hitting cell phones, and it was from someone directly behind the suspect’s vehicle,” she recalls. “Law enforcement contacted and safely recovered that child in less than 15 minutes of the AMBER Alert going out. It’s literally lifesaving.”

During her 13 years as the state of Washington’s AMBER Alert Coordinator (AAC), Gordon handled more than 100 AMBER Alerts. Although alert activations for noncustodial parent abductions, such as in this case, have always been higher than stranger abductions, she reminds AACs that this doesn’t mean the child is free of danger. “Parents will—and do— harm their own children,” she says, dispelling a common misconception.

Gordon also knows from experience the pressure AACs feel every time an AMBER Alert is issued, even though they aren’t directly investigating the case. “As AACs we monitor our alerts as they go out and monitor the involvement on social media, such as the shares and likes,” she says. “When you see a case with a lot of public involvement—and tips that eventually lead to the location of the child—it makes you aware of how critical and valuable a tool like the AMBER Alert system is.”

Tim Williams, center, manager of the New York State Missing Persons Clearinghouse (NYSMP) checks progress with David Fallon, retired FBI investigator and NCJTC-AATTAP Associate.

Three females at investigation desk in conference room

: Intelligence Analyst Joy Johnston of the New York State Police answers questions during a rescue operation to locate children reported missing as runaways.

Two men looking at a computer monitor screen in a crowded room.

Samuel Lizzio and Mark Baney, New York State Police senior investigators, work a case. In 2024, New York closed 12,310 cases involving children reported missing as runaways, according to the Division of Criminal Justice Services.

A man at a long conference table ringing a bell in a crowded room

Alan Lapage, NYSMPC investigative supervisor, rings a bell to signal a missing child was safely located.

By Jody Garlock

It’s an early morning in March, and about 100 law enforcement officials, social services professionals, legal experts, and others are gathered in a hotel ballroom in Latham, New York. Wearing lanyards with name tags and sitting at tables with laptops and papers in front of them, they seem poised for a routine conference. But there’s a seriousness in the air and laser focus as they work on their computers or huddle into small groups.

Eventually, the ringing of a bell sounds across the room. Heads turn toward a man holding a brass school bellas the realization sets in: A missing child has been located.

By the end of the three-day Capital Region Missing Child Rescue Operation, that bell will have been rung an impressive 63 times. Simultaneously, a computer screen projected onto a wall showed the number in big, bold lettering. Both served as uplifting motivators for the agencies and experts who united for a goal of finding missing children at risk of endangerment, exploitation, or harm. “After the first or second bell ring, everyone gets it—it’s powerful,” says Tim Williams, manager of the New York State Missing Persons Clearinghouse (NYSMPC), one of organizers. “You could feel the energy in the room continue to increase.”

More than 60 local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies, nonprofit organizations, and private partners came together to explore new leads, review case notes, and leverage technology to find at-risk youth reported missing as runaways.

The 63 children and teens located during the first-ever rescue operation for the Albany, Schenectady, and Troy areas ranged in age from 2 to 17 years old when they were reported

missing, and from 6 to 22 when found, according to the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS). And the overall number of those safely located continued to climb, as work that was started wrapped up after the event. Williams says 71 missing children have now been located as a direct result of the rescue operation.

“These are emotional events,” says Kevin Branzetti (shown below right under quote), CEO of the National Child Protection Task Force (NCPTF), which partnered with NYSMPC on the operation and has similar recovery missions scheduled in other states.

“We know these cases can be emotional roller coasters. You see a lot of tears.”

To drive home the importance of such ventures, Branzetti and Williams point to statistics. At the end of 2024, New York had slightly more than 1,000 active missing children cases. The majority of the 12,000-plus cases annually—95 percent— are reported as runaways.

“Every missing child is an endangered missing child,” Williams says. “Our focus was the runaway population because it’s often overlooked.”

Strategic Teamwork

The Capital Region event grew out of training sessions between NYSMPC and the Arkansas-based NCPTF. “We started to think ‘Could we put all these people in the same room with the sole mission of finding kids and closing cases?’ “ Williams says.

In October 2024, NYSMPC and NCPTF spearheaded their first joint rescue operation. That venture in the Buffalo area safely located 47 children reported missing as runways. Branzetti and Clearinghouse staffers, including Williams and Cindy Neff, who recently retired as NYSMPC manager, applied lessons they learned from the Buffalo operation. Comparatively, the Capital Region operation was more complex, involving coordination among three police departments, three district attorney’s offices, and three county social services agencies, along with many other entities.

“One of the most critical components is securing full buy-in from local partners, law enforcement, social services, district attorneys, and child advocacy centers,” Neff says. “Their collaboration is essential because these operations go beyond just locating missing youth. It’s also about understanding the underlying reasons they went missing and identifying the support needed to help prevent it from happening again.” (For more on Neff see the sidebar that follows this feature.)

The Capital Region operation required months of planning and meetings to review cases with agencies and coordinate logistics. Participants were ultimately organized into four teams— two for Albany and one each for Schenectady and Troy. A pre-operation meeting was held for all the teams prior to the operation.

Each team had a similar composition: a Clearinghouse representative who acted as the organizer, a crime analyst who had access to local police records, at least one detective from the agency working the case, representatives from NCTPF and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), a probation official, someone from social services, and various other law enforcement officials. The goal was to ensure that each team had a variety of resources and skill sets, be it public records searching, tracking a cell phone, understanding social media work, or open-source intelligence. “No two police departments have the same sets of tools,” Branzetti says. “Everyone brings their tools to the game, and we get to share them.”

Adding a social services component—and having those professionals in the room prepared to go out when a child was recovered—was one of the lessons learned from the prior operation. Branzetti, Williams, and Neff note that the goal wasn’t just to find the child, but also to try to ensure the child doesn’t go missing again. “What we promote deeply is ‘Find. Listen. Help,’ “ Branzetti says. “It takes more than police to do that. It’s a society problem.”

The state’s Office of Children and Family Services coordinated with nonprofit organizations and victim assistance programs to assist the investigations and provide services and support for recovered children. “There was a whole support-service side of this ready to go and available—and put into action many times,” Williams says. If a child already had an assigned case worker, that person was notified.

A unique component was providing gift cards to ensure a child or teen had essentials, such as food, clothing, or haircare services. In some cases, the gift cards became an outreach opportunity for the social services worker to schedule a follow-up to take a teen shopping. “We wanted her to see that something is different today,” says Branzetti, whose organization secured donations to provide the gift cards. “We wanted her to understand that this isn’t the same old story. It’s about changing the trajectory.”

Additionally, the rescue operation also helps destigmatize the word “runaway.” “It’s a matter of changing the mindset of what that means,” Williams says.

“Everyone in the room is getting a better sense of the word as they work on the cases and realize that we can’t treat a runaway as ‘I’ll get to it when I get to it’ and instead say ‘Let’s make sure we’re doing something.’ “

‘Remarkable’ Collaboration

Heading into the rescue operation, the organizers didn’t have a set goal for the number of children they wanted to find. “If we can find even one missing child, that’s a positive,” Williams says. Because team members had started pre-work, some of the cases were able to be swiftly closed. A side benefit, Branzetti says, is that the rescue operation helps broaden or hone skills, and participants leave with added knowledge they can apply to their own cases. “These rescue operations turn into partial training events,” he says. “You actually may be writing a first search warrant or doing a first cell tower dump, or someone is walking you through how to track an IP address. You can’t beat that.”

The organizers also note that it’s heartening to see the camaraderie develop on the mixed teams, where members typically start out the rescue operation as strangers.

Williams says the operation proved to him how beneficial it is to bring together diverse groups. “We all tend to fall into the silo that we’re comfortable in, but we hear so many times, ‘Oh I wish I had reached out to you sooner,’ ” he says. “Sitting down at the same table, talking through cases, and sharing resources that are available is so important. Don’t be afraid to have those difficult conversations or continue to talk weekly or monthly to stay on top of things.”

For Neff, the rescue operation was a gratifying culmination to her long career. “When professionals from different agencies are brought together in the same room with a shared mission,” she says, “remarkable things can happen.”

Photo of woman (Cindy Neff) — *'Force of Nature': Cindy Neff recently retired after two decades of remarkable work.*

For Cindy Neff, the Capital Region Missing Child Rescue Operation was a fitting end to a long career of helping children. In April, Neff retired from the New York State Missing Persons Clearinghouse, where she worked for 20 years—the past 11 years as manager. “She’s a force of nature,” says Kevin Branzetti, CEO of the National Child Protection Task Force who worked with Neff on the New York rescue operations and various other initiatives.

Over the years, Neff has been a familiar face at national AMBER Alert symposiums, serving as an Associate for NCJTC-AATTAP. She also led the charge for establishing the New York State Cold Case Review Panel and developing the Find Them web application to support law enforcement working missing persons cases.

The issue of children with multiple missing episodes has always been close to her heart. In New York, about half of the missing children classified as runaways involve repeat episodes. Neff likens it to her personal experience of her mother being shuffled from one nursing home to another until she landed in a place where she was treated with compassion and dignity. Like with her mother, she feels runaway children are placed wherever there is an open bed, not necessarily where they will receive the care and services they need.

To address the issue, she helped form a statewide partnership that promotes a systems-based approach to supporting vulnerable children. This led to launching RIPSTOP (Runaway Intervention Program: Services, Training, Opportunity, Prevention), which identifies root causes and connects youth to targeted services. The hope is that RIPSTOP becomes a model for the state.

“I believe it represents the future of how we must address missing child cases: with empathy, data-driven solutions, and collaboration across systems,” Neff says. “We must reject the mindset of ‘They’re just a runaway—they’ll come back.’ Every missing child is at risk until proven otherwise, and every case deserves our full attention.”

In her immediate retirement, Neff is recharging and enjoying time with her grandchildren. She also plans to thoughtfully consider how she may stay involved in the field in the future. She encourages fellow Clearinghouse managers and AMBER Alert Coordinators to carry on the mission on behalf of missing children by setting clear goals, regularly assessing priorities, and building strong partnerships at every level. “This work cannot be done in isolation,” she says.

By Denise Gee Peacock

Our children are the heart of our communities—the keeper of our legacies. But sometimes the unthinkable happens. A child goes missing. And in those desperate moments, every second counts. So do AMBER Alerts.

Thus begins a new eight-minute AMBER Alert in Indian Country-focused video filmed in Santa Fe. It is the longest of three videos that focus on AMBER Alert being a lifeline—a rapid response system that mobilizes entire communities to help find missing and abducted quickly and safely.

In Indian Country, implementing AMBER Alert comes with unique challenges: jurisdictional rights, infrastructure and resources limitations, crime reporting complexities, and the need for cultural understanding and multiagency collaboration.

The AMBER Alert in Indian Country (AIIC) initiative—part of the AMBER Alert Training & Technical Assistance Program (AATTAP) of the National Criminal Justice Training Center (NCJTC) of Fox Valley Technical College—is a bridge meant to overcome such issues.

“We all have a role to play in protecting our children,” says NCJTC Director and AATTAP Administrator Janell Rasmussen. “By working together, we can ensure that every community in Indian Country has the resources and support they need to implement AMBER Alert effectively.”

Feathers and smudging tool for blessing the event

A Pueblo of Pojoaque smudging ceremony took place to bless the occasion and its participants.

A member of the Bravebird film crew looks out at bison en route to Santa Fe.

Female photographer monitoring drone images

Pamela Foster holds a medallion necklace showing her and her daughter Ashlynne.

Sunrise over Santa Fe.

Pueblo of Pojoaque Police vehicle on the go during the filming

A member of the Pueblo of Pojoaque Police Department answers a call for help.

Pueblo of Pojoaque Police Department sign

Filming took place on the Pueblo of Pojoaque.

Four members of Tribal law enforcement greet each other in Santa Fe

Members of Tribal police departments from across the nation greeted each other on the first day of filming.

Pueblo of Pojoaque Nathan Baron shows satellite map during meeting

Detail of Chitimacha Tribal Police patch on uniform

Deputy Chief Taylor Patterson of the Miccosukee Tribal Police in Florida answers questions during filming of the new videos.

Photographer operating a drone for aerial views of setting

Director of Photography Ashley Siana operates a drone over the Santa Fe landscape.

Photographer getting shots of bison and terrain for video setting

Film crew looking at monitor of video work while checking sound

Film crew at work talking with Jada Breaux of Chitimacha Tribe

Chitimacha Tribal Police Captain Jada Breaux sits for questions during filming.

Video participants, members of the film crew and AMBER Alert in Indian Country team members enjoy some down time.

Group of participants who helped with new video series

Following completion of the video filming, all those involved gathered for a group photo.

The goal of the new video (one of three in total) and AIIC training, is to:

Cultivate awareness and build knowledge of available resources and support systems for Indian Country.
Encourage American Indian/ Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities to implement effective response plans.
Help Tribes understand the basics of the AMBER Alert system and evaluate their community’s preparedness.
Promote the relationship-building between AI/AN, state agencies, and law enforcement.
Emphasize the need for cultural awareness in handling missing/ abducted children cases.
Build agency among AI/AN communities to take proactive measures to safeguard their children—and their children’s children.

The AATTAP-AIIC team worked with two Indigenous filmmakers who form the heart of Bravebird, a company that regularly collaborates with the nationally respected marketing firm 6 AM. (See the sidebar “Telling Stories,” below.) Both firms are based in Wisconsin, and both “were perfect to work with based on their understanding of the sensitivity of this story,” says Tyesha M. Wood, Program Manager for AATTAP’s AMBER Alert in Indian Country initiative.

“We wanted to bring together voices of child protection officials from Tribes across the nation—law enforcement leaders and others who could feel comfortable in expressing what their concerns are and how the AMBER Alert in Indian Country program has helped them. And how it can help others too,” Wood says.

The video was filmed on the Pueblo of Pojoaque reservation, known to have existed since 500 AD. The New Mexico Tribe played host to the video’s participants, who came from northern California, south Louisiana, northern Florida, and all points in between.

AIIC’s main champion in the video series is Pamela Foster, who figured prominently in the first video produced for the initiative after passage of the Ashlynne Mike AMBER Alert in Indian Country Act of 2018. Foster is the mother of Ashlynne, who on May 2, 2016, was abducted—along with her brother Ian—and murdered in a remote area on the Navajo Nation. Ian managed to escape and run several miles to seek help. But while Ashlynne’s parents made frantic efforts to locate her, misunderstandings and jurisdictional hurdles on the reservation prevented an AMBER Alert from being issued until the next day, robbing authorities of critical hours in their search efforts.

“On that day, a part of me died, and life has never been the same,” Foster says. But it also propelled her to lobby forlegislative change that would prevent another Tribal family from experiencing what hers did.

“I made a promise to Ashlynne that I would do my part to fix the loophole that exists in the system,” Foster says. “I would fight with every fiber of my being to bring AMBER Alert to Indian Country.”

The video underscores the urgency of implementing AMBER Alerts through the lens of law enforcement professionals and others working on the front lines of protecting Tribal children.

“For far too long, an epidemic has been playing out in Indian Country as it relates to missing and murdered Indigenous children, adults, wives, relatives, brothers, and fathers. And it is a monster,” says Major Nathan Barton of the Pueblo of Pojoaque Police Department.

In the video, Foster makes a direct appeal to Tribal leaders. “If you haven’t already received the AIIC training, please reach out. Thanks to Ashlynne’s law, we can work with you to establish an AMBER Alert plan,” she says. “What’s more, the training is free and accessible, and it’s adaptive to your needs. We just need more Tribal participation for this to be effective.”

After the process, Foster had this to reflect on: “Sitting with the Tribal leaders and law enforcement officials who participated in the shoot was heartening. I was happy to hear them talk about how vital it is to protect our children on and off the reservation, and they each came with a powerful message to share,” she says. “It was good to see that we are building a connection with one another, and others—and that we are committed to being supported and heard.”

ACTION ITEMS:

Learn more about how AMBER Alert can protect Tribal Visit AMBERAdvocate. org/AIIC or email [email protected] for more information.
Follow AMBER Alert in Indian Country courses online, including the comprehensive MCI-IC series.
Contact your local Tribal leaders to discuss the importance of having a response plan in place.

Photograph of five people involved in the film's production — *The Bravebird crew in Santa Fe: Director Alex Miranda (far left), Director of Photography Ashley Siana, Director of Photography James Kwan, Sound Engineer Michael Twombly, and Producer Tim Peters.*

The new video’s director, Alex Miranda, and producer, Tim Peters, are the principals of Bravebird, an Indigenous-led filmmaking group based in Wisconsin that specializes in telling the stories of Indian Country.

“For us, and our families and communities, it’s important to share our stories with care, authenticity, and dignity," Miranda says.

One aspect of their work that shines through: “The land. Mother Earth,” he says. “She helps us realize that stories such as Ashlynne’s will never be forgotten.”

Bravebird was enlisted by the 6 AM Marketing team, also based in Wisconsin, for the care the group takes with delicate subject matter.

“Aaron [Hughes] and Laura [Fernandez] at 6 AM made this very easy,” Miranda says. “Everything was well thought through. We’re so complementary in our skills with each other. That just creates a very holistic experience.”

The goal was to create an emotional hook, front and center, explains 6 AM Creative Director Hughes. “That really starts with Pamela Foster [Ashlynne’s mother]. That’s what puts everybody in their seats paying attention at the start of this because of her experience,” he says. “Everything about her makes you pay attention.”

Foster was appreciative of the care that Bravebird and 6 AM crews devoted to helping her talk through the worst thing in life she has ever experienced: Ashlynne’s abduction and murder.

Says 6 AM Account Manager Laura Fernandez, “We had to make sure from the beginning that we had a deep understanding of Pamela's story, the [AATTAP-AIIC] program and the issues surrounding it, and the importance of those we would be speaking to—to try not to create the narrative,” she says. “It was a weight of emotional importance unlike anything I've ever done.”

Hughes adds: “We all felt like we were assembling something that could profoundly alter the course of someone’s life,” Hughes says. “If one child’s life can be spared because an AMBER Alert is in place, think of the ripple effect that will have. What a tremendous gift to participate in something like that.”

By Denise Gee Peacock

Lieutenant Chris O’Keefe of the Tulsa, Oklahoma, Police Department (TPD) has a handful of cameo appearances in the reality-crime TV series “The First 48.” But off screen, the real-life search for bad actors and innocent victims has been his calling for several decades.

Much of O’Keefe’s 24-year TPD career has focused on the rapid identification and apprehension of homicide suspects and other violent criminals, most recently in the TPD’s Fugitive Warrants Unit. In April 2023 he began supervising the TPD’s Sex and Violent Offender Registration Unit, where he also serves as AMBER Alert Coordinator (AAC). As AAC, O’Keefe weighs missing child-related factors as they are known before deciding whether to contact Jason Matheson of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol to initiate an AMBER Alert in partnership with the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.

We met the De Pere, Wisconsin, native at this year’s AMBER Alert and AMBER Alert in Indian Country Symposium in Washington, D.C. We reconnected with him in Tulsa to discuss his work.

What led you into law enforcement?
I knew I wanted to get into public service, something to help people on a daily basis. Maybe I just read too many superhero comic books as a kid. But after getting a B.A. in sociology from St. Norbert College in De Pere, I did some law enforcement training at Fox Valley Technical College (FVTC) in Appleton before joining the U.S. Army. Then, when my wife was offered a job in Tulsa, I tapped into my FVTC training and Army experience to sign up for the TPD academy. I joined the organization in 2001.

How does being an AAC mesh with the other work you do for the TPD?
It’s a natural fit. An AMBER Alert is essentially a manhunt, and I’ve developed an expertise in finding people. Now I oversee the process after countless directives to “Go, go, go—find them!” I also manage the sex offender registration process, and those are the individuals we look at right away whenever there’s a missing child case.

How many AMBER Alerts do you issue on average?
In the last two years, we’ve issued about six AMBER Alerts. But I couldn’t even begin to count the number of times we’ve discussed if a missing child case should warrant an AMBER Alert, or an Endangered Missing Alert, or be addressed some other way.

What are your biggest challenges?
One involves a perception that if we don’t issue an alert, we’re ignoring the situation. But truth is, we bring plenty of resources to bear to find a child. This was a topic of conversation at the recent AMBER Alert and AMBER Alert in Indian Country Symposium. There’s a lot we can do if a case doesn’t meet our criteria—issue social media posts, work with license plate readers, ping a cell phone. The case can get resolved even quicker if we have solid information to work with right away.

What guides your ultimate decision?
I go by informed instinct, combining that with what I hear from people on the front lines—particularly the responding officers or in some cases our dispatchers, digging into what their first impression of the situation is, and whether they believe the child to be in danger. That’s why first-responder training is essential.

Do you enlist a child abduction response team (CART)?
We have a call tree of people on our incident management team (IMT) who are paged during an AMBER Alert or Endangered Missing situation, and the IMT includes a crisis unit that focuses on child molestation cases. They’re truly an organizational force. We have an AMBER Alert Center within our headquarters and the IMT will use it as its command post, manning the phones, sorting through tips, procuring resources. All the tips flow through me and I decide the priority of them. We then keep track of who we’ve sent where to check out the tip, and I organize all that. We also try to keep the family as close as possible and have a victim advocate on hand.

What types of missing child cases are the most complex?
Stranger abductions—the real nightmare ones, with no information on vehicles or suspects—are thankfully very rare. Parental abductions are the most common—and complicated. Generally, a parent can’t abduct their child if they have the legal right to be with that child, whether all the time or just some of the time. It’s only when the parent says they’re going to go harm themselves and/or the child that we immediately know it warrants an AMBER Alert.

What helps you navigate such complexities?
If there’s even a chance that a parent could hurt the child, we’ll err on the side of caution and issue an AMBER Alert. The challenge lies within the legalities. We worry about unleashing the full force of law enforcement on a parent who hasn’t committed any crime. That can result in liability issues. And that’s where our training and experience have to come into play—and asking the right questions.

Being an AAC is stressful work. What motivates or inspires you?
The times we’ve had AMBER Alerts I’m never short of help. It’s not just from the people on call; we see that every patrol officer is going to stop what they’re doing to help find the child. I also get calls from the regional sheriff’s department, Oklahoma Highway Patrol, FBI, and the U.S. Marshals. It’s amazing. I’m also grateful to have a family that’s been supportive of my work.

By Denise Gee Peacock

The 2025 National AMBER Alert and AMBER Alert in Indian Country Symposium, held February 25-26 in Washington, D.C., brought together nearly 200 state and regional AMBER Alert coordinators, missing person clearinghouse managers, Tribal leaders, and public safety officials from across the U.S. and its territories, including American Samoa, Guam, and Puerto Rico.

Presenters and speakers included more than two dozen subject matter experts in missing child investigations and rapid response teams, emergency alerting, law enforcement technology, and Tribal law enforcement. Special guests included four family survivors who shared their powerful stories—and lessons learned.

*U.S. Representative Andy Biggs of Arizona addresses attendees at the 2025 National AMBER Alert & AMBER Alert in Indian Country Symposium in Washington, D.C.*

Also there to address participants was Eileen Garry, Acting Administrator of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, and U.S. Representative Andy Biggs of Arizona’s 5th Congressional District and co-sponsor of the Ashlynne Mike AMBER Alert in Indian Country Act of 2018.

The annual collaborative learning event is funded through the DOJ’s Office of Justice Programs and administered by the AMBER Alert Training & Technical Assistance Program (AATTAP) and its AMBER Alert in Indian Country (AIIC) initiative, both affiliated with the National Criminal Justice Training Center (NCJTC) of Fox Valley Technical College.

The symposium’s goal is to engage participants in discussing current issues, emerging technology, and best practices for recovering endangered missing and abducted children. Another objective is to improve the process of integration between state, regional, and rural communication plans with federally recognized Tribes from across the nation.

For the second year we enlisted the event management app Whova to help attendees plan their days, share their thoughts, and connect with each other. In keeping with that, we’ll let participants do most of the talking as we share event highlights.

This conference is a testament to the power
of collaboration. We’re here to bridge gaps,
share best practices, and innovate.
We’re here to hear the voices of those
who have experienced the unimaginable;
to honor their strength and resilience.

Janell Rasmussen

NCJTC Director / AATTAP Administrator

Never forget the difference you make in a child's
life. Ours is hard work, and sometimes gets us down.
But remember my family’s story. And never lose your
passion for keeping children safe.

Sayeh Rivazfar

Abduction survivor/law enforcement veteran/keynote speaker

AMBER Alert and Ashlynne’s Law
both save lives. Thank you for ensuring
your communities are prepared to
respond to every parent’s worst nightmare.

Arizona Congressman Andy Biggs (Fifth U.S. District)

U.S. Representative Andy Biggs

Arizona's 5th Congressional District

I will continue to push forward and spread
awareness, particularly about Indian Country,
hoping that one day jurisdiction and sovereignty
will not play a role in the search for a child.
And that every Tribe will have a plan
in place if an AMBER Alert ever
has to be activated.

Jada Breaux

Captain, Chitimacha Tribal Police Department, Louisiana

Sayeh [Rivazfar] is an incredible mother, an incredible warrior. Hearing her story was captivating, humbling, and gut-wrenching. As a mother of two young boys, I found her story beyond impactful. It provided a tangible sense of just how urgent it was to return home and continue the work.

Kelsey Commisso

Alerts Coordinator, Arizona Department of Public Safety

AMBER Alerts: To Activate or Not Activate was my absolute favorite session. Since I’m new to my position, it really made me think!

Whytley Jones

AMBER Alert Coordinator, Louisiana State Police

I’d never heard of the ‘Baby in a Box’ case [involving Shannon Dedrick], and the ending surprised me. I loved hearing the investigative lessons learned from it.

Michael Garcia

Detective, Honolulu Police Department, Hawaii

Pasco County, Florida, Sheriff’s Office Captain Larry Kraus did an excellent job in explaining the application, effectiveness, and obstacles of OSINT. He is super-smart and relatable to those of us who may be tech-challenged.

John Graham

Investigator, Taylor County (Texas) Sheriff’s Office

Erika Hock did a great job of presenting the Charlotte Sena case. Her humility shown through, especially when sharing the searching mother’s criticisms [of their alerting process] … and how she’s looking to implement some of the mother’s suggestions.

Ana Flores

Senior Case Manager, National Center for Missing & Exploited Children

SYMPOSIUM OVERVIEW
The symposium featured 28 presentations and workshops on relevant and pressing topics within child protection—each meant to deepen attendees’ understanding of current challenges and solutions. Click here to see the full agenda and here to read the speakers’ bios.

FAMILY PERSPECTIVES

Pamela Foster: Keynote speaker (parental/ AMBER Alert in Indian Country focus)
Sayeh Rivazfar: Keynote speaker (abduction survivor/law enforcement focus)
Noelle Hunter: Presenter (international parental child abduction focus)
Desiree Young: Presenter (parental focus)

INVESTIGATIONS / RESOURCES

AMBER Alert Coordination: Essential Resources
Missing Persons Clearinghouse Managers
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children Updates
Search Methods in Tribal Communities
Tribal Response to Missing Children
U.S. Marshals Service Support for Missing Children

CASE STUDIES

“Baby in a Box” (Shannon Dedrick / Florida)
CART Response to Child Sex Trafficking (New Jersey)
Charlotte Sena Campground Abduction (New York)
Gila River Indian Community (Arizona)

ALERTING / TECHNOLOGY

AMBER Alerts: To Activate or Not Activate?
FirstNet Authority Updates & Resources (Indian Country)
IPAWS Emergency Communications Updates
Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) Analysis

CHILD ABDUCTION RESPONSE TEAMS (CARTs)

Pasco County, Florida
State of New Jersey

Bill Boldin, U.S. Marshals Service, 2025 National AMBER Alert & AMBER Alert in Indian Country Symposium

Bill Boldin, Senior Inspector/National Missing Child Program Coordinator for the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS), talks with attendees about how the USMS is helping find missing children.

Eileen Garry, Acting Administrator of the Office of Juvenile Justice & Delinquency Prevention, OJJDP, at the 2025 National AMBER Alert & AMBER Alert in Indian Country Symposium

Eileen Garry, Acting Administrator for the DOJ's Office of Juvenile Justice & Delinquency Prevention, thanks symposium participants for their child protection work.

Janell Rasmussen at the 2025 National AMBER Alert & AMBER Alert in Indian Country Symposium in Washington, DC

AATTAP Administrator/NCJTC Director Janell Rasmussen welcomes 2025 Symposium participants.

Pamela Foster, mother of Ashlynne Mike, gets a hug from U.S. Congressman Andy Biggs of Arizona at the 2025 National AMBER Alert & AMBER Alert in Indian Country Symposium in Washington, DC

Pamela Foster shares a hug with U.S. Representative Andy Biggs of Arizona's 5th Congressional District.

Arizona Congressman Andy Biggs, walks with Pamela Foster (mother of Ashlynne Mike), and Janell Rasmussen, NCJTC Director/AATTAP Administrator at the 2025 National AMBER Alert & AMBER Alert in Indian Country Symposium in Washington, DC

From left: Arizona Congressman Andy Biggs (5th District), AMBER Alert in Indian Country advocate Pamela Foster, and AATTAP Administrator/NCJTC Director Janell Rasmussen.

Ashlynne Mike, Pamela Foster, necklace, Alica Murphy Wildcatt, Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians

Knowing that Pamela Foster's daughter, Ashlynne Mike, loved butterflies, AATTAP Administrator/NCJTC Director Janell Rasmussen presented Foster with a meaningful gift. The sterling silver necklace features a butterfly with the name “Ashlynne Mike” intricately cut into its wings. The necklace was crafted by AATTAP-AIIC Project Coordinator Alica Murphy Wildcatt, a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.

Sayeh Rivazfar, Ahmad Rivazfar, The AMBER Advocate

Sayeh Rivazfar is shown with her father on the cover of The AMBER Advocate. Numerous participants were moved to share their contact information with her—and their support.

Sayeh Rivazfar, Randy Mitchell, Santa Rosa County Florida Sheriff's Office, at the 2025 National AMBER Alert & AMBER Alert in Indian Country Symposium in Washington, DC

Sayeh Rivazfar stands with a career shadowbox bequeathed to her by Florida Sheriff's Deputy Randy Mitchell. Mitchell had worked to see justice served after Sayeh was brutally assaulted and her sister, Sara, was murdered by a family friend in 1988. Mitchell was proud of Sayeh's decision to go into law enforcement.

Sayeh Rivazfar's Punky Brewster tennis shoes on evidence bag

Sayeh Rivazfar brought the blue and pink Punky Brewster tennis shoes she had on when she and her younger sister, Sara, were abducted and brutally assaulted in 1988. Sara did not survive.

Sayeh Rivazfar and unidentified female at the 2025 National AMBER Alert and AMBER Alert in Indian Country Symposium, Washington, DC

Symposium participants lined up to thank childhood assault/abduction survivor Sayeh Rivazfar—who also is a law enforcement veteran—for her moving keynote presentation.

Derek VanLuchene at the 2025 National AMBER Alert & AMBER Alert in Indian Country Symposium in Washington, DC

AATTAP Child Abduction Response Team (CART) Manager Derek VanLuchene visits with attendees before the IPAWS/emergency alerting workshop.

Dr. Noelle Hunter, Jenniffer Price-Lehmann, international parental child abduction, IPCA, Muna

AATTAP Deputy Administrator Jenniffer Price-Lehmann, left, introduces Dr. Noelle Hunter before her powerful presentation on international parental child abduction (IPCA). Hunter's 4-year-old daughter, "Muna," was illegally taken by her non-custodial father to West Africa. She ultimately was able to return home, but only after a "full court press" by Hunter and others to make that happen.

Riley Borges, William "Billy" Oku, Hawaii

Hawaii detectives Riley Borges and William "Billy" Oku share a friendly "mahalo" during a break.

Jenniffer Price-Lehmann, Brittni Farmakes, Yesenia "Jesi" Leon-Baron, Jill Nysse

Dyana Chase with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (seated center) before discussing the "Baby in a Box" case at the 2025 National AMBER Alert & AMBER Alert in Indian Country Symposium in Washington, DC

"Finding Shannon [Dedrick] renewed our sense of hope that a child could be found alive—even after five days of searching," said Dyana Chase (center), Special Agent/CART Supervisor, Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE)

Bill Boldin, left, and Byron Fassett at the 2025 National AMBER Alert and AMBER Alert in Indian Country Symposium, Washington, DC

Bill Boldin with the U.S. Marshals Service (left) talks with AATTAP Deputy Administrator Byron Fassett before the start of the symposium.

Desiree Young, mother of Kyron Horman, speaks to attendees at the 2025 National AMBER Alert and AMBER Alert in Indian Country Symposium in Washington, DC

Desiree Young—mother of Kyron Horman, missing for nearly 15 years—expresses hope that she will learn more about her 14-year-old son's disappearance from his Oregon elementary school.

Bradley Russ with Eileen Garry at the 2025 National AMBER Alert & AMBER Alert in Indian Country Symposium in Washington, DC

NCJTC Executive Director Brad Russ with OJJDP Acting Administrator Eileen Garry.

Erika L. Hock of the New York State Police discussing the Charlotte Sena case during the 2025 National AMBER Alert & AMBER Alert in Indian Country Symposium in Washington, DC

New York State Police Senior Investigator Erika L. Hock presented a study of the Charlotte Sena abduction case.

FirstNet Authority, Jasper Bruner, Angel Benally, Tyesha M. Wood

From left: FirstNet Authority's Jasper Bruner and Angel Benally join AATTAP's AMBER Alert in Indian Country Manager Tyesha M. Wood before the FirstNet-focused presentation.

2025 AMBER Alert & AMBER Alert in Indian Country Symposium

Symposium-goers filled numerous meeting rooms during the 2025 learning event.

Retired New York State Police Investigator Sayeh Rivazfar holds up one of the Punky Brewster tennis shoes she was wearing during an assault on her at age 8—a crime that also took the life of her younger sister, Sara (seen with her in the top photo, on right).

Sayeh Rivazfar’s life was forever changed on September 22, 1988. That was when her mother’s boyfriend took her, then age 8, and her 6-year-old sister Sara, from their home in Pensacola, Florida, drove them to a remote area, brutally assaulted them, slashed their throats, and left them to die. Sayeh survived; her sister did not.

While living with her father and brother in Rochester, New York, Sayeh chose to join the New York State Police. She has since retired after two decades’ work, but her child protection work continues.

“I decided early on not to let trauma take me down. I use it as fuel to help others.”

Rivazfar displayed a shadow box that belonged to Santa Rosa County (Florida) Sheriff’s Deputy Randy Mitchell. When assigned to her case, the new father was outraged over the pain inflicted on her and her sister. He and Rivazfar kept in touch over the years. “He was proud of my law enforcement career,” she said.

Then, in 2012, shortly before he died of cancer, she received a package from him—his “career in a box,” including his badge and shield, along with a poignant letter. “It means the world to me, as he did.”

*Rivazfar with Randy Mitchell, who bequeathed her his “career in a box” (right).*

Dr. Noelle Hunter and her daughter "Muna" — *Dr. Noelle Hunter with her daughter “Muna”*

On New Year’s Day 2011, Dr. Noelle Hunter’s worst fear was realized: Her ex-husband had illegally taken their 4-year-old daughter to live in his home country of Mali, West Africa.

Thus began the college professor’s quest to have Maayimuna (“Muna”) returned to her—after nearly three years of “full-court press” work.

It’s now her mission to help others navigating the complex mire of international parental child abduction (IPCA).

As an AATTAP/NCJTC Associate, she also helps law enforcement understand how to best respond to IPCA cases. They also should understand this: “All abductions are local. The response a parent gets from that first call for help means everything.”

**Click here to learn more about Dr. Hunter’s story—and a poignant encounter she had with a Maryland State Trooper**.

Pamela Foster: ‘Indian Country Needs AMBER Alert’

Pamela Foster and her late daughter Ashlynne Mike — *Pamela Foster with daughter Ashlynne.*

Pamela Foster—the mother of Ashlynne Mike, namesake of the Ashlynne Mike AMBER Alert in Indian Country Act of 2018—was introduced to Symposium attendees by U.S. Representative Andy Biggs of Arizona’s 5th Congressional District. Biggs worked with Foster, and Arizona Senator John McCain to ensure passage of “Ashlynne's Law” two years after her 11-year-old daughter’s abduction and murder on the Navajo Nation reservation in 2016.

The Act provides numerous resources to Indian Country to bolster Tribal knowledge, training, technology, and partner collaboration to ensure children who go missing from Native lands can be found quickly and safely.

“Those of you in Tribal law enforcement, if you haven’t already received training, please schedule it as soon as possible,” Foster said. “We need law enforcement on Tribal land to share information with outside agencies so they can quickly apprehend criminals. Every child has the right to feel safe and live life to its fullest, and my fight is based on what I have experienced as a mother and a parent. I don’t ever want what happened to me to happen to another person.”

Foster’s powerful presentation was a gift to all who experienced it. Then she was given a gift—which provided another moving moment.

Read about Pamela's message, and the gift in honor of Ashlynne, here.

❖ Marshal More Support

*U.S. Marshals Service Senior Inspector Bill Boldin (left) with AATTAP Deputy Administrator Byron Fassett*

“We’re good at hunting down fugitives. We’re now putting that toward finding missing children. It’s not something we’re known for. But we want to focus our efforts on kids with the highest likelihood of being victimized, of facing violence.” – Bill Boldin, Senior Inspector/National Missing Child Program Coordinator, U.S. Marshals Service (USMS)

Proven track record: From 2021 to 2024, 61% of missing child cases were resolved within seven days of USMS assistance.

❖ Model CARTs

Photo of Stacie Lick — **Leading by example:** Read more about retired Captain Stacie Lick's CART success.

“Mandates are pathways to support.” – Stacie Lick, Captain (Ret.), Gloucester County (New Jersey) Prosecutor’s Office

Having a dedicated, well-trained child abduction response team (CART) is essential to finding a missing child, using all available resources, when every minute counts. But symposium-goers know that building and sustaining a CART are significant obstacles for agencies with slim staffs and budgets.

The CART experts from New Jersey and Florida who shared advice at the symposium have spent nearly two decades overcoming those challenges by thinking creatively and strategically, such as getting buy-in for the expansion of New Jersey's CARTs after the high-profile Autumn Pasquale case in 2012. Or by having a well-thought-through staffing and resource plan, one that can be applied multi-jurisdictionally.

As a result of Captain Stacie Lick’s efforts to compile CART best practices for Gloucester County, New Jersey now mandates that all 21 of its counties have an active CART that follows standardized policies and procedures, and learns from mandatory after-action reporting. In 2008, as Lick was building Gloucester County’s CART, she was greatly inspired by the Pasco County, Florida, Sheriff’s Office (PCSO) Missing Abducted Child (MAC) Team.

Each MAC deploys with a command post with a lead investigator assigned to it. It also has coordinators assigned to these critical tasks: leads management; neighborhood/business canvassing and roadblocks; sex offender canvassing; resources oversight; volunteer search management; search and rescue operations; logistics; public information and media relations; crime scene management; legal representation; analytics; and cybercrimes/technical support. A family liaison and victim advocate will also be on hand to provide valuable assistance.

MODEL MANUALS
Many of the best practices used by the New Jersey and Pasco County, Florida, CARTs can be found in two newly updated, downloadable CART resources—one on implementation and the other on certification—both produced by AATTAP.

❖ Maximize Messaging

Law enforcement technology consultant Eddie Bertola provided several updates related to the Integrated Public Alert & Warning System (IPAWS) overseen by the Federal Emergency Management System (FEMA).

Illustration of FEMA's Message Design Dashboard advantages for IPAWS — *IPAWS’ new Message Design Dashboard provides templates to help law enforcement save time and ensure alerting consistency. It also offers message previews and testing.*

The IPAWS portal that law enforcement uses to request AMBER Alerts now has a more streamlined interface. And within that is the new Message Design Dashboard (MDD), “an intuitive structure taking message crafting from 15 minutes to five minutes,” Bertola said.

MDD features drop-down menus that provide access to essential information that can be provided in a consistent manner and allow best usage of the 360-character limit within varied templates. It also can check for typos and invalid links and allow for easier message previews and system testing.

In other messaging news, another development is the Missing and Endangered Person/MEP Code, which was discussed in both the IPAWS workshop and updates session hosted by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC).

Approved in August 2004, the addition of the MEP code to the Emergency Alert System (EAS) will enable law enforcement agencies to more rapidly and effectively issue alerts about missing and endangered persons by covering a wider range of ages and circumstances than AMBER Alerts alone. MEP alerts will utilize the same infrastructure as AMBER Alerts, thus allowing for widespread dissemination through various media channels.

❖ Intelligence Gathering

*Captain Larry Kraus* *of the Pasco County* *(Florida) Sheriff’s* *Office, Research* *& Analysis Division, led the OSINT discussion.*

Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) analysis is the leveraging of data from publicly available communication sources such as social media apps, messaging boards, gaming platforms, and the dark web. This research complements more traditional law enforcement databases (criminal databases, LInX, LeadsOnline) and can yield more real-time clues.

Bad actors are increasingly digital obsessed—and inadvertently work against themselves by taking photos and videos with geolocations and time stamps—while leaving other digital breadcrumbs.

OSINT analysts requires continuous training on ever-evolving information-sharing channels. They need to understand how to avoid gleaning intelligence that can be challenged in court (and potentially weaken public trust). All the while they have to battle data overload from the sheer volume of information that needs assessing.

It’s imperative that agencies hire professionals capable of navigating such complexities, Kraus said of intelligence analysts, whom he calls “the unsung heroes of law enforcement.”

FINDING LOST PERSON BEHAVIOR
“I can’t believe I didn’t know about the Lost Person Behavior resource,” one attendee said on Whova. Mentioned during Pasco County’s CART workshop, “LPB,” as its known for short, refers to the science- and data-based research of Dr. Robert J. Koester, whose field guide-style book outlines 41 missing persons categories and provides layers of behavior a person in each classification will likely follow.

❖ Welcoming U.S. Territories

Partners from American Samoa, Guam, and Puerto Rico traveled numerous time zones to attend this year’s symposium. “They really appreciated getting to meet their counterparts in the States,” said Yesenia “Jesi” Leon-Baron, AATTAP Project Coordinator for International/Territorial Programs *(shown fourth from left)*.

❖ DNA: 'Give People Back Their Names'

In his “Genetic Genealogy” presentation, crime scene forensics expert Ed O’Carroll cited several ways to “give people back their names,” adding “crime is more solvable than ever before.”

• Look afield: Re-open a case involving a long-term missing person, or one with unidentified human remains, and let the growing realm of reputable DNA labs help solve a crime once thought unsolvable. “Our labs are overworked, so we need to find more ways to use private ones,” O’Carroll said.

• Be a “genetic witness”: Encourage people on the genealogy sites GEDmatch and AncestryDNA to opt in to giving law enforcement a broader field of DNA samples to consider when trying to pinpoint someone who may have committed a violent crime. “As many of us know, CODIS only gives a hit about half the time we use it.”

• “Prevent tomorrow’s victim by solving today’s case today,” O’Carroll said. Know the latest technology, including Rapid DNA, an FBI-approved process that can provide a scientific correlation in as little as 90 minutes.

❖ Decoding Alerting Decisions

911 illustration — **NEW COURSE OF ACTION:** AATTAP’s new course, 911 Telecommunicators and Missing & Abducted Children (aka “911 T-MAC”) is a must for public safety telecommunicators and members of law enforcement who face public calls for help. Look for online and in-person training opportunities here.

This was the second year for AATTAP Region 1 Liaison and alerting veteran Joan Collins to teach the popular class designed to help attendees analyze real-world cases of missing children and AMBER Alert requests, noting the key factors within the criteria that determine when an alert is issued; evaluate AMBER Alert effectiveness by comparing case details with activation criteria and assessing factors that influence decision-making; and propose improved response strategies.

Collins’ style is to amiably pepper participants with more than a dozen widely varying missing child scenarios, often throwing daunting updates into the mix. Participants responded using the Poll Everywhere app, which tabulated their responses in real-time on a large viewing screen.

“The alerting sessions instill confidence in new AMBER Alert Coordinators as well as seasoned ones,” Collins said. “The scenarios spark vigorous discussions, and networking with fellow AACs underscores the fact that they all go through the same process, even if criteria may differ.”

By Jody Garlock

Red Lake, Minnesota, set on the idyllic shores of one the state’s largest lakes, is typically a tranquil community. But on March 15, 2024, it bore witness to an unfathomable chain of events. The sirens of fire trucks and police cars echoed throughout the Red Lake Nation’s towering pine and birch trees as first responders raced toward a one-story home from which smoke was billowing.

Tragically, emergency responders found two young boys with knife wounds inside the house; both boys died. The area was a crime scene, and agents from the FBI and Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) were among those who joined the investigation.

Red Lake Police authorities would also soon learn that a third child lived at the house. Three-year-old Ethan Stately, authorities realized, was missing and feared to be in danger, taken by his mother (who also was the mother of the two other boys).

Although the Red Lake Department of Public Safety had never before initiated an AMBER Alert, Department Director Kendall Kingbird Sr. and Lieutenant Geoff Pierre sensed how dire the situation was. “We had to get it solved and find our missing boy and mother,” Kingbird says. “And we needed to do that as soon as possible.” The AMBER Alert that followed would be the first one issued for any Minnesota Tribe.

Photos of Ricky Wuori and Janell Twardowski with the Minnesota BCA as well as the AMBER Alert poster for Ethan Stately. — “With this AMBER Alert, we hit all the components,” says Minnesota AMBER Alert Coordinator Janell Twardowski (right), who worked on the case with BCA Assistant Special Agent in Charge Ricky Wuori (left) and others.

The case’s participating law enforcement agencies consider the collaboration a textbook example of an AMBER Alert response. From the beginning, state, Tribal, and federal partners coordinated efforts and shared information. The FBI immediately partnered with the Red Lake public safety department and BCA—responsible for issuing AMBER Alerts in Minnesota—and avoided communication silos to ensure resources were aligned and deployed. And the on-site presence of BCA Assistant Special Agent in Charge Ricky Wuori, alongside FBI agents and Red Lake officers, facilitated rapid decision- making and an efficient, unified response.

The AMBER Alert itself solidly met all of the criteria. There was an abundance of information: the mother’s and child’s photos, a picture of the vehicle, the complete license plate number, and a distinctive Red Lake Nation tag. The alert also provided enough descriptive information to prompt a motorist who had seen the AMBER Alert to call authorities. “He spotted the vehicle, confirmed the license plate, and called 911,” says Janell Twardowski, AMBER Alert Coordinator (AAC) with the BCA’s Operations Center. “With any AMBER Alert, we’re relying on the public to respond, and that’s exactly what happened in this case.”

Less than two hours after the statewide AMBER Alert was issued around 9 p.m., authorities acting on the motorist’s tip pulled over the mother’s vehicle on a Minnesota highway. The toddler was safe inside, but showed signs of neglect. The mother, Jennifer Stately, was arrested and has since been federally charged with various counts of murder, arson, and child neglect. (An indictment alleges that Stately fatally stabbed one of her boys and slashed the other before setting the house on fire and fleeing with Ethan. She has filed an insanity defense.)

The Red Lake Nation, one of the state’s 11 federally recognized Tribes, has full sovereignty, subject only to the federal government. (It’s one of two Minnesota Tribes exempt from Public Law 280; therefore state courts/government have no jurisdiction.)

The fact that Kingbird and Pierre made the swift decision to initiate the department’s first-ever AMBER Alert stems in part from a trusted relationship with Wuori, who works out of the BCA’s regional office in Bemidji. “They have assisted us with a lot,” Kingbird says.

Wuori credits ongoing communication as key to building trust between agencies. “When you have a good relationship, it’s easier to get things moving,” he says. “It’s constant communication—stopping in and checking on everybody from time to time, not just when you need something.” Tribal investigators regularly meet with BCA agents, and BCA has held training specific to AMBER Alerts. Additionally, over the years, Minnesota’s Tribal communities have received ongoing training and support from the AMBER Alert Training & Technical Assistance Program (AATTAP) and its AMBER Alert in Indian Country initiative, which are funded by the U.S. Department of Justice and supported by the Ashlynne Mike AMBER Alert in Indian Country Act.

As Minnesota’s AAC, Twardowski points to similar relationship-building needed to ensure an AMBER Alert reaches as many people as possible. She credits the state’s media with timely stories and the state’s transportation department with posting roadside alert messages. “As an agency, we are committed to leveraging our partnerships to reach as many Minnesotans as possible,” she says.

In the aftermath of the incident, an outpouring of emotion filled the Red Lake community. A walk of remembrance and candlelight vigil were held to honor the 5- and 6-year-old brothers who died. Yet despite the profound grief, displays of hope and strength emerged. “We’re a tight-knitcommunity,” Kingbird says. For him, the tragedy instilled confidence in the AMBER Alert process. “We couldn’t have asked for a quicker response and a better outcome,” he says. “We’re glad the child was located, and it wouldn’t have been possible without an AMBER Alert.”

By Jody Garlock

Working on behalf of children has been the crux of Shelly Smitherman’s 28-year career with the state of Tennessee. Early on, she investigated abuse cases for the Department of Children’s Services in Nashville.

Later, as a drug agent with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI), she was assigned to help search in the case of Holly Bobo, a nursing student whose abduction and murder led to the state expanding TBI’s Endangered Child Alerts to include persons over the age of 18. But it was when she began working as an agent in the TBI’s Criminal Intelligence Unit that she saw firsthand the impact of AMBER Alerts.

In her first case involving a missing child, a TBI AMBER Alert for a 15-year-old girl kidnapped by her 50-year-old teacher sparked a nationwide search. Public tips ultimately led to the teen’s safe recovery in California. “I feel like we had the whole nation looking for this child,” Smitherman says of the 2017 case.

Later that year, Smitherman became Tennessee’s AMBER Alert Coordinator (AAC) and Assistant Special Agent in Charge overseeing TBI’s Missing Persons Unit, a position she has held for eight years.

“I’ve always been passionate about working investigations when children are in danger,” she says of her varied roles.

Nearly three decades into her career, that passion hasn’t changed. But the processes have, as technology dramatically shifted alerting and investigations. “I remember a time when intelligence meant writing information on a spreadsheet on a piece of paper,” Smitherman says.

It’s been five years since The AMBER Advocate talked with Smitherman, so we caught up with the law enforcement veteran to discuss changes and challenges. As it happens, she had spent the previous day issuing an AMBER Alert in a case involving a noncustodial parent who had threatened to harm his 2-year-old; the girl was safely recovered. “It’s a reminder of the importance of agencies working together for one goal,” she says.

How has the process of issuing an AMBER Alert changed in the past five years?
In the past five years, we have definitely improved the process to request an AMBER Alert from local agencies. We now have a digital request form—the “push-packet”—that can be completed on scene from a cell phone or computer. The form contains all of the essential information that we will need to rapidly issue the alert. We provide training to local agencies across the state on a regular basis to ensure agencies are equipped before a child goes missing in Tennessee.

What are some specific advancements that are helping after an alert is issued?
One of our biggest advancements is license plate readers (LPRs). Those have been a game-changer for us if there’s a vehicle involved in locating a missing child. They also give us access to find a vehicle in a different state. Microsoft Teams has been another game-changer. We can put criminal intelligence, a suspect’s driver’s license, criminal history, and the AMBER Alert poster in a Teams chat and everybody gets that information in real time. Even someone on the ground in the middle of “Nowhere, Tennessee” can have access to real-time intelligence.

Luring is a growing issue due to more children using social media. How are you addressing this in your state?
The majority of our Endangered Child Alerts—we have about 40 a year—are kids meeting with someone they met online. Luring is going to be a continued problem as long as kids have cell phones or ways to access social media. There’s no way to control it. Kids don’t understand the risks of talking to a complete stranger until maybe they’ve met up and they’re put in danger. We’re always steps behind in an investigation that involves social media because the apps and platforms they use change every day. We have to figure out ways to find them quicker, and that’s the hard part.

On the flip side, how does TBI use social media to its advantage?
One thing we do is issue alerts through Bitly. On average, about 800,000 people view them on social media. Having 800,000 people helping us look for that missing child—we definitely want that help. With that many people looking, we’re going to find the child faster.

What about any accomplishments—what makes you proud?
I’m really proud of TBI’s role in missing children investigations. We don’t stop after we issue an AMBER Alert. We’ll have at minimum 10 to 20 agents assisting on the case. Everybody stops what they’re doing and helps. Our crisis team is obviously involved. We’ll also have the criminal investigations, criminal intelligence, and cybercrime units assisting. And our Child Abduction Response team (CART) responds statewide to all AMBER Alerts. [TBI’s CART program is certified by the U.S. Department of Justice.]

What advice do you have for fellow AACs?
It’s really important for AMBER Alert Coordinators, especially new ones, to get to know the coordinators in surrounding states. I have a good relationship with the other state coordinators in our Southeast Region. We share and discuss information and ideas with each other. Tennessee is connected to so many states, so having contacts where I can reach out at any time has been a great tool. So often, I need assistance from another state during an alert, and being able to call someone I met at AATTAP [AMBER Alert Training & Technical Assistance Program] meetings or the National Symposium for help is truly an advantage and saves so much time getting to the right person in another state.

How important has your networking been?
So often, I need assistance from another state during an alert, and being able to call someone I met at AATTAP [AMBER Alert Training & Technical Assistance Program] meetings or the national symposium for help is truly an advantage. It saves so much time getting to the right person in another state, especially when time is of the essence.

What would you like local law enforcement agencies to know?
Reach out. If an agency isn’t sure if something meets the AMBER Alert requirements, call and we’ll talk it through. Sometimes local agencies may take steps—such as interviews and surveillance—that could be done after we issue the AMBER Alert. That’s time where something could have gone in a bad direction for the child, and it puts us behind in getting the public’s help to search. Every second counts, so reach out.

Photo of a man holding a small girl outside in darkness, with trees visible in background. Caption for photo reads: Bienville (Louisiana) Parish Deputy Sheriff Jeremy Gros holds the 10-year-old after she was found safe in the woods. Gros was the first rescuer seen on the drone footage. The grateful child hugged him after he helped her up from the ground, where she had been sleeping. She returned home safe—and, according to authorities, also hungry. Photo credit reads: (Rescuer) Webster Parish Sheriff’s Office — A thermal imaging drone (top left) helped rescuers locate a 10-year-old girl who had sleep-walked her way into the dark piney woods near her North Louisiana home. Bienville (Louisiana) Parish Deputy Sheriff Jeremy Gros was the first rescuer to reach Peyton Saintignan (shown sleeping, top right, and with Gros at bottom). Photos: Webster Parish (Louisiana) Sheriff’s Office

By Jody Garlock

On the afternoon of Sunday, September 15, 2024, a call came into the Webster Parish Sheriff’s Office (WSPO) in Minden, Louisiana: 10-year-old Peyton Saintignan was missing.

The girl had seemingly vanished while sleepwalking. This was something she had reportedly done inside her Dubberly home (35 miles east of Shreveport), but she had never left the house. Family members and neighbors had already spent an hour searching for the brown-haired girl, who was last seen at bedtime the previous night. With dense woods and dangerous wildlife such as wild hogs and rattlesnakes in the area, authorities knew that bringing Peyton to safety required quick action.

As the Sheriff’s Office dispatched its resources, the Louisiana State Police issued a Level II Endangered/Missing Child Advisory—a notification of a child believed to be in danger, but whose case doesn’t meet the criteria for an AMBER Alert.

The intensive 10-hour search that ensued brought together numerous law enforcement agencies, Homeland Security, and hundreds of volunteers. Tracking dogs, off-road vehicles, a helicopter, and aerial surveillance drones were all activated. But it would be a drone equipped with cutting-edge thermal technology that saved the day—and the girl.

At around 10:30 p.m. that evening, the operator set up his specialized equipment and onward and upward the drone went. Remarkably, within about 20 minutes, the drone’s ability to detect heat signatures was penetrating what by then was extreme darkness—and zeroed in on Peyton in the piney woods.

The riveting rescue footage that went viral showed the pajama-clad girl curled up on the ground and then waking as rescuers approached her in the woodsy terrain.

Local and national media alike recounted the happy ending. “Other than some mosquito bites, she was perfect,” Webster Parish Sheriff Jason Parker told ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “It’s truly a miracle.”

The case spotlights not only the importance of enlisting emerging technology to find missing children, but also the need to engage the public: The drone operator who spotted the girl had traveled from out of state, volunteering his services after hearing the breaking news about the search.

Photo of a man sitting on an outdoor chair and looking down at a drone control in his hands; he is sitting by a pickup truck that has its gate down and a flat-screen TV in the bed of the pickup. Photo credit reads: (Sheriff/drone operator) Webster County Sheriff’s Office — Josh Klober, co-owner of Drone Management Services in Magnolia, Arkansas, operates the equipment he volunteered for the search. Photo: Webster County (Louisiana) Sheriff's Office

Heat of the moment

In neighboring Arkansas, Josh Klober, who co-owns Drone Management Services in Magnolia, was watching a Sunday football game at his home when reports of the massive search in north Louisiana spread across the region. Knowing his drone’s thermal-imaging camera could detect body heat with pinpoint accuracy, even in areas obscured by dense woods, the father of two felt compelled to make the 90-minute drive to the search area.

Klober offered his assistance and waited until authorities gave the go-ahead after a search helicopter finished its work. He set up his equipment, which included a generator and a large flat-screen TV to monitor the drone footage in real time from the bed of his pickup truck. It was parked in the vicinity of where a hunter’s trail camera had earlier captured an image of the wandering girl.

His strategy at piloting the drone was simple: Think like a child. “There’s big, wooded areas around, but I’m trying to think like a 10-year-old,” Klober told Arkansas’ KNWA-TV. His hunch was that a child (albeit one who was sleepwalking) may not stray too far from the road, so he decided to contain his search within 40 yards of it.

Less than 30 minutes in, Klober could see a hot spot, which upon zooming in, revealed an image of the girl lying on the ground. The location was about 1 ½ miles from her home and 300 yards from where the trail camera recorded her.

Video footage shows how initial claps turned to silence when authorities gathered around the pickup truck realized the girl wasn’t moving. Klober kept the drone’s spotlight on her to guide rescuers to the exact location. As the TV screen showed Bienville Parish Deputy Sheriff Jeremy Gros making his way to her, the girl slowly raised her head. A joyful cry of “She’s awake!” was followed by claps from the group around Klober’s truck who were witnessing the rescue in real time.

After the rescuer lifted her up from the ground, the grateful girl put her arms around his waist in a hug. “It was pretty emotional for everybody,” Klober told “Inside Edition.”

Grateful community

The viral video of the rescue garnered thousands of comments from people impressed with the precision of the drone’s thermal-imaging technology that cut through the dense, dark forest.

They also praised rescuers, including Klober, who was singled out as a hero. “Drone operator deserves a medal!” one person commented on YouTube. “How altruistic of him to take it upon himself to rush over, dedicate his time and effort.” “Citizens helping other citizens—that’s how it’s done!” said another person.

The WPSO used its Facebook page to update the public on the story and express gratitude to Klober, Drone Management Services, and the agencies and volunteers who helped search forand safely recover Peyton.

While Klober stated in a local news interview “there’s a little bit of luck involved” in any type of drone search. “But whether someone else found her, or we found her,” he said, “I’m just glad she was found.” Sheriff Parker appeared more pragmatic about the recovery operation, praising it as a “truly cooperative effort.”

By Jody Garlock

Fred Rogers’ famous advice to “look for the helpers”—intended to steer children toward safety in times of chaos or tragedy—has endured for decades. And Morrissa Ahl-Moyer definitely falls into the category of a helper. Her 20-plus years in public safety took her from being a volunteer first responder, to a 911 telecommunicator, and now, Director and Clearinghouse Manager of the North Carolina Center for Missing Persons (NCCMP), a division of the state’s Department of Public Safety based in Cary. The NCCMP receives more than 10,000 missing persons reports annually.

“I’ve always been a helper of sorts with my career choices,” says Ahl-Moyer, whose job includes being North Carolina’s AMBER Alert Coordinator (AAC). “For me now, it’s getting to make sure troopers and dispatchers have what they need.”

Since stepping into her role in June 2023, Ahl-Moyer has stepped up NCCMP’s training, including working with law enforcement authorities to ensure they understand the state’s AMBER Alert process and the online portal.

Her outreach during her first year on the job included hosting a missing persons resources class in her hometown of Dunn, North Carolina, where she started as an EMT. To her surprise, more than 200 officers and public safety personnel showed up for the event.

“It confirmed I was on the right track,” Ahl-Moyer says. “It’s training we need, and we need to do more of it.”

That message is something she champions whether she’s training law enforcement or participating in or attending state and national conferences.

We caught up with Ahl-Moyer when she was in another form of helper mode: voluntarily working night shifts at a communication center to lessen the load on 911 telecommunicators handling calls after Hurricane Helene’s destruction in western North Carolina.

Telecommunicators tend to be overlooked in the [AMBER Alert] decision-making process, but they can be the best source of information. They’re truly the ‘first’ first responders—the ones who get the initial call when a child goes missing. And often they have the knowledge to say, ‘Hey this might fit the criteria for an AMBER Alert.’

Morrissa Ahl-Moyer Director/Clearinghouse Manager, North Carolina Center for Missing Persons

How does having 911 telecommunicator experience inform your AMBER Alert Coordinator (ACC) work?
As a telecommunicator who answered after-hours calls for NCCMP, I had a basic knowledge of how the alert process worked, the criteria, and the information needed before we contacted the AMBER Alert Coordinator for approval. I also recognized a knowledge gap. Most of the agencies had never requested an AMBER Alert before and weren’t sure of the process. This was further exacerbated when there was a transition from faxing forms to an online portal. I’ve been working to ensure everyone knows how the process works.

How do you help people understand AMBER Alerts and other endangered missing advisories?
Training is everything. It’s vital in our line of work. That’s why I’ve conducted sessions at symposiums, the state’s 911 Conference, local law enforcement agencies, communication centers, and more. Doing so gets important information out to those who need it the most. I go over the basic criteria for issuing an AMBER Alert and give them an overview of the process. Beyond discussing the essentials, getting out and meeting people gives me the chance to say, “Here’s my cell phone number. Even if you think a case doesn’t meet our AMBER Alert criteria, let’s talk about it.”

After transitioning from 911 to ACC did you experience any challenges?
Understanding the technical side of IPAWS [Integrated Public Alert & Warning System] was an initial hurdle. Luckily, one of the on-call team members is a guru and has helped me learn more about it. In my previous role, we would only do the EAS [Emergency Alert System]—and we were done. I’ve now realized that it’s so much deeper than that. I’m still learning it all.

What’s new with NCCMP in terms of projects you’re working on?
One project is that we’re in the building phase of a missing child repository. It will update weekly from the NCIC [National Crime Information Center] files, but it also gives me the option of real-time manual entry. If a missing child doesn’t meet AMBER Alert criteria, I can put the word out and it will send a media notification. It will increase awareness when every minute matters. It’s a first for our state, and I’m excited about it.

What issues regarding missing children concern you the most?
Human trafficking is a major problem. I really was blinded to it before coming into this role. It’s scary to see how easy it can be to end up in trouble, especially when there are so many at-risk young people across the nation. Online enticement is another growing concern. I’m also seeing that 15-year-old minority females are reported missing more than any other demographic, which needs more of our research and understanding.

Calling All 911 Telecommunicators

AATTAP’s course, 911 Telecommunicators and Missing & Abducted Children (“911 T-MAC,” for short) is essential not only for law enforcement and public safety telecommunicators but also for any members of law enforcement and support staff who address public calls for help.

The interactive training session equips 911 telecommunicators with needed skills and resources by:

Analyzing real cases to recognize various types of missing child incidents and how they are reported.
Exploring optimal practices using systems and standards from the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) and the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO ANS 1.101.4-2022).
Addressing resilience-building strategies to cope with emotionally demanding cases.

The course represents a full update of AATTAP’s “Telecommunications Best Practices for Missing and Abducted Children” (TELMAC) class, which launched in 2010 as both a classroom offering and as a self-paced online class.

The 911 T-MAC class launched this past fall in Appleton, Wisconsin, where more than 60 telecommunicators from around the country attended the pilot training session.

“The amount of information presented during the class was perfect,” one participant said. “It was all presented in a way that wasn’t overwhelming, but engaging and easy to understand.”

The class will be offered in person and online starting this spring. Watch for training opportunities at bit.ly/911tmac.

By Denise Gee Peacock

While searching for their missing child, parents carry a heavy load—assisting law enforcement, rallying media and public interest in the case, and working to keep food on the table—all while not completely unraveling. But another group of family members is also struggling: the missing child’s siblings.

As sibling survivor Trevor Wetterling recalls, “People would always ask, ‘How are your parents doing?’ And I’d think, ‘What about me? Don’t they care how I’m doing?’ ” Meanwhile, he says, “I’d come home from school, and everyone was sitting around being quiet. No one would tell me what was going on.”

Like other sibling survivors, Trevor’s feelings stem not from self-centeredness, but from a need to validate his own trauma, his own sense of worth.

Trevor is the brother of Jacob Wetterling, an 11-year-old who was kidnapped at gunpoint by a masked man in 1988. Trevor was with Jacob when the abduction occurred, making the ordeal even more traumatic. The Wetterling family spent nearly three decades searching for Jacob until 2016, when his killer divulged to law enforcement where the boy’s body could be found. This, of course, came as another blow.

Trevor and his sisters, Amy and Carmen, are three of 16 sibling survivors of missing children willing to talk candidly about the challenges they faced—and sometimes continue to reckon with. If struggling siblings are lucky, they’ll find support from well-trained professionals. If they’re even luckier, they’ll find strength from those who truly understand their needs: Fellow survivors—whom Zach Svendgard calls “our chosen family.”

Zack is the brother of Jessika Svendgard, an honor student who, at age 15, left home after receiving a bad grade. Alone and vulnerable, she was lured into the hands of sex traffickers until she could break free from her abusers. Zack appreciates Jessika’s strength—and works to share it. “The world is a heavy thing to try to balance all on our own shoulders,” he says. “But powerful things can happen when kind people are enabled to take action.”

The action these siblings have taken is helping update a comprehensive resource for children going through similar struggles: the multimedia guide, What About Me? Finding Your Path Forward When Your Brother or Sister Is Missing.

The new 98-page What About Me? is the second edition of a guide first published in 2007. It was spearheaded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) / Office of Justice Programs (OJP) of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). Its development was overseen by the AMBER Alert Training & Technical Assistance Program (AATTAP) / National Criminal Justice Training Center (NCJTC) of Fox Valley Technical College.

Contributors to What About Me? bring clarity to the complex needs siblings face: Children in families with missing siblings can’t easily process what they’re experiencing. They aren’t hearing the particulars from law enforcement. They aren’t trained to respond to an intrusive or hurtful question from the media. They don’t know how to navigate their frayed family dynamics. And they need help.

The guide provides tangible ways that siblings of missing children can handle stress, the investigative process, and media interactions. It also can help them express their needs to their loved ones and family advocates, and find helpful resources during either a short or prolonged period of uncertainty, fear, and grief.

What About Me? features the voices and perspectives of eight sibling contributors while weaving in advice from seven other siblings who participated in the first edition. It also reflects the expertise of DOJ/AATTAP/NCJTC subject matter experts, child/victim advocates, and relevant, credible U.S. agencies that can help.

The sibling contributors have survived vastly different experiences: Some have missing siblings who were kidnapped by strangers or abducted by family members, while others have siblings who ran away or were lured away from home. Some of their siblings were found safe and returned home. One contributor is herself a victim of a horrific abduction and assault—in which her younger sister was murdered. Others have siblings whose whereabouts still remain unknown, or they were found deceased.

Click here to access a PDF of this advice from the sibling survivors. Share it with anyone searching for a loved one.

To produce What About Me?, OJJDP/OJP tapped the AATTAP publications team led by Bonnie Ferenbach, and NCJTC Associate Helen Connelly to coordinate the project. The group also played key roles in updating When Your Child Is Missing: A Family Survival Guide, released in 2023.

Connelly is a longtime advocate for missing children and their families. In 2005, while serving as a senior consultant for the U.S. Department of Justice, Connelly and Ron Laney, then Associate Administrator of OJJDP’s Child Protection Division, teamed up to produce the first-ever sibling survival guide, What About Me? Coping With the Abduction of a Brother or Sister, published in 2007.

“Through Helen and Ron’s vision and compassion, this guide, as well as numerous other resources, have provided support, encouragement, help, and resources needed by so many families,” says AATTAP Administrator Janell Rasmussen.

With Connelly’s encouragement, past and present sibling contributors participated in writing the guide because they recognize shared pain—and potential dilemmas. “Trauma, if left untreated, can manifest itself in harmful ways later in life,” says sibling contributor Heather Bish.

The sibling survivors who worked on the updated resource valued the chance to collaborate with others in “the club nobody wants to belong to,” says Heather, who contributed to both editions. “But our experiences are special,” adds contributor Rysa Lee. “We have the tools that can help others.”

Sibling survivor / guide contributor Rysa Lee — **Watch** the sibling survivors discuss their stories and **read** their advice to others.

At the project’s start, the siblings met virtually before gathering in person in Salt Lake City in January 2024. There, they bonded, and wholeheartedly shared their experiences and advice on camera for the new edition’s companion videos. “Working with the other siblings of missing persons left me shocked at the outcomes they had; in some way, they each had answers,” says contributor Kimber Biggs. “It was comforting to know that getting answers is even possible.”

Content talks continued, and the guide began to take shape. Then, on May 22, 2024, a powerful two-hour roundtable was held at OJJDP offices after the National Missing Children’s Day ceremony in Washington, D.C.

The siblings agree that “there is no right or wrong way to survive, it is just our own,” Heather says. “We hope that sharing our experiences will empower other siblings to forge ahead, and possibly empower someone else to do the same.”

Each of the sibling contributors discussed their lives now as social workers, teachers, and counselors. Contributor Sayeh Rivazfar has dedicated two decades of her life to serving in law enforcement, investigating crimes against children, before her retirement two years ago.

Sayeh doesn’t think of herself as a victim or survivor: “It’s more than that. I see myself more as a thriver, despite the odds.” She credits this to the love and support she has received over the years from family members, friends, and caring professionals.

“A guide like this would have been so helpful to us,” she says. “But we hope that now, with its help, with our help, children can know they are not alone. That we care about them, and want them to thrive too.”

Rysa adds another positive take. There is light to be found in the darkness of tumult, she says. “Siblings do come home, and my family is living proof.”

New guide’s sibling contributors

Kimber Biggs, sister of Mikelle Biggs (Arizona) Kimber was 9 when her 11-year-old sister, Mikelle, was kidnapped on January 2, 1999, while riding her bike near their family’s Arizona home. Mikelle was never seen again. Since then, Kimber has spent 25 years advocating on her sister’s behalf. Through the Facebook page Justice for Mikelle Biggs, Kimber shares updates on Mikelle’s case to more than 29,000 followers. Also, since late 2023, Kimber has worked as an AATTAP- NCJTC Associate, providing her powerful family perspective to investigators learning how to best work with victims’ families in missing persons cases. “It has taken a lot of work and therapy to get to the place I am today,” she says. She also remains hopeful that her sister’s case will be solved. “A new detective has been assigned to what was a very cold case,” she told attendees at the 2024 National AMBER Alert and AMBER Alert in Indian Country Symposium. “The fact that he’s eyeing a significant suspect in the case makes it feel like something is finally happening.”

Rysa Lee, sister of Maayimuna “Muna” N’Diaye (Alabama) Rysa was 14 when her 4-year-old sister, “Muna,” was abducted by her biological father to Mali, West Africa, on December 27, 2011. Rysa and Muna’s mother, Dr. Noelle Hunter, began a relentless campaign to bring “Muna” home—which thankfully occurred in July 2014. Since then, the family has tirelessly advocated on behalf of international parental child abduction (IPCA) cases via the organization they founded, the iStandParent Network. While her sister’s IPCA case was relatively short, “that year and a half was by far the most difficult and longest time of my life,” Rysa says. “To this day, I have never felt as empty and distraught as I felt during that time. The fact that my youngest sister was across an ocean and not in the room next to me sleeping every night was incredibly painful.” Rysa found comfort in high school band and color guard participation, listening to music, “and leaning on my friends to cope.” She currently works in banking and attends the University of Alabama in Huntsville, where her mother, an assistant professor of political science, oversees the International Child Abduction Prevention and Research Office (and contributed to the Family Survival Guide).

Cory Redwine, brother of Dylan Redwine (Colorado) On November 18, 2012, Cory was 20 years old when his 13-year-old younger brother, Dylan, traveled to stay with their father on a scheduled court-ordered visit. The next day his father would report Dylan as missing. The teen’s whereabouts remained unknown until 2017, when his father was convicted of second-degree murder and child abuse in Dylan’s death. Before then, Cory and his family spent nearly a decade searching for Dylan. They have since spent years seeking justice for him and educating others about the legal loopholes in parental custody issues that can prove deadly. (Cory and Dylan’s mother, Elaine Hall, is now an AATTAP/ NCJTC Associate who discusses her family’s case with law enforcement; she also contributed to the Family Survival Guide.) Cory recalls the court process being “long and arduous; it brought up so many emotions for me. But it also made me realize that I am stronger than I thought I was, that my voice and words are powerful,” he says. Now a father of two, Cory finds it an honor to helps adults facing difficult situations. “My experience, different as it is from theirs, allows me to help them through challenging times and come out better on the other side.”

Sayeh Rivazfar, sister of Sara Rivazfar (New York) After her parents’ divorce in 1985, Sayeh and her younger siblings had “child welfare officials in and out of our home due to physical and mental abuse at the hands of our mother and others,” Sayeh says. “Unfortunately, [our mother] thought having men in our lives would help us. But her boyfriends weren’t all good. In fact, one changed our lives forever in the worst way imaginable.” In the middle of the night of September 22, 1988, one of those boyfriends took the sisters from their home, drove to a remote area, brutally assaulted both girls and left them to die. Sayeh, then 8 years old, survived. Sara, age 6, did not. “From that day forward, I felt guilty for surviving and had dreams of saving my sister from this nightmare,” Sayeh says. “I was determined to bring her killer to justice.” Thankfully she was able to do just that. She and her brother, Aresh, moved to Rochester, New York, to live with their father, Ahmad (now a nationally known child protection advocate and Family Survival Guide contributor). Sayeh’s passion to help others, especially children, inspired her to join the New York State Police force, from which she recently retired after two decades of child protection and investigative work. She now focuses on being a good mother to her son. “I’m proud of the work I’ve done, and even prouder of the children I’ve helped,” she says. “The story never ends, but it can have a better ending than one might think.”

Heather Bish, sister of Molly Bish (Massachusetts) On June 27, 2000, Heather’s 16-year-old sister, Molly, went missing while working as a lifeguard. Molly’s disappearance led to the most extensive search for a missing person in Massachusetts history. In June 2003, Molly’s remains were found five miles from her home in Warren. While the investigation into her sister’s murder continues, Heather uses social media to help law enforcement generate leads and “share her story—our story,” she says. Heather was supportive of her parents’ work to create the Molly Bish Foundation, dedicated to protecting children. “I carry that legacy on today,” she says. She has filed familial DNA legislation for unresolved cases and advocates for DNA analyses for these types of crimes. She also has served on the Massachusetts Office of Victim Assistance Board and was part of the state’s Missing Persons Task Force. “As a mother and a teacher, my hope is that children never have to experience a tragedy like this.”

Zack Svendgard, brother of Jessika Svendgard (Washington) In 2010, Zack’s younger sister, Jessika, first ran away, and then was lured away from their family home near Seattle. As a result, the 15-year-old became a victim of sex trafficking. It took 108 days for Jessika to return to her family and get the help she needed, Zack says. “Her recovery in many ways was just the beginning. In many ways the broken person who came home was not the little girl who had left.” Jessika’s ordeal has been featured in the documentaries “I Am Jane Doe” and “The Long Night.” She and her mother, Nacole, have become powerful advocates for victims of sex trafficking and instrumental in passing legislation to increase victim rights, issue harsher punishments for sex offenders, and shut down websites that facilitate sex trafficking. (Nacole is an AATTAP/NCJTC Associate who provides her family perspective to law enforcement; she also contributed to the Family Survival Guide.) “We’ve joined organizations such as Team HOPE [of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children/NCMEC] to provide counseling to others, and are ourselves committed to therapy and self care.”

Amy & Carmen Wetterling, brother of Jacob (Minnesota) On October 22, 1989, Amy and Carmen’s brother, 11-year-old Jacob, was abducted at gunpoint by a masked man while riding his bike with his younger brother, Trevor, and a family friend. His whereabouts were unknown for nearly three decades, but on September 1, 2016, Jacob’s remains were found after his killer confessed to the crime. Jacob’s abduction had an enormous impact—not only on his family, but also on people throughout the Midwest, who lost their sense of safety. Amy, Carmen, and Trevor have been inspired to help others by their mother, Patty Wetterling. Patty has shared countless victim impact sessions with law enforcement across the U.S. (many of them AATTAP/NCJTC trainings). She is co-founder and past director NCMEC’s Team HOPE, co-author of the 2023 book, Dear Jacob: A Mother’s Journey of Hope, and a contributor to the Family Survival Guide. “Jacob inspires us every day,” Amy says. “He believed in a fair and just world, a world where all children know they are special and deserve to be safe.” Adds Carmen, “Jacob believed that people were good. And he lived his life centered on 11 simple traits.”

Additional contributors:
Learn about the siblings who shared their advice for the 2007 first edition of What About Me? Coping With the Abduction of a Brother or Sister here.

Sibling contributor Sayeh Rivazfar—a retired 20-year veteran of the New York State Police—with her son. [Photo: MaKenna Rivazfar] — Sibling contributor Sayeh Rivazfar—a retired 20-year veteran of the New York State Police—with her son.

Helpful advice for the helpers

What About Me? includes a detailed section of guidance relating to law enforcement and judicial processes. It also provides tips for navigating traditional media and social media. Consider these insights from the sibling contributors.

During a law enforcement investigation

Siblings “may have a law enforcement officer with little or no experience with a missing children case, seems uncomfortable and distant, or someone who jumps in with both feet,” says Sayeh Rivazfar. The retired law enforcement professional is the survivor of a heinous crime against her and her sister, Sara, who did not survive. “If you want to talk to a different officer, speak up,” Sayeh advises.
Children are especially confused by law enforcement’s intrusion upon their home and being asked what seems like invasive questions. Help them understand that this is normal—either directly or with the help of a family/child advocate.
“Just because you don’t hear about progress doesn’t mean they’re not making any,” one sibling notes. Try to schedule regular check-in calls with the family. Let families know that while law enforcement is unable to share every detail of the investigation, they can strive to apprise the family of their progress while keeping lines of communication open and productive.
If children are expressing anger toward their parents, emphasize that “your parents are still your parents, they still love you, and they care about your feelings—even if they can’t show it right now,” contributors say.
Be prepared for such questions as:
»How do I handle phone calls during the search?
»How should we handle our missing sibling’s social media and email accounts?
»Can I still go into my sibling’s room?
»Will we get their belongings back?

Working with traditional/social media

There’s no such thing as “off the record,” contributors say.
To foster quality reporting “find the journalist who provides compassion and truth, and give them an exclusive interview,” Sayeh advises.
With nonstop anonymous, uniformed sources on social media, tell children to “be prepared for positive and negative running commentary,” Rysa Lee says.
Propose potential answers (in italics) to commonly asked media questions that often make children uncomfortable:
»Do you think your sibling is still alive? I hope so.
»What happened? I don’t know, and I don’t want to talk about it with you.
»Was your sibling sexually abused? I don’t know, but it’s not something I want to discuss.
»How does this situation make you feel? I don’t want to talk about my feelings right now.

Medford Township, New Jersey, Police Chief Arthur Waterman discussing CART training/certification in Burlington County

Burlington County, New Jersey, CART certification preparation

Burlington County, New Jersey, Prosecutor Lachia Bradshaw regarding CART certification preparation

By Denise Gee Peacock

AATTAP Child Abduction Response Team (CART) Assessors James Holmes, Stacie Lick, Vonyale Montgomery, and Lead Assessor/CART Manager Derek VanLuchene (in neon vests) can be seen working with multiple law enforcement agencies from Burlington County, New Jersey, during a large-scale training exercise to strengthen responses to missing and endangered children incidents.

Nearly 100 members of law enforcement joined in the exercise “to enhance their knowledge of how to handle cases involving our most vulnerable populations,” said Burlington County Prosecutor LaChia Bradshaw.

“The training was designed to be a worst-case scenario involving a missing boy who suffers from epilepsy,” reported Fox 29. “Following protocol, the investigation gradually ramps up to a full-scale activation of CART,” one involving about 30 actors.

Burlington County is expected to be the fifth team in New Jersey to receive CART certification from the U.S. Department of Justice with AATTAP/NCJTC's help.

“This is definitely an excellent educational experience for all our personnel,” noted Medford Township Police Chief Arthur Waterman.

“Thank you to Fox 29 for reporting on the excellent work being done by Burlington County to bring together partners to prepare to respond to missing and abducted children,” said AATTAP Administrator Janell Rasmussen.

>> Watch the story here! https://www.fox29.com/video/1550356

My dearest Ashlynne,

Here’s wishing you what would have been your 20th birthday today — November 13, 2024.

Instead of writing out your card like I always did, today I will cherish our special moments while wishing you a happy birthday.

Tears of joy flow as I remember the day you were born. It was on a beautiful autumn sunset, the leaves of the trees clinging on to the branches and the sun casting its last golden rays through the hospital window. The sunray lit up our room, telling me another star was born and what a special gift you would be.

As I travel down memory lane, I sigh, I smile and I cry, knowing that heaven gave me the best 11 years that I could ever ask for. And today, Ashlynne, we who loved you honor your beautiful life, and we send you our sweetest memories and birthday wishes to you in heaven.

For those who did not know Ashlynne, here’s what I would tell you about her. She was such a creative spirit. For one thing, she was musically gifted. She loved the xylophone and piano, and she played those in her school assemblies every chance she had. She also was a natural born artist who won awards for her paintings.

In addition to those gifts, she was smart, shy, and kind-hearted. Her favorite food was spaghetti. Her favorite colors were yellow and purple. And for these and so many other reasons, her friends adored her.

Ashlynne’s desire to spread happiness extended to our farm, where she loved taking care of her animals. She had cats, dogs, and chickens. She was very special to everyone, and everything, she touched.

That’s why her loss has broken so many of our hearts. But that also has emboldened us.

Ashlynne was 11 years old when she was abducted and murdered on the Navajo Nation on May 2, 2016. A series of jurisdictional hurdles delayed the search for her, and because of that I worked tirelessly to ensure no other child, or their family, would need to face the same tragedy as ours endured. It was vital that Tribal lands improve training and access to the AMBER Alert system across this country.

The first realization of that dream came on April 13, 2018, when “Ashlynne’s Law” (S. 772) was officially signed into law as the Ashlynne Mike AMBER Alert in Indian Country Act of 2018. Ashlynne’s Law now helps Tribal communities develop programs to safely recover endangered missing or abducted children. So much has been accomplished, while there is a great deal left to do—and a lot of support to make that happen.

I take pride in knowing that, and think Ashlynne would too. And to Ashlynne I say, your presence is so deeply missed. But your love and influence continue to touch so many lives. I believe that is the best birthday gift we can give you.

HAPPY 20th birthday, my darling girl. But to me, you will be Forever 11.

With eternal love,

Mommy

Banner of Ashlynne Mike promoting the Ashlynne Mike AMBER Alert in Indian Country Act of 2018 — Editor’s Note: All of us within the AMBER Alert Training & Technical Assistance Program and AMBER Alert in Indian Country Initiative are forever indebted to Pamela Foster for her ongoing efforts to help law enforcement respond quickly and effectively when a child goes missing in Indian Country.

Photo of two women standing near the U.S. Capitol.

Photo showing the seal of American Samoa

AATTAP Project Coordinator Derek VanLuchene speaks to a group of child protection professionals in American Samoa

Photo of a woman sitting at a table, with other people behind her, listening in a classroom setting in American Samoa.

Participants shown at tables, with their heads bowed in prayer, during the AATTAP visit

Group portrait of AATTAP meeting attendees in the Northern Mariana Islands.

Customs and Border Protection members attend the AATTAP workshop in the Northern Mariana Islands.

Gold challenge coin for the Governor of Guam and AMBER Alert pin.

Group of AATTAP leaders gathered with Guam representatives

Photo of people sitting at a table listening to a AATTAP Administrator Janell Rasmussen, standing behind a podium in Puerto Rico.

Photo showing exterior of police headquarters in San Juan, Puerto Rico

Photo of 20th Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico,Jenniffer González-Colón, speaking at an event.

Photo showing the screen of a laptop, people in a classroom setting, and a larger screen at front of a classroom; both screens show the opener for a “Child Sex Trafficking Case Study.”

Group of AATTAP leaders with law enforcement professionals involved in the Northern Border Initiative, in Bonners Ferry, Idaho

Photo of three men and a woman sitting around a table talking with AATTAP in Canada.

Photo of a computer screen showing 25 squares with a person or name of someone attending a virtual meeting.

By Denise Gee Peacock

The United States’ 14 territories—three in the Caribbean, 11 in the Pacific—play a key role in ensuring our collective national security. In turn, the U.S. ensures each homeland has the security it needs to protect its own—especially its children. That’s because the need for AMBER Alerts resonates in every language.

In the past 30 years, AMBER Alert programs have helped law enforcement safely recover 1,200 missing children. Those successes—and lessons learned from not having plans and resources in place to quickly mobilize when a child goes missing—have prompted other countries to seek guidance from the AMBER Alert Training & Technical Assistance Program (AATTAP).

As a U.S. Department of Justice initiative, the AATTAP—part of the National Criminal Justice Training Center of Fox Valley Technical College—provides free training and technical assistance to U.S. territories, Indian Country, and other countries with Department of Justice (DOJ) funding. Trainings improve law enforcement’s response to cases of endangered missing and abducted children. They also address endangerment dynamics that often are not well understood: high-risk victims, children in crisis, and the commercial sexual exploitation of youth.

Since all U.S. territories are islands, careful consideration of weather is always in play, with hurricanes and typhoons threatening both travel and infrastructure.

AATTAP’s work with each territory includes first conducting high-level needs assessment meetings to learn and understand the important considerations unique to each territory’s cultural, geographic, and technological needs and challenges—to ensure these dynamics are addressed in training and resource efforts. AATTAP’s Child Abduction Response Team (CART) training is also delivered to key partners who will be part of their comprehensive response.

“Each territory’s capabilities and needs can be very different, so we spend the bulk of our time initially listening and learning about the issues they face,” says AATTAP Administrator Janell Rasmussen. “Puerto Rico, for instance, has an AMBER Alert Coordinator and AMBER Alert system in operation. But that’s currently not the case in American Samoa, Guam, or the U.S. Virgin Islands. They’re all at very different places in terms of how they’re responding to cases involving missing children.

“Geographically some of the islands are closer to other countries than they are to us, so these issues have to be considered before we prepare training plans for them,” Rasmussen explains. “Our work has to be developed to address the specific problems they face—whether it’s child sex trafficking or a lack of resources, such as high-speed Internet access.”

Many territories, for instance, do not have access to Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEAs) or the Internet Public Alert & Warning System (IPAWS). They also lack road signs for public alerting. Additionally, “their children are often taken to a different country, which adds a whole new layer of complexity for collaboration and contact expectations,” Rasmussen explains.

Knowing this, AATTAP leaders and subject matter experts have flown tens of thousands of miles to ensure U.S. territories’ needs can be met. “It’s important they know we offer the same level of training and technical assistance as we do in the States.”

Here are some of the regions where AATTAP partnerships are helping save lives.

American Samoa, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands

From the U.S. mainland, travel to American Samoa, Guam, or the Northern Mariana Islands in the south-central Pacific Ocean requires nearly 24 hours of flying time. American Samoa, for instance—the only inhabited territory south of the Equator—is 2,200 miles from Hawaii to the northeast, and 1,600 miles from New Zealand to the southwest.

For nearly two years, the federal government has been working to uphold National Defense Authorization Act provisions that ensure U.S. territories have the training and technical assistance needed to protect their citizens and children. This includes challenges related to integrating and facilitating AMBER Alert programs.

In February of this year, the team conducted two days of needs-assessment meetings in Pago Pago, American Samoa. Then in July, the team visited Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands to do the same.

As is the case on the U.S. mainland, each needs-assessment meeting involves facilitated discussions about law enforcement procedures, the territory’s needs for fully and quickly investigating missing child incidents, their emergency messaging capabilities, and ultimately what AATTAP training and technical assistance they would like to have.

Reception to the visits was warm and enthusiastic. Often present were U.S. congressional delegates, local and federal law enforcement and telecommunicators, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) dedicated to child protection.

“Our partners are appreciative that we’re willing to go to great lengths to work with them where they live,” says AATTAP Project Coordinator Yesenia “Jesi” Leon-Baron, who manages territorial, international, and Southern/Northern Border Initiatives. “Doing so helps us see what their challenges are in safely recovering endangered and missing children.”

This support is a lifeline to the islands. As Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) Department of Public Safety Commissioner Anthony Macaranas told the Saipan Tribune, “One of our biggest challenges is that we’re far away from the United States mainland.” Thus, creating or strengthening AMBER Alert plans will help the CNMI build relationships with key members of law enforcement “and help us progressively move forward,” he said.

One case in the Northern Marianas that people would like to see resolved involves missing elementary-school-age sisters Maleina and Faloma Q. Luhk, who mysteriously disappeared while waiting for a school bus near their home in May 2011.

“All of these things we’re getting [from the AATTAP and others] are to prepare us, and the long-term plan is to finally sit down and come up with a strategic plan” on implementing AMBER Alerts, Macaranas said. “It involves a lot of manpower, data, and of course funding … but in the end, we’re going to have this program here.”

Trafficking “is one of the greatest crimes imaginable,” said High Chief Uifa’atali Aumua Amata Coleman Radewagen of American Samoa. To address that, James Moylan of Guam co-sponsored the Combating Human-Trafficking of Innocent Lives Daily (C.H.I.L.D.) Act of 2023, which raises convicted child traffickers’ mandatory minimum jail time from 15 to 25 years.

“Before we left American Samoa, the Governor’s Office presented each of us with a framed ‘warrior’s weapon’—calling us warriors for the missing and abducted children in the territory,” Leon-Baron says.

Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico is the only U.S. territory with an AMBER Alert plan and program coordinator fully in place at the time of this reporting. Their ongoing goal is to continually refine their existing plan and provide a coordinated and sustainable law enforcement response.

AATTAP has been involved in ongoing assistance with Puerto Rico since holding the first in-person training session there in January 2023. Team members delivered the Child Abduction Response Team (CART) training, along with Rescue, Recovery, and Reunification field-training exercises for CART members and other law enforcement in Puerto Rico.

In May 2024, the AATTAP team returned for a needs assessment visit to discuss Puerto Rico’s ongoing challenges, emerging trends, and the training and technical assistance needed to bolster response readiness.

Puerto Rico’s law enforcement leaders intend to continue CART training, Leon-Baron says. They also plan to participate in such courses as AMBER Alert Activation Best Practices (AAABP), Initial Response Strategies & Tactics When Responding to Missing Children Incidents (IRST), and Search and Canvass Operations in Child Abductions (SCOCA).

Southern Border Initiative (Mexico) and Northern Border Initiative (Canada)

AATTAP’s well-established Southern Border Initiative (SBI) is focused on building preparedness for effective response to cases of endangered missing and abducted children in Mexico and the U.S. through cross-border collaboration and planning. Meetings AATTAP has held with federal and state partners in the last two years have underscored the impact of this type of collaboration.

The most recent meeting—held August 1 in Chula Vista, California (across the border from Tijuana, Mexico)—drew more than 100 law enforcement and NGO members who rely on cross-border collaboration to bring missing children safely home. AATTAP piloted a full-day version of its Cross-Border Abduction training, with some participants leaving their homes at 2 a.m. to attend, Leon-Baron says.

AATTAP Associate David Camacho recalled the impact of the event: “We were thankful to have them all there; they had amazing questions, and we reviewed them carefully.”

One conversation “was tough to even consider,” Leon-Baron says. “Some shared with us that in Tijuana, there’s a movement to allow a child of age 9 to consent to sex.”

This is one of many cultural issues that need to be addressed, Leon-Baron says. “We know their laws and judicial processes do not mirror ours. But what does align is our shared commitment to collaboration and cooperation. Thankfully state and federal U.S. and Mexico law enforcement, are developing critically important working relationships.”

The power of relationship-building was especially apparent at an Alerta AMBER Regional Conference in Monterrey, Mexico, hosted by the DOJ’s Overseas Proprietorial Development Assistance and Training Section (OPDAT) in late August 2023.

Mexico's Alerta AMBER for baby Angela was quickly broadcast throughout the country.

As the three-day conference began, a 1-year-old girl, Angela, was abducted August 28 after her parents were murdered during an invasion of their Ciudad Juarez home.

Yubia Yumiko Ayala Narvaez, Regional Coordinator of the Gender-Based Violence Unit/Chihuahua North Prosecutor’s Office, and Mexico’s National AMBER Alert Coordinator, Carlos Morales Rojas, were at the conference. They worked together to release national and state alerts for Angela.

Media and public response to both alerts came swiftly. (See photo above.) By the next day, the kidnappers, likely aware the case was receiving national attention, abandoned Angela in a Ciudad Juarez doorway. A woman found the infant and immediately called 911. And less than 30 hours after the issuance of the state AMBER Alert, the child was safely recovered.

“Narvaez and Rojas met for the first time as they arrived for the conference. This was just one of so many examples of how incredibly important regional events like this are to the ongoing work to build preparedness for effective response to cases of endangered missing and abducted children—in Mexico and the U.S.—through cross-border planning,” Leon-Baron says.

AATTAP’s Northern Border Initiative (NBI) also relies heavily on collaboration between Canadian provinces’ child protection officials and U.S. counterparts. Like Mexico, Canada also has Tribal components. “But the dynamics are different,” Leon-Baron explains. The professionals’ work often involves family abductions of children, either taken into or out of one country to another.

AATTAP visits have included Canadian AMBER Alert Coordinators and members of both the U.S. Customs & Border Patrol, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and Tribal law enforcement (such as the St. Regis Mohawk Police Department). And the next NBI event—a focus group meeting—was held this September in Bonners Ferry, Idaho.

Serbia and Argentina

One of AATTAP’s highest-profile international endeavors was working with officials from the Bureau of Narcotics and International Law Enforcement (INL) and the Republic of Serbia to help that country launch its AMBER Alert-style program “Pronadji Me” (“Find Me”) in June 2023. The AATTAP-INL-New York-Virginia team also advised Bosnia-Herzegovina on their AMBER Alert-style plan.

The meeting, held at the U.S. State Department in Washington, D.C., also featured insight from Virginia and New York child protection officers. Virginia State Police AMBER Alert Coordinators Sergeant Connie Brooks and Lieutenant Robbie Goodrich outlined how their state AMBER Alert activations are decided and disseminated. Additionally, New York State Police AMBER Alert Coordinator Erika Hock, New York State Missing Persons Clearinghouse (NYSMPC) Manager Cindy Neff, and NYSMPC Investigative Supervisor Timothy Williams participated virtually to discuss their state’s AMBER Alert program requirements.

In March 2024—nine months after the U.S. meeting—Serbia activated its first “Find Me” Alert after a 2-year-old girl Dana Ilic disappeared in the town of Bor. Television and radio stations interrupted their programs to share details about Dana, including the time and place of her disappearance, and her clothes and age. Citizens also received SMS (short message service) alerts.

“Though Serbia’s first AMBER Alert sadly did not result in Dana’s safe return, the country is learning from the alert’s implementation, which will help other children who go missing,” Rasmussen says.

Serbia’s "Find Me" Alert is modeled on U.S. AMBER Alerts.

Although in-person meetings are always preferred, virtual meetings do have their advantages. Consider AATTAP’s one-day CART Virtual Instructor-Led Training with Argentina—an event in which AATTAP collaborated with the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children.

“The response was overwhelming,” Leon-Baron says. “We had hundreds on our call, with many more wanting to join.” AATTAP’s next trainings with Argentina were in October.

Dominican Republic, U.S. Virgin Islands, and beyond

Meetings with child protection and government officials in the Dominican Republic and U.S. Virgin Islands have been delayed due to hurricanes, but the AATTAP planned to visit this fall.

“Our work is really just beginning,” Rasmussen says. “Now that we’ve assessed the territories’ needs, we plan to go back and help them get their AMBER Alert programs where they need to be. There is a lot of training ahead—focusing on on investigative strategies, first responders, search and rescue teams—and all of it will be informed by the geographical and cultural considerations that we have seen firsthand.”

Rebecca Sherman contributed to this report.

AI-generated photo illustration of two boys in a swampy forest using a cell phone to find help — *Staff illustration*

By Rebecca Sherman

David Boots, Battalion Chief of the Denton, Texas, Fire Department, was at home listening to radio communications when the call went out. It was 8:30 p.m. on June 5, 2024, and the sun was beginning to set. Two teenage boys on bikes were stranded deep inside Denton’s Greenbelt Corridor, a 20-mile, heavily forested nature trail connecting the Ray Roberts Dam with the headwaters of Lake Lewisville.

Chief Boots felt a knot in his stomach. He knew the area well; the department had rescued hikers who had become lost on the trail before, but this time was different. Storms earlier in the week had created treacherous flooding conditions that forced the closure of the Greenbelt.

Getting the teens out in the dark would be difficult and risky, not only for them, but also his rescue teams. Worse still was the news that high winds and torrential rains would soon be barreling in from Oklahoma. “A flooded greenbelt is not a good place to be during a storm,” Boots says.

One photo showing Denton, Texas, Fire Department Battalion Chief David Boots. The other photo showing a flooded section of the north Texas Greenbelt Corridor. — Top left: Denton, Texas, Fire Department Battalion Chief David Boots. Top right: A flooded section of the north Texas Greenbelt Corridor.

Thankfully one of the teens had a cell phone with him. And the Denton Police Department had access to what3words, a revolutionary new geolocation tool.

A Call for Help

The boys’ day had begun well enough, with sunny skies accompanying them on their morning ride to the lake. But after wheeling onto the Greenbelt trail, bypassing closure barriers, they found themselves in dire straits. They had lost their bearings trying to navigate around impassable, and at times impossible to see, pathways to safety. They had no real sense of where they had meandered, or the danger they were in, and needed to be located and brought to safety quickly. Their lives were in danger.

“They got down into swampy water—deep at times—and muddy, with logs covering the trails,” Boots says. The boys had been there for hours. “One of their cell phones went dead,” Boots continues. “When the sun went down, they were well into the Greenbelt and surrounded by water. They knew they were in trouble.”

When the boys called 911, the Denton Police Department Dispatch Center enlisted what3words technology to immediately pinpoint their precise location—as well as the best route to find them. That data was then forwarded to rescue teams.

In the past, the Denton Police Department relied solely on triangulated pings from nearby cell phone towers to get a general idea of where to find missing individuals when mobile devices were involved. And while they could also request helicopter assistance, such resources take time to deploy. Thus, the location data provided by what3words has proven to be invaluable, says Suzanne Kaletta, Assistant Director of Public Communications for the City of Denton. The app’s accuracy has been “a game-changer” since they began using it in 2022, Kaletta says. It has shaved hours from searches involving difficult terrain.

Harrowing Rescue Mission

Racing against time, Boots led more than 20 rescuers who were deployed to find the teens. “We put an ATV in at the halfway point between the lakes, but it couldn’t get to them,” he says. “Another team in an inflatable boat had to paddle the creek upstream to try to get close enough, but debris blocked the way.” The team abandoned the boat and set out on foot, in the dark and through deep, snake-infested waters.

In the summer heat, the rescuers were “soaked to the bone and sweating so much they had trouble holding onto their phones for navigation,” Boots recalls. A drone crew attempted to guide their way, but the forest’s dense tree canopy below made it difficult to spot them.

Rescuers reached the teens at around 11:25 p.m., some three hours after their call to 911. They were hot, wet, tired, and scared—and their ordeal was far from over. A journey with rescuers leading the way back to the boat through swampy floodwaters and nighttime conditions still lay ahead. So did the storm’s approach from the north.

Everyone was on edge as they did the mental countdown of when it would hit. “We knew we had an hour; then just 30 minutes,” Boots says. “We finally got them out with 15 minutes to spare. It was unnervingly close.”

And this much is certain: Without the geolocation assistance from what3words—coupled with the tenacity and skill of the North Texas emergency responders—the boys may not have made it out of the woods.

Photo of boy with arms wrapped around rescuer as he is carried from a pond. Caption for photo reads: The child clung tightly as Deputy Wes Brough carried him to safety. Brough received an email from the boy’s out-of-state relatives who watched the rescue footage. “They said that they could tell how thankful he was by the way he touched my face,” Brough says. — The child clung tightly as Deputy Wes Brough carried him to safety. Brough received an email from the boy’s out-of-state relatives who watched the rescue footage. “They said that they could tell how thankful he was by the way he touched my face,” Brough says.

Photo of Volusia County, Florida, Sheriff's Deputy Wes Brough — Volusia County, Florida, Sheriff's Deputy Wes Brough

By Jody Garlock

Deputy Wes Brough has been in law enforcement for what he matter-of-factly describes as “a crazy” five years. In that short time with the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office in DeLand, Florida, he has worked AMBER Alerts, saved a teen who was contemplating jumping off a bridge, and, most recently, been hailed a hero for rescuing a missing 5-year-old boy with autism.

In the latter case, the dramatic body-cam footage of Brough running into a large pond to carry the missing child to safety put him in a national spotlight after the video went viral—and showed how dangerously close the story was to a sad outcome.

That August 2024 day remains fresh in his mind. Brough (pronounced “Bruff”) was on routine patrol in Deltona (in east-central Florida) when a 911 call reporting the child missing came in—a call he and other officers were able to hear in real time thanks to a new telecommunication system.

Brough was first on the scene, followed shortly by another officer who helped search the family’s house to confirm the boy wasn’t there. Dispatched officers soon arrived and the search area expanded.

After hearing of a possible sighting of the child behind a nearby home, Brough’s autism awareness training kicked in. Knowing that area had wooded wetlands and that children with autism are drawn to water, Brough took off running. Hurling tree debris and calling the boy’s name as he approached a nearby trail and pond, the breathless deputy would momentarily stop to look for any signs of movement in the water or footprints on the swampy ground.

At first Brough didn’t see any signs of the child. But then the boy, who is nonverbal, made a noise, likely after noticing Brough through the trees. The deputy ran toward the sound, and after spotting the boy in the pond, yelled, “I got him! I got him!” as he ran into the near-waist-high water where the 5-year-old was holding on to a branch. He would soon cling safely to Brough as they made their way back to land. There, as darkness neared, medics checked the boy’s health before he was reunited with his frightened family. The swift recovery was completed about 20 minutes after the 911 call that reported the child missing.

We talked with Brough about the incident and the lessons it may hold for others in law enforcement.

How does it feel to be called a hero?
That’s a big title honestly—especially when anybody in my position would have done the exact same thing. I’m very honored, but I’m staying humble and giving the glory to God for helping me do the right thing in the right moment.

What type of training helped prepare you for such an incident?
We have critical incident training when we come through the sheriff’s office, and it focuses on different types of behavior. We also go through autism awareness training which includes meeting with children with autism and their families who live in our community; it’s very in depth. It covers the dangers a child with autism can face, and understanding the biggest cause of death: drowning. That’s a big factor here in Florida, where there’s so much water. We learn how to interact with children with autism and the different levels of the autism spectrum. We also look at different scenarios that we in law enforcement might face, whether it’s responding to a runaway child or a suspicious person. You never know when the person you’re interacting with may have autism, so being aware, and picking up on social cues, is important.

Are there ways to better engage the public about missing autistic children?
There’s always room for more communication between an agency and the public, especially on a subject like this. An easy way is through social media posts. Also, parents should be encouraged to never hesitate to call 911 if their child goes missing. The boy’s family did a wonderful job of calling as soon as they heard the alarm on their door go off. We’d rather have the call get canceled on the way to search for a missing child instead of being 20 minutes behind the curve.

What lessons did you learn that others could apply—what are your takeaways?
One, a lot of good work gets done when you stay calm under pressure. And two, it’s important to have a sense of urgency. Too often complacency can kick in; you think a missing kid may be at a friend’s house or hiding in a shed. You might walk rather than run. When I picked up the log the boy was holding onto in the water, it broke in half. It was only a matter of time before it broke while he was holding on to it, or that he went out deeper into the water. Hindsight is 20/20, but I’m glad I had the sense of urgency to run from the road to the pond. It was moving with a purpose. There can’t be hesitation when the priority is someone’s life.

By Denise Gee Peacock

National Missing Children’s Day has long been a lodestar for families of missing children—a safe harbor for gathering with child protection professionals who on that day are recognized by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) for being at the top of their game.

This year that star shone brighter than ever, largely fueled by the unwavering advocacy work of nearly a dozen surviving family members—including parents and siblings—who have endured the nightmare of a missing child, brother, or sister. Their presence at the May 22 commemoration, and related events, was deeply moving—despite the fact that “all of us belong to a club that no one ever wants to belong to,” says parent survivor Ahmad Rivazfar.

That club’s members include parents and siblings desperate to find their missing loved ones, whose whereabouts remain unknown. They are also families who will forever grieve a child who was abducted, sexually assaulted, and murdered; families of children illegally taken out of the country by an estranged parent; families who have fortunately been reunited with their once-missing child, but now work to become whole again.

These family survivors’ stories were invaluable to discussions during the 2024 National Missing Children’s Day events. The AMBER Alert Training & Technical Assistance Program (AATTAP) and National Criminal Justice Training Center (NCJTC) hosted the family members at the events, with support from the DOJ’s Office of Justice Programs (OJP) and Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP).

The AATTAP-NCJTC team and surviving family members were unified in promoting their work on two updated DOJ resources for parents and families of missing children: When Your Child Is Missing: A Family Survival Guide (released last year) and the forthcoming sibling-focused survival guide, What About Me? Finding Your Path When Your Brother or Sister Is Missing.

Collaboration for a clearer path forward

The day before the National Missing Children’s Day commemoration, surviving family members paid a visit to the Alexandria, Virginia, headquarters of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC). Afterward they attended a private AATTAP reception recognizing their contributions to ensuring family members across the nation have access to the latest information and resources.

They also previewed video segments from a filming project completed earlier this year, one in which contributors to the forthcoming What About Me? sibling survival guide shared their insights and advice to illuminate its content for readers. The videos will be offered alongside the sibling guide (after its release later this year) on the Family Survival Guide website.

They also heard from nationally revered parent-advocate and retired AATTAP-NCJTC Associate Patty Wetterling, who was a featured speaker at the event. Wetterling is the mother of Jacob Wetterling, who was abducted and murdered in 1989. (Read more about her search for him, and her new book, Dear Jacob, here—and an excerpt from her Missing Children’s Day talk below.) Wetterling also helped update the new edition of the Family Survival Guide, released in 2023.

During the session, the family members discussed their experiences with being a part of these survival guide projects, along with their ongoing needs and goals as surviving family members who have experienced a missing child or sibling.

They also offered OJJDP and AATTAP leaders recommendations on ways to best support families and more broadly promote awareness and distribution of critically important resources for families, law enforcement, and child advocates.

Following through on a commitment made by OJJDP Administrator Ryan last year during her impactful meeting with the Family Survival Guide contributors at the conclusion of the Missing Children’s Day ceremony, this year’s event included an inaugural, private Family Roundtable discussion with sibling guide family contributors.

Commemoration highlights

Each year, the DOJ honors agencies, organizations, law enforcement officials, and others whose exemplary and heroic efforts have helped recover missing children and prosecute those who harm them.

“Our commemoration is taking a new format this year,” Ryan explained. “OJJDP decided not only to highlight the tremendous work of those who protect children, but also address the challenges in this work—to learn more about issues involving missing kids, and hold in-depth conversations with youth and families of missing and murdered children and other experts on these topics.”

After the commemoration, a cadre of experts, including a youth advocate with lived experience in the foster care system, joined a panel discussion on why so many children and young adults go missing from care. “They will suggest ways to improve collaboration and ensure the well-being of these children,” Ryan said. She next recognized members of the Family Roundtable—parents, siblings and others with a loved one who has gone missing. “Each of them has contributed to two very important [survival] documents.”

When Your Child Is Missing: A Family Survival Guide was announced at the 2023 Missing Children’s Day event. The new fifth edition provides a wider range of missing child situations; gives families instant access to information online; and allows them to hear advice and encouragement from the parents themselves, who speak in powerful videos.

As was the case with the Family Survival Guide, the What About Me? project was developed by AATTAP’s publications team with guidance and oversight from the OJJDP. Both initiatives were stewarded by Helen Connelly, retired FVTC-NCJTC Program Administrator who continues to share her expertise as an Associate employee.

Looking back—and ahead

“As you know thousands of children go missing in the U.S. every year,” Ryan said. “While most are safely recovered, others are found deceased and never identified. Currently there are more than 1,000 children whose remains have been found, but have not been identified. We want to help name them, and return them to their families, communities, and loved ones.”

The OJJDP and NCMEC, with support from the DOJ—and training and technical assistance from the AATTAP and NCJTC—will work with state and local law enforcement agencies to identify these children, Ryan explained, adding, “they deserve no less.”

The forthcoming sibling survival guide, What About Me?, will help a missing child’s siblings understand the emotional turmoil surrounding the crisis as well as the search process. It will offer trusted advice and firsthand insight into what to expect; tips for managing self-care and family dynamics; and guidance on how to deal with law enforcement, the courts, and the media.

Photo of two women with this caption: Patty Wetterling (right) greets NCMEC’s Director of Special Projects Sherry Bailey during the family survivors’ visit to NCMEC headquarters in Arlington, Virginia. — Patty Wetterling (right) greets NCMEC’s Director of Special Projects Sherry Bailey during the family survivors’ visit to NCMEC headquarters in Arlington, Virginia.

NCMEC President and CEO Michelle DeLaune welcomed parent-advocate Patti Wetterling to speak, recognizing her as “a longtime friend and a personal source of inspiration.”

“Her son, Jacob, who went missing when he was 11 years old, was abducted near their home in Minnesota,” DeLaune said. “Patty has given her life to advocating for her son. She’s raised a beautiful family. And she’s a fierce mother, one who changes this world with every person she speaks to.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney General Amy L. Solomon added, “We’re so honored that you could be with us today, Patty. We’re indebted to you for your years of advocacy on behalf of missing children, and for the work you continue to do to claim a brighter future for our children.”

What follows is an excerpt of Wetterling’s remarks given at this year’s National Missing Children’s Day commemoration.

I want to thank you, Liz Ryan, for meeting with this amazing group. [Wetterling gestures to the family-survivor group attending the ceremony.] I belong over there with you, my heart is with you, and we draw strength from you. I also want to thank everybody at NCMEC and the DOJ. You save lives. You saved mine.

National Missing Children’s Day is a time to shine a light on a dark topic. When my son, Jacob, was kidnapped, I knew nothing about crimes against children. ‘Who would do that?’ I cried, ‘Who would harm a child?’ It is an unimaginable pain.

After a few days, sleep deprived and depressed, I crawled into bed and pulled the covers over my head, deciding I’m never gonna get out of bed again. It’s too hard. It hurts too much. I can’t do it. But with tears streaming down my face, I suddenly saw Jacob curled up in a ball somewhere saying the same thing. ‘I can’t do this anymore. It’s too hard. They’re never going to find me.’

Screaming, I got up and said, ‘Hold on Jacob, we will find you! But you have to stay strong!’ I got out of bed. That decision to get out of bed was the first of many choices that I had to make.

That was in the early days, and in the 34 years that have followed, I decided I couldn’t live in the darkness. I chose to seek light instead. I chose to fight for the world that Jacob knew and loved—a world that was fair, kind, and safe for kids.

When I was given the phone number for the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, I learned so much about the problem—how many children were missing and exploited, and what we all needed to do to bring them home. Most kids come home because somebody is aware of their abduction. They look at the pictures. And if they see something unusual about a child, or a child in a bad situation, they trust their instincts and call the police.

We tried to make sure everybody got Jacob’s pictures. We had to mail out pictures back in 1989. We sent them all over. My favorite story was when a couple was traveling from Minnesota to Florida and thought they saw Jacob. They recognized the picture and said, ‘He was with a man who’s very thin, and he didn’t look like he wanted to be with this guy.’ But they didn’t know who to call. So eventually they called the FBI in Minneapolis. When they described the man that this boy was with, the FBI agent knew who they were talking about…and caught up with him in Flagstaff, Arizona. And clearly [the child they found with him] wasn’t Jacob.

But at least one 12-year-old boy got to go home because somebody was aware of the problem. They looked at the pictures and took that extra step of being there for the child. In those 34 years since Jacob was kidnapped, I’ve learned we are stronger when we collectively pool ideas and resources through Team HOPE and the family and sibling survival guides, we support each other and offer assistance to other families walking down this difficult path.

We have to keep missing children in our hearts until we can hold them in our arms again.

We are all the hope for all missing children, as well as all children who are home safe today.

We can never give up hope.

And together, we can, and we will, build a safer world for all of our children.

Three photos representing successful recovery of children who were subjects of a MAILE AMBER Alert, plus a photo of searchers walking on a beach in Hawaii. — Hawaii County Mayor Mitch Roth’s social media post showed his gratitude for the safe recovery of a 15-year-old who was abducted from a beach (where searchers are seen). A news report and an alert poster spread the good news—located, canceled—on two other MAILE AMBER Alert cases.

By Jody Garlock

When the Honolulu Police Department issued a MAILE AMBER Alert in February 2024 for two brothers whose mother reported them missing and in potential danger, not even HPD officers could have predicted such a swift recovery. Within five minutes of the alert’s distinct alarm sounding on cellphones across Oahu Island, the mother’s former boyfriend said he would surrender the 10- and 11-year-old boys in a gas station parking lot. The case serves as a testament to the power of AMBER Alerts—or, as it’s called in Hawaii, the MAILE AMBER Alert, named in memory of 6-year-old Maile Gilbert (see “Three for three: lessons learned,” below) who was abducted and murdered in 1985, prior to the alert’s existence.

“With alert activations in a state like Hawaii with an isolated population, we find that abductors may feel the pressure to turn themselves in after either seeing the alert or being told there is one,” says Amanda Leonard, coordinator of the Missing Child Center Hawaii and statewide MAILE AMBER Alert Coordinator. Additionally, as in this case, local news reports stated that customers at the gas station who received the alert had promptly called in sightings to police.

Soon after police arrived at the scene, the mother and her boys were able to drive away safely in the gray Honda Odyssey. The van belonged to the mother, who had given the former boyfriend permission to use it and take the boys on an errand. When he failed to return the children and stopped answering her calls after an argument, she contacted police. A subsequent report of a family member learning the man had struck one of the boys in the face, and therefore they may be in danger, escalated the case to meet the criteria for a MAILE AMBER Alert. The 54-year-old suspect was not immediately charged.

This recent case is the latest in a string of MAILE AMBER Alerts in a state that historically has had none. And for Leonard, it also serves as an example of the importance of public awareness and quick-thinking citizens willing to be an extra set of eyes to help keep children safe.

“Part of our culture here is really about family and children,” Leonard says. “We pride ourselves in not just looking out for our own children, but other people’s children in our community.”

Case by case

Hawaii put its MAILE AMBER Alert system in place in 2005, becoming the final state to join the nationwide AMBER Alert program. In a ceremony with Hawaiian officials, Tracy Henke, who at the time was Acting Assistant Attorney General for the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs, called the establishment of statewide AMBER Alert plans in all 50 states “a landmark achievement that makes America’s children safer.”

Just four months later, the state had its first activation. In that case, a 4-month-old baby was safely recovered in Honolulu thanks to an attentive delivery truck driver. The driver had received a message about the missing infant from his dispatcher after an office worker saw the alert. (This was before the text-like wireless emergency alerts, or WEAs, began appearing on phones in subsequent years.) He spotted the stolen pickup truck, which had been abandoned with the infant safe inside.

Seventeen years then went by without any MAILE AMBER Alerts. Leonard speculates that had more to do with a lack of understanding about the program than about no cases meeting the criteria for issuing an alert. So when she began working at the Missing Child Center in 2018, she made it her mission to build relationships and enhance the education and training—including monthly tests of the system—with the state’s four county police departments. (In January, Hawaii’s statewide police force became operational; it stems from a 2022 bill then-Governor David Ige signed into law in an effort to allow more efficient and effective emergency response.) The MAILE AMBER Alert program will remain under the Hawaii Department of the Attorney General.

“We started to really revamp and aggressively work on improving our program with the help of the National Criminal Justice Training Center [NCJTC],” Leonard says.

Photo of two women standing in front of MAILE AMBER Alert signage. Caption for photo: “My joy is really for a family, knowing that they’re going to get the news that their child has been recovered alive,” says Amanda Leonard (right) coordinator of the Missing Child Center Hawaii and statewide MAILE AMBER Alert Coordinator. “That makes all the really tough stuff we do on a daily basis worth it.” She’s shown with program assistant Leina Diamond in front of their MAILE AMBER Alert signage. — “My joy is really for a family, knowing that they’re going to get the news that their child has been recovered alive,” says Amanda Leonard (right) coordinator of the Missing Child Center Hawaii and statewide MAILE AMBER Alert Coordinator. “That makes all the really tough stuff we do on a daily basis worth it.” She’s shown with program assistant Leina Diamond in front of their MAILE AMBER Alert signage.

Preparedness pays off

In September 2022, authorities faced their most dramatic case—a rare stranger abduction that garnered national attention. This marked the first MAILE AMBER Alert on Hawaii Island, and also was the first time the state used a WEA to alert the public. A 15-year-old girl who was at a beach on the Big Island was forced at knifepoint to tie up her boyfriend and was led through a wooded area and across lava fields to the abductor’s vehicle. The man took her to his home on the opposite side of the island some 70 miles away, where he chained her up in an old school bus on the property.

As a massive air and ground search, which included volunteers from the community who galvanized after receiving the MAILE AMBER Alert, continued the next day, the teen convinced her abductor to take her to a café in the nearby town of Hilo to get something to eat. The café host felt something seemed off when he first spotted the duo, then it clicked: “That’s the AMBER Alert girl!” he yelled as he rushed to grab the girl from the man’s grasp and safely whisk her to a back room in the café.

Another person began taking photos as the abductor fled in his SUV. A few hours later, authorities arrested 52-year-old Duncan Mahi, who witnesses identified in a photo lineup. Mahi remains in custody as he awaits trial for charges that include kidnapping and sexual assault.

“It was really incredible,” Leonard says of the two citizens who were dubbed the “Hilo Heroes.” When Leonard asked them what gave them the courage to intervene knowing the man was armed, they both said they felt compelled by the MAILE AMBER Alert. “The café host said he responded in the way he would want someone else to respond if it had been his little sister or cousin,” she says. “It was definitely a testament to the power of the program and the Big Island community.”

On the heels of that case, about five months later the Maui Police Department issued its first MAILE AMBER Alert. In February 2023, an island-wide alert was disseminated for a 3-month-old boy whose mother had fled with him after the father was granted sole legal and physical custody. Shortly after the alert was issued around 2 a.m., authorities received a tip on the whereabouts of the mother, who was wanted for custodial interference and was in violation of a temporary restraining order between herself and the child. The baby was safely recovered.

“We have a 100 percent success rate so far—knock on wood,” Leonard says. “When you look at these three consecutive alerts, I think it shows we’re on the right track.”

Partnering for a cause

For Leonard, the fact that Hawaii has had an increased number of alerts—with about 300 recoveries a year when factoring in other types of missing children cases—is a direct correlation to increased education and training. “The criteria for issuing a MAILE AMBER Alert did not change—it was the program development that we’ve worked on since 2018 that changed,” she says.

Leonard considers partnerships with organizations such as the NCJTC a key to success. National and regional NCJTC meetings have provided training by national experts, the ability to meet survivors from across the country, and valuable networking.

“We wouldn’t be able to be successful without those partnerships and being able to meet other folks who have our jobs in other states,” she adds. “It’s been absolutely instrumental.”

She also praises the dedication of law enforcement authorities and those working on behalf of children who consider their work a lifestyle and a calling more than a job.

“There’s no better feeling than getting a call that a child has been safely located alive,” Leonard says. “It makes me feel like we have one of the most important jobs in our state.”

Photo of Maile Gilbert — *Maile Leilani Gilbert (1979–1985)*

The “MAILE” acronym in Hawaii’s AMBER Alert program is in memory of 6-year-old Maile Gilbert, who was abducted by a family acquaintance from her Kailua home and murdered in August 1985. MAILE stands for “Minor Abducted in Life-threatening Emergency.”

Hawaii opted to add a local connection to the national AMBER Alert program—created as a legacy to 9-year-old Amber Hagerman. Amber’s 1996 abduction and murder in Arlington, Texas, sparked nationwide efforts to prevent future incidents.

California Highway Patrol Assistant Chief Ken Roberts stands with a CHP challenge coin--in front of his collection of challenge coins. — *California Highway Patrol Assistant Chief Ken Roberts, who started the CHP's challenge coin program, stands near a collection of special coins.*

By Jody Garlock

California Highway Patrol challenge coin in its display case — *A California Highway Patrol (CHP) AMBER Alert challenge coin is shown in its display case. The CHP has activated more than 320 AMBER Alerts since the state plan’s origins in 2002.*

Challenge coins—insignia medallions traditionally awarded to law enforcement and the military—have held special meaning to California Highway Patrol (CHP) Assistant Chief Ken Roberts ever since learning about a World War II pilot who used his medallion to prove his identity after being shot down. After Roberts became a section commander with oversight of the state’s AMBER Alert program about four years ago, he introduced challenge coins as a way to honor law enforcement personnel who proved instrumental in helping solve child abduction cases.

Without the necessary funding to facilitate the project—meant to boost morale in the CHP’s Counterterrorism and Threat Awareness (CTTA) Section in Sacramento—Roberts spent $1,000 of his own money to create AMBER Alert challenge coins that honor officers and allied partners for going above and beyond in their duties to recover abducted children. Commending the AMBER Alert work from among his section’s varied efforts was easy: “It’s one of the most nationally recognized alerts, and it hits the heartstrings,” Roberts says.

CHP Lieutenant Justin Howlett, who has overseen the program in recent times, says the coins are an exclusive honor, not something casually bestowed or shared.

Since the program’s inception, each year only two or three people or agencies have received the “Recognition of Excellence”—typically fewer than half of the cases that required an AMBER Alert activation. “It’s genuine gratitude,” Howlett says of the CHP AMBER Alert program’s highest honor, only bestowed on personnel actively involved in an AMBER Alert case.

Photo of two people holding AMBER Alert challenge coins from the California Highway Patrol. — From left: Tanea Parmenter, Idaho’s AMBER Alert Coordinator, and Detective Sam Kuoha of the Rupert (Idaho) Police Department show off their California Highway Patrol (CHP) AMBER Alert challenge coins. Parmenter helped Kuoha investigate and activate resources that led California officers to locate a missing girl. It was the Rupert department’s first AMBER Alert.

In one case that involved a cross-border collaboration, an Idaho teen believed to be a victim of human trafficking was safely recovered in California after an AMBER Alert was initiated in her home state. CHP personnel who helped recover the girl from an interstate rest stop near Truckee, California, were awarded, as were Idaho State Police AMBER Alert Coordinator/Missing Persons Clearinghouse Manager Tanea Parmenter and Rupert (Idaho) Police Department Detective Sam Kuoha.

The shiny gold coins bearing the AMBER Alert logo aren’t merely tokens for display. They can help provide closure in child abduction cases, which are some of the most difficult in law enforcement. They also are a source of pride that extends beyond the office or patrol vehicle.

Howlett and Roberts recount the story of an officer whose teenage son teared up after seeing his dad’s challenge coin—and realizing his dad helped save children. “The officer said that was the best feeling ever—to have his son say how proud he was of him,” Roberts says.

While some organizations informally share their coins, the CHP is selective to ensure that “when we give them, it means something,” Roberts says. Award presentations are low key to avoid seeming like it’s being done for the publicity. “We keep it very internal so it feels personal,” Howlett adds.

Roberts credits his officers’ support for creating the challenge coin recognition. One of them even handled the coin’s design. “They were the catalyst; I was just the means to make it happen,” Roberts says. “It’s not a heavy lift to do something like this, as long as you set a few parameters.”

For Howlett, the program has proven well worth the administrative time. “It’s something that has value to us, and it has value to the people who receive the coins,” he says.

By Denise Gee Peacock

Michael Jude Nixon’s middle name is his mother’s homage to Saint Jude, “the patron saint of hope and hopeless causes,” Nixon says. “She had a rough time during her pregnancy with me, and found comfort in prayer,” he says. “Thankfully everything turned out OK.”

And thankfully for those in his hometown of Beaumont, Texas, Nixon has devoted his life to serving people in need of hope—people facing hopeless causes.

“My family taught me to recognize a higher purpose in life,” says Nixon, who retired five years ago as a detective with the Beaumont Police Department, where he worked for almost 16 years and was the department’s AMBER Alert Coordinator.

Nixon now serves in two broader-ranging law enforcement capacities. Since 2020 he has held the role of Region 12 Missing Person Alert Coordinator for the Texas Department of Public Safety. (Region 12, comprising six counties in the Beaumont area, is home to about 500,000 people in southeastern Texas near southern Louisiana.)

Since 2020, Nixon has worked as Assistant Director and Training Coordinator for the Lamar Institute of Technology (LIT) Regional Police Academy in Beaumont. And on the national front, he recently joined Team Adam, a seasoned group of law enforcement professionals tapped for rapid deployment by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children to investigate missing child cases.

Nixon’s path into law enforcement followed a decade of doing manual labor for the City of Beaumont.

The first half of that chapter was working in water maintenance for five years, and for the next five “dealing with alligators, snakes, you name it” as an animal control officer. The arduous, all-hours work “was difficult, but important,” he says. “It just didn’t pay enough to help me make ends meet” for his young family, and kept him from home a lot.

Some friends at the Beaumont Police Department encouraged him to join the BPD.

But then came Hurdle One. “Initially, I was provided a job offer, but it was rescinded after they learned I had a GED instead of a high school diploma.” (Nixon earned a GED at 18 after enlisting in the U.S. Army Reserve.) Undaunted, he returned to high school at age 32 and received that diploma. That allowed him to train at LIT and join the BPD in 2004.

Next came Hurdle Two: navigating the traumas associated with crimes against children—from child abuse to sex trafficking cases, which he was responsible for investigating for much of his BPD career.

The way he managed to cope (see “Take 5” section below) now informs his Regional Police Academy training work at LIT. It also has spurred him to continue expanding his horizons for both personal and professional growth. In December 2023 he earned his Associate of Science degree in criminal justice from LIT, and currently is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in the discipline from Lamar University.

We recently caught up with Nixon so we could learn more about his work experiences—and also glean his advice that others could apply to their work lives.

How did your world change after becoming a police officer? Working for the water department and as an animal control officer prepared me well. I saw the downside of humanity in those roles, and it was humbling. That makes you a more empathetic person. I was able to carry that over into law enforcement. I realized that everybody I encountered was somebody’s child, somebody’s parent, somebody’s loved one. I credit that to my mom’s influence. She taught me to be nice to people, even if you can’t do anything else to help.

Photograph of Texas Department of Public Safety Regional AMBER Alert Coordinators John Graham, left, and Michael Nixon, right — Michael Nixon and fellow Texan John Graham, a law enforcement veteran and Region 2 AMBER Alert Coordinator, share mutual respect. “If my child was abducted, Mike is who I’d want leading the investigation,” Graham says.

What were some challenges you faced in your law enforcement work? Earning people’s trust, for one. Also, getting them to talk. Many small-town communities that have been mistreated or ignored by law enforcement have built up a wall, a mentality of ‘us versus them.’ That wall has to be continually torn down by both cops and citizens, Black and White alike. That’s because any national incident of police brutality will overshadow hundreds if not thousands of positive incidents, so it’s an uphill battle that we have to learn from. It doesn’t do us any good to be overzealous or condescending. As my mother always said, ‘You can catch more flies with honey.’ And when someone extends an olive branch, take it. I made an effort to go to park events and parades, to meet people on their level. We may not be welcomed at first—or the second time or third time—but we shouldn’t give up.

How did that affect cases involving missing children? When a community doesn’t trust law enforcement they’ll think they can solve a problem faster and more effectively on their own—of not getting the police involved. That’s especially true because most AMBER Alerts we handle are family-related and not stranger abductions, so people figure an outsider won’t be much help. I’ve had to work hard to convince them that I’m on their side. One challenge comes when children have been lured into sex trafficking. You have about four seconds to make a positive impression before they close their minds to you. Most have been told not to trust law enforcement; to be afraid that a cop will victimize them.

Do you cross paths with some of the children you helped over the years? I see a lot of them quite frequently, but very few know who I am. That’s by design; our child advocacy center is their true liaison. But their parents tend to know who I am. Often they’re people I grew up with. And sometimes they’ve come to me for guidance. I feel good when I can help.

Take 5: Ways to keep stress in check

Dealing with the disturbing realities of child protection work is a major stressor for law enforcement. “So many of us compartmentalize all the things we see,” Michael Nixon says. “We tell everybody that we’re fine when we’re not.” Here is some of his hard-won wisdom.

Share your feelings with a trusted friend or professional. “Around the time of my retirement, everything I’d dealt with over the years was causing me to have sleepless nights, to feel anxious. And I’m not ashamed to admit that I decided to talk with a therapist. He helped me see I was finally ‘man enough’ to admit the issues I was having. That’s why I tell our police academy cadets, ‘If you’re not feeling well, talk to someone,’ Nixon says. “It also helps to talk with colleagues who’ve had the same experiences as you.”

Leave work at work. “One of the best decisions I ever made was never talking with my family about any bad things that I had seen during the day. The boogeyman is not welcome at my house.”

Do a wellness check—on yourself. “Everyone—but especially those in law enforcement—should practice self-care,” Nixon says. “Find a way to step back, take a deep breath, and decompress. For instance, in an active shooter situation, we may run on adrenaline until there’s a break in the action. That’s when we’re supposed to check ourselves for wounds we may not be aware of. The same goes for investigating crimes against children. Check yourself every 12 hours to ensure you’re OK.”

Fortify your body and mind. “I found strength, and stress relief, by going to the gym each day, or working on some property I own in the country, clearing trees and that sort of thing. This kind of exercise can make you stronger physically and mentally.”

Don’t be afraid to cry. “Shedding tears is a body’s way of cleansing itself after a traumatic situation,” Nixon says. “Whenever you need some relief, find an empty office, or go sit in your car, and do what you need to do to lift that weight from your shoulders. Doing that will help you move forward.”

“Most people will experience a traumatic incident maybe five to seven times in their entire life. Meantime, a cop may experience a traumatic incident five to seven times a shift.”

Michael Nixon

By Denise Gee Peacock

The work of the AMBER Alert Training & Technical Assistance Program (AATTAP) and its Minnesota-based partners was front-page news this week in the state’s largest newspaper, the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

The June 9, 2024, article—entitled “Amber Alerts help avert nightmares: State’s system finds kids, builds on success”—was written by reporter Kim Hyatt.

“AMBER Alert finds missing children with efficiency, spreading lifesaving information statewide in an instant and leading to swift recoveries,” Hyatt reports. “Since Minnesota launched the program in 2002, all but one of the 46 children subject of the alerts here were safely recovered—most within the same day.”

The state’s success with AMBER Alert “does not mean the system is static,” Hyatt noted. “It continues to improve through training and by spreading to new communities 22 years after it was initiated by the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA).”

Photo of AATTAP-AIIC team with Minnesota Tribes and law enforcement during a Technology Toolkits presentation in May 2023. — The AATTAP’s AMBER Alert in Indian Country (AIIC) team provided free Technology Toolkits to Minnesota’s 11 federally recognized Tribes in May 2023. The AIIC was created after passage of the Ashlynne Mike AMBER Alert in Indian Country Act of 2018, which provides training and technical assistance to Tribes to foster stronger and faster communication and with regional, state, and federal law enforcement partners.

The article includes these highlights:

Since inception of the state’s AMBER Alert program in 2002, 46 children have been the focus of AMBER Alerts. Nearly half of those children (22) were safely recovered in less than three hours. One child, Alayna Ertl, was not able to be safely recovered.
In 2013, Minnesota became the first state in the nation to successfully send AMBER Alerts to cellphones, which led to the quick recovery of a baby in Minneapolis.
The state’s most recent AMBER Alert was the first to be issued by a Minnesota Tribe (the Red Lake Tribal Police). The alert led to the successful recovery of a missing 3-year-old child.
Interviews with two native (and current) Minnesotans who not only have made significant impacts in Minnesota, but in the nation—and beyond:
- Patty Wetterling, a longtime advocate for missing children. She is the mother of Jacob Wetterling, who was abducted at age 11 on October 22, 1989, by a masked gunman near their home in St. Joseph, Minnesota. (Jacob’s remains were found nearly 27 years after his abduction, and his abductor charged with murder.) Wetterling co-founded and is past director of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children’s counseling network Team HOPE, and has shared countless victim impact sessions with law enforcement across the U.S.—much of them for the AATTAP and its parent organization, the National Criminal Justice Training Center of Fox Valley Technical College. (Read more about Wetterling’s work for U.S. Department of Justice resource, When Your Child is Missing: A Family Survival Guide, and her new book, Dear Jacob: A Mother’s Journey of Hope.)
- Child protection expert Janell Rasmussen. Rasmussen serves as Administrator of the AATTAP, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Justice to provide training and technical assistance to law enforcement throughout the United States and its territories, Indian Country, and abroad. Early in Rasmussen’s career she worked as AMBER Alert Coordinator for the Minnesota BCA—and became a good friend of the Wetterling family. Read more about her AATTAP work here.
Insight into the state’s AMBER Alert work from BCA Superintendent Drew Evans. “There’s only so many law enforcement officers that are out working at any given time. Yet we have nearly six million Minnesotans that can be our eyes and ears out in the community, and everybody has a vested interest in recovering our children,” he told the Star Tribune. (Note: The Star Tribune reported that access to AMBER Alerts is spreading to new communities, but everyone in the state has had the ability to request AMBER Alerts since the state plan was created in 2002.)

Photo showing Patty Wetterling (second from right), Janell Rasmussen (far right), Donna Norris (mother of Amber Hagerman, center), U.S. DOJ Assistant Attorney General Deborah J. Daniels (second from left), and abduction survivor Tamara Brooks (far left) at the first national AMBER Alert Conference in 2003. — At the first national AMBER Alert Conference in 2003, Patty Wetterling (second from right) and Janell Rasmussen (far right) are photographed with Donna Norris (center), the mother of AMBER Alert namesake Amber Hagerman. Also shown are then-U.S. DOJ Assistant Attorney General Deborah J. Daniels (second from left), and abduction survivor Tamara Brooks (far left). “There’s strength in the resilience of these searching parents,” Wetterling told the *Star Tribune*. Rasmussen notes that when this photograph was taken, she was pregnant with her daughter, who is expected to graduate next year with a degree in criminal justice.

Group photo of AATTAP-NCJTC-family survivors at the 2024 National Missing Children's Day commemoration in Washington, DC.

Participants at the OJJDP Family Survivor Roundtable Discussion in 2024

Alternate view of OJJDP-AATTAP-NCTJC roundtable meeting with family survivors

Photo of sibling survivor Heather talking at the Family Roundtable Discussion at OJJDP headquarters in 2024

Dr. Noelle Hunter and Jeffery Morehouse at the OJJDP Family Survivor Roundtable Discussion

AATTAP team members and family survivors await of the start of the 2024 National Missing Children’s Day event at the U.S. Department of Justice Great Hall on May 22 in Washington D.C.

AATTAP team members and family survivors pose for a selfie before the 2024 National Missing Children’s Day commemoration.

AATTAP Administrator Janell Rasmussen congratulates the 2024 National Missing Children’s Day poster winner, Hanna L., a fifth grader from Chesnee, South Carolina. She and Hanna are shown with Hanna’s mother (back) and South Carolina AMBER Alert Coordinator Alex Schelble (right).

Photo of the winning poster with this quote from the South Carolina fifth grader, Hanna L., who created it: "Those who help bring back missing children change the whole picture completely."

Family survivors Dr. Noelle Hunter (right) and her daughter, Rysa, are shown during a group visit to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia.

Also photographed during the NCMEC visit were (from left) sibling survivor Heather, family survivor Yvonne Ambrose, and sibling survivor Kimber.

AATTAP Administrator Janell Rasmussen (standing) welcomes family survivors and others to a reception in honor of the forthcoming sibling-survivor resource, What About Me?

14. NCJTC Executive Director Brad Russ (right) shares a hug with parent survivor and longtime advocate for missing children, Patty Wetterling, during the AATTAP reception.

Shown at the reception for family survivors are (from left): NCJTC Executive Director Brad Russ, AATTAP Special Projects Associate Helen Connelly, AATTAP Administrator Janell Rasmussen, AATTAP Deputy Administrator Jenniffer Price-Lehmann, and AATTAP Project Coordinator Yesenia “Jesi” Leon-Baron.

From left: Family survivor Ahmad Rivazfar converses with AATTAP Project Coordinator Yesenia “Jesi” Leon-Baron and sibling survivor Heather at the reception.

Parent survivor Patty Wetterling (left) shares a moment with another mother who lost a child to abduction and murder: Pamela Foster. Foster is the mother of Ashlynne Mike, whose 2016 abduction and murder on the Navajo Nation Reservation in New Mexico led to the creation of the 2018 Ashlynne Mike AMBER Alert in Indian Country Act—and AATTAP’s AMBER Alert in Indian Country initiative.

By Denise Gee Peacock

At the 41st National Missing Children’s Day commemoration May 22, 2024 in Washington, D.C., staff members from the AMBER Alert Training & Technical Assistance Program and National Criminal Justice Training Center accompanied family members of missing children who have helped produce two multimedia resources for the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs (OJP) and Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP): When Your Child Is Missing: A Family Survival Guide and the forthcoming What About Me? Finding Your Path When Your Brother or Sister Is Missing.

On the day before the Missing Children’s Day commemoration, the AATTAP-hosted family members paid a visit to the Alexandria, Virginia, headquarters of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC). Afterward they attended an AATTAP reception recognizing them for their contributions to ensuring family members across the nation have access to the latest information and resources. They also were shown highlights of videos that will be featured on the Family Survival Guide website along with the publication once released. (Stay tuned to The AMBER Advocate for more details.)

Recognition and collaboration for better understanding—and a clear path forward

During the National Missing Children’s Day ceremony, the group received thanks for their efforts from U.S. Assistant Attorney General Amy L. Solomon, OJJDP Administrator Liz Ryan, and NCMEC President and CEO Michelle DeLaune—as well as attendee applause when they were asked to stand for recognition. They also heard from nationally revered parent-advocate and retired AATTAP-NCJTC Associate Patty Wetterling, who was a featured speaker at the event. Patty is the mother of Jacob Wetterling, who was abducted and murdered in 1989. (Read more about her search for him, and her new book, Dear Jacob, here.) Wetterling also helped update the new Family Survival Guide.

Following through on a commitment made by OJJDP Administrator Liz Ryan last year during her impactful meeting with the Family Survival Guide contributors at the conclusion of the Missing Children’s Day ceremony, this year’s event included an inaugural, private Family Roundtable meeting during which both Family Survival Guide and Sibling Guide family members discussed their experiences with being a part of these projects, their ongoing needs and goals as surviving family members who have experienced a missing child or sibling, and offered OJJDP and AATTAP leaders recommendations on ways to best support families and more broadly promulgate awareness and distribution of these and other critically important resources for family, law enforcement, community and child advocates.

“The AATTAP was honored to be invited by Administrator Ryan and other OJJDP leadership to facilitate a discussion with the families of missing and murdered children. We discussed ways to improve law enforcement response, preparedness, family support and protecting children. Bringing the important perspectives of both parents and siblings, they bravely and earnestly offered their personal stories and messages of hope for those facing the same unthinkable situation.”

Janell Rasmussen
Administrator, AMBER Alert Training & Technical Assistance Program

Commemoration highlights

Each year, the Justice Department also honors agencies, organizations, law enforcement officials, and others whose exemplary heroic efforts to help recover missing children and prosecute people who harm them.

“Our commemoration is taking a new format this year,” Ryan said. “OJJDP decided not only to highlight the tremendous work of law enforcement others in efforts to protect children, but also to take this opportunity to address the challenge is in this work— to learn more about issues related to missing kids, and hold in depth conversations with youth and families of missing and murdered children and other experts on these related topics.”

Following the commemoration, a cadre of experts, including a youth advocate with lived experience in the foster care system, participated in a panel discussion on the reasons why so many children and young adults go missing from care. “They will suggest ways we can improve collaboration and to ensure the health and well-being of these children,” Ryan explained.

Ryan next recognized “members of family roundtable—parents, siblings and other family members with a loved one who has gone missing. They know firsthand the torment, confusion and emotional exhaustion of losing a child,” she said. “They lived it and they have channeled that sorrow into resources to helping others. Each of the family roundtable members here today has contributed to two important guidance documents."

When Your Child Is Missing: A Family Survival Guide was announced at the 2023 Missing Children’s Day event. The new fifth edition provides a wider range of missing child situations; gives families immediate access to information via its online format; and allows them to hear parents’ advice and encouragement from the parents themselves, who speak directly to them through powerful videos.

As was the case with the Family Survival Guide project, the What About Me? project was developed by AATTAP’s publications team with guidance and oversight from the OJJDP. And both projects where shepherded by Helen Connelly, a former program administrator for Fox Valley Technical College (FVTC)—home to AATTAP and the NCJTC.

The new sibling survival guide will help a missing child’s siblings understand both the emotional turmoil surrounding the crisis and the ongoing search for their sibling. It will offer advice and resources; tips on self-care, mental health, and family dynamics; guidance on dealing with law enforcement, the media, and court; first-hand insight on what to expect and how to cope.

Looking back—and ahead

This year marks the 40th anniversary of NCMEC, which has contributed to the safe recovery of more than 400,000 missing children.

Additionally, the OJJDP is celebrating 50th anniversary of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act. The law that established our office OJJDP has supported youth and families across the nation, providing federal funds owing to states, territories, Tribes, and communities to protect children prevent delinquency and transform juvenile justice systems.”

“As you know thousands of children go missing in the U.S. every year,” Ryan said. “While most are safely recovered, others are found deceased and never identified. Currently there are more than 1,000 children whose remains have been found, but have not been identified. We want to help name them and return them to their families, communities and loved ones.”

Wetterling to DOJ & NCMEC: ‘You Save Lives. You Saved Mine.’

NCMEC President and CEO Michelle DeLaune welcomed Patti Wetterling to speak, recognizing her as “a longtime friend and a personal source of inspiration.”

“Her son, Jacob, who went missing when he was 11 years old, was abducted near their home in Minnesota,” she said. “Patty has given her life to advocating for her son. She has raised a beautiful family. She is a fierce mother and has changed this world with every person she speaks to.”

“We're so honored that you could be with us today,” added Attorney General Solomon. “We’re indebted to you for your years of advocacy on behalf of missing children and for the work that you continue to do to claim a brighter future for our children.”

The following is an excerpt of Wetterling’s remarks at the 2024 National Missing Children’s Day event:

I want to thank you, Liz Ryan, for meeting with the group, this amazing group. [She gestures to the families group attending the ceremony.] I belong over there with you, my heart is with you, and we draw strength from you. And I also want to thank everybody at NCMEC and the DOJ. You save lives, you saved mine.

National Missing Children's Day is an amazing time to shine a light on a dark topic. When my son Jacob was kidnapped, I knew nothing about crimes against children. ‘Who would do that?’ I cried! ‘Who would harm a child?’ It is an unimaginable pain.

After a few days, sleep deprived and depressed, I crawled into bed and pull the covers over my head and decided I'm never gonna get out of bed again. It's too hard. It hurts too much. I can't do it. With tears streaming down my face, I suddenly saw Jacob curled up in a ball somewhere saying the same thing. “I can't do this anymore. It's too hard. They're never going to find me.”

Screaming I got up and said, ‘Hold on Jacob, we will find you! But you have to stay strong!’

I got out of bed. That decision to get out of bed was the first of many choices that we made. And for me, it was in the early days—and 34 years that have followed—I decided I couldn’t live in the darkness, and I chose to seek light. Instead, I chose to fight for the world that Jacob knew and loved—a world that was fair and kind and safe for kids.

When I was given that phone number for the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, I learned so much about the problem; how many children were missing and exploited and what we all needed to do to bring them home. Most kids come home because somebody is aware of their abduction. They look at the pictures. And if they see something unusual about a child, or a child in a bad situation, they trust their instincts and call the police.

We tried to make sure everybody got Jacob’s pictures. We had to mail pictures out back in 1989. We sent them all over. But my favorite story was when a couple was traveling from Minnesota to Florida, and they thought they saw Jacob. They recognized the picture and said, ‘He was with a man who's very thin and he didn’t look like he wanted to be with this guy.’ But they didn't know who to call. So eventually they called the FBI in Minneapolis. When they described the man that this boy was with the FBI agent knew who they were talking about… they caught up with him in Flagstaff, Arizona. And clearly [the child they found with him] wasn't Jacob.

But one 12-year-old boy got to go home because somebody was aware of the problem. They looked at the pictures and they took that extra step of being there for the child. In those 34 years since Jacob was kidnapped, I've learned that collectively, we are strong when we pool ideas and resources. Through Team HOPE and the family and sibling survival guides. We support each other and offer assistance to other families walking down this difficult path.

When a when a child is missing, it affects the entire world. Classmates, teachers, neighbors, cousins, friends—all have their worlds turned upside down… We have to keep missing children in our hearts until we can hold them in our arms again.

We are all the hope for all missing children, as well as all children who are home safe today. We can never give up hope. And together, we can, and we will, build a safer world for all of our children.

AATTAP Project Coordinator Derek VanLuchene and Pamela Foster show the quilt Foster made for Derek. — AATTAP Project Coordinator Derek VanLuchene and Symposium keynote speaker Pamela Foster show the art quilt Foster made for VanLuchene—and gave him during the Symposium. {Photo: AATTAP}

By Denise Gee Peacock

For those fortunate enough to witness it, one of the Symposium’s most moving moments came in the guise of a small package—one that guest speaker Pamela Foster quietly handed to AATTAP CART Project Coordinator Derek VanLuchene.

Both share a unique bond: Foster is the mother of Ashlynne Mike, who was abducted and murdered on the Navajo Nation in New Mexico when she was 11. And VanLuchene is the brother of Ryan VanLuchene, abducted at age 8 (in the presence of Derek, then 17) and later found murdered not far from his home in rural Montana. Like Ashlynne, Ryan was sexually assaulted before being killed. “The trauma of knowing that can be unbearable,” Foster says.

Foster and VanLuchene first met in 2019 at a Montana training conference with the Blackfeet Nation. “That’s when I heard his story,” she says. “I had no idea he and I were going through such similar emotions. And since then, our talks have given me such comfort.”

Around the time of their meeting, Foster was trying her hand at designing and sewing textile art.

“Quilting gave me an outlet to disappear from the world,” she says. “I started giving the quilts to others I’d befriended who were also going through grief.”

But she kept thinking of VanLuchene. What could she create for a former police officer “who’d pretty much seen it all—but also was a gentle soul,” a sibling-survivor of a violent crime? “I wanted to give him something from my heart—especially because he’s doing such good work to help others find missing children,” she says.

She pondered the possibilities until last fall, when she learned VanLuchene’s beloved dog, Herschel, had died.

“That’s when the image came to me. I worked up the courage to design a quilt showing Ryan and Herschel together.” Whenever she found time, she worked on the gift, but only finished it the night before leaving her Southern California home to fly to New Orleans.

Detail of art quilt made by Pamela Foster for Derek VanLuchene. It memorializes Derek's late brother, Ryan, and his dog, Herschel. — The quilt depicts Derek VanLuchene’s late dog, Herschel, watching over Derek’s late brother, Ryan VanLuchene, during a fishing outing. {Photo: AATTAP}

VanLuchene was deeply moved by the gesture. “What a special gift,” he says. “Herschel and I always shared a special connection. It was devastating when he passed this last October. In so many ways he was my comfort dog. So it gives me great peace to see him comforting my brother, Ryan, near the water, which they both loved.”

Derek VanLuchene has given the quilt pride of place in his home office. Pamela Foster is happy to know he will look at it often there. “I hope each time he sees it he’ll know just how much love it holds for him,” she says.

Photo of members of the Not Invisible Act Commission shown with Jolene Hardesty, far right. — After her appointment to the Not Invisible Act Commission (NIAC), Joelle Hardesty (far right) served with 35 people from across the nation to fulfill the NIAC’s goal to effectively address the missing and murdered Indigenous peoples’ (MMIP) crisis. Commission members received testimony from more than 250 surviving victims, families, and others.

Portrait of Joelle Hardesty, Missing Children’s Clearinghouse Analyst and Missing Persons Coordinator for the Michigan State Police. She served on the Not Invisible Act Commission. — When Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer appointed Hardesty to the NIAC in 2022, she praised her “extensive experience collaborating with local, state, and federal law enforcement to find and recover missing children.” Hardesty serves as Missing Children’s Clearinghouse Analyst and Missing Persons Coordinator for the Michigan State Police.

By Rebecca Sherman

Jolene Hardesty has faced challenges in her 20 years of public service—from her early days as a 911 sheriff’s office dispatcher to her current role as Missing Children’s Clearinghouse Analyst and Missing Persons Coordinator for the Michigan State Police.

And while she has helped rescue an estimated 600 children by providing analytical, resource, and training support to regional, state, federal, and Tribal law enforcement, she can now count another challenging assignment as a win: 15 months of service on the Not Invisible Act Commission.

For Hardesty, the experience was equal parts daunting, rewarding, and eye- opening. She worked with 35 others from across the nation to fulfill the Commission’s goals, as follows.

Identify, report, and respond to cases of missing and murdered Indigenous people (MMIP) and human trafficking.
Develop legislative and administrative changes to enlist federal programs, properties, and resources to help combat the crisis.
Track and report data on MMIP and human trafficking cases.
Consider issues related to the hiring and retention of law enforcement officers.
Coordinate Tribal, state, and federal resources to combat MMIP and human trafficking on Indian lands.
Increase information-sharing with Tribal governments on violent crimes investigations and criminal prosecutions on Indian lands.

The Commission held hearings across the nation, receiving heartbreaking yet critically important testimony from hundreds of victims, survivors, family members, family advocates, and members of law enforcement.

In the fall of 2023, Hardesty and her fellow Commissioners submitted their final report to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, the U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, and Congress.

With May designated as Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples (MMIP) Awareness Month (and May 5, National MMIP Day, also known as “Wear Red Day”) we talked with Hardesty about her work on the Not Invisible Act Commission—and what’s on the horizon.

Tell us a bit about your work on the Not Invisible Act Commission.
Each day was spent gearing up and prepping for meetings. I read a lot—federal statutes, statistical reports, and notes from other initiatives prior to the Not Invisible Act, such as Operation Lady Justice. Many weeks we met multiple times and brought in subject-matter experts to answer questions. I also gave in-person [congressional] testimony in D.C. as an expert on missing children, and traveled to Minnesota and Montana for public testimony. We were organized into subcommittees based on our experience. I was co-chair of Subcommittee Two, which focused on MMIP data. And on Subcommittee Four, we looked at coordinating resources, criminal jurisdiction, prosecution, and information sharing— for instance, understanding how the NCIC [National Crime Information Center] database is aggregated, and what shortfalls it presents.

How does the way data is collected present a problem?
In NCIC, there aren’t enough race categories—it’s either “Alaska Native” or “American Indian.” Beyond that, it’s also important to know if a person is a member of the Cherokee or Crow Nation, for instance, or maybe also affiliated with another Tribe. Grouping people into one category doesn’t serve justice when you are at the granular level of an investigation.

Why is the term “Indian” still used by government officials?
Growing up I was taught that term was offensive, but during my work for the Commission, I learned that when you’re speaking about Native American land, the legal term is “Indian Country.” Additionally, Alaskan Natives don’t like being called “Indian”—they live on Alaskan land. But if we explain why we need to use the term in certain circumstances, it goes a long way to show respect. I found that changed the entire conversation when talking with Native partners.

How have you built bridges of respect with your Native American partners?
By creating relationships. I reached out to our Mount Pleasant post in Michigan and the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe Police Chief and asked them to be experts on relationship matters. Michigan is home to 12 federally recognized Tribes and a few that are not. And in the state’s not-so-distant past, there were at least three state-funded Indian boarding schools, where Indigenous people were not allowed to speak their language, celebrate traditions, or practice their religion. Because of that, Native American law enforcement partners and citizens often associate non-Native [law enforcement/legal] personnel with trauma. It’s important to acknowledge that, to tell them you understand why they may not trust us. Relationships built on a foundation of mutual respect are critical. You’ve got to be able to have difficult conversations with one another honestly and openly, and still be able to respect each other. Accomplishing this is possible, but takes intentional work on both sides.

Tell us about the importance of cultural awareness and historical training.
Learning about the culture really helps. For example, when non-Native people get sick, they go to the doctor. But for Native peoples, it’s very different. [When going to] Indian Health Service care, a person is asked, “How much Indian are you, and what kind?” Some clinics only serve members of certain Tribes. All that matters before treatment. So that’s the kind of thing our Indian partners face on Indian land. Historical awareness is also important [to understand inherent conflicts between Tribes]. Many were warring Tribes for generations before [the U.S. government] put them on the same reservation and said, “Be happy.”

How have you approached the complexities involved in working with different Tribes?
Every Tribe needs its own voice to be heard, and this takes significant communication and collaboration. The best way to address our Tribal partners’ needs is to ask them. We should ask them not only “What do you need?” but also, “What can I help you with?”

As you reflect on your Commission work, what’s next for you?
My work on the Commission was some of the hardest I’ve done. It was frustrating at times, and I had a huge learning curve, but I feel like I’ve helped, and know I’ve made connections with some phenomenal people. And while I’m sad to see the Commission’s work come to an end, I look forward to the next goal: Implementing AMBER Alert in Indian Country. For many of us on the Commission, the focus will be to bring our Native American partners to the table as advisors, equals, and subject-matter experts. Together, we can really address their needs.

By Jody Garlock

As the disappearance of 9-year-old Charlotte Sena from an Upstate New York park in the fall of 2023 began to garner national media attention, the parallels to another case flashed through the mind of Victoria Martuscello, Investigator/Assistant AMBER Alert Coordinator for the New York State Police (NYSP).

Photo of the law enforcement group involved in the search for Charlotte Sena in Upstate New York. — New York State Police Senior Investigator and AMBER Alert Coordinator Erika Hock (center) was among the relieved authorities at the command center during Charlotte’s safe recovery.

Shortly before Charlotte was reported missing by her family, her bike had been found abandoned on the side of a road at Moreau Lake State Park. For Martuscello, the report evoked a familiar sense of doom. “It felt like we had a classic case of Amber Hagerman playing out right in front of our faces,” she says, referencing the 9-year-old Texas girl whose 1996 abduction and murder led to the creation of our nation’s AMBER Alert program.

Meanwhile, as the critical window of time for the best odds of recovery loomed, Erika Hock, Martuscello’s supervisor and the NYSP Senior Investigator and AMBER Alert Coordinator who issued the AMBER Alert for Charlotte, couldn’t help but feel hope was waning.

Conversely, Hock and Martuscello were uplifted to see the hundreds of law enforcement professionals engaged in Charlotte’s search, as well as public interest in the case—heightened by the rallying call of New York Governor Kathy Hochul.

After an expansive search lasting nearly two days, the words “We got her! We got her!” bellowed through a speaker phone at the Saratoga County command post. The fact that the fourth-grader was alive and well brought cheers throughout the post and community at large.

Charlotte’s rescue was nothing short of a miracle. Her case had defied the odds. But it would also test the fortitude of New York’s AMBER Alert plan—and offers lessons for other agencies. (See “Five key takeaways” at the end of this story.)

Saturday, September 30, 2023, was a beautiful autumn day in the foothills of New York’s Adirondack Mountains. The Sena family was enjoying the weekend with friends in two wooded camping spots at Moreau Lake State Park, about 45 miles north of Albany (and 20 minutes from the Sena’s home).

Throughout the day, Charlotte, clad in a tie-dye T-shirt, had been riding her green and blue mountain bike with her siblings and friends around the camping loop, a tree-canopied road ringed with campsites close to the park’s entrance. By dinnertime, most of Charlotte’s group were ready to call it a day, but she wanted to make one final loop on her own. When she didn’t return as expected, her parents began searching for her, as did other campers—all of them calling out for the girl in the forested park.

Within 20 minutes (about 6:45 p.m.), Charlotte’s dad and a friend found her bike on the side of the camping loop road, but she was nowhere in sight. That alarmed her mother enough to call 911.

Photo of New York Governor Kathy Hochul speaking at a press conference related to Charlotte Sena's abduction — During the search for Charlotte, “I promised her parents we’ll find their daughter,” said New York Governor Kathy Hochul. “She’s all of our daughters.”

New York State Police Troopers arrived on the scene to canvass for information. They soon learned that shortly before Charlotte went missing, a couple at the campground had come across a bike blocking the middle of the road where they were driving. With its kickstand down, they assumed the rider had parked there temporarily, so the driver beeped the horn, hoping its owner would come back and move it. But after several minutes without a response, they decided to move it to the side of the road and continue their drive.

Based on the bike’s orderly position, officers initially didn’t think foul play was involved, Hock explains. “They thought she’d wandered into the woods and gotten lost. Nothing pointed to an abduction.”

With nightfall looming, the search intensified. Around 11 p.m., the Missing Persons Clearinghouse issued a missing child alert and distributed a poster with Charlotte’s photo. Ultimately hundreds of searchers—including police officers, forest rangers, trained canines, drone operators, underwater recovery teams, firefighters, technology experts, volunteers, and the state’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation—joined in to try to find the missing girl.

Without any sign of Charlotte by early Sunday morning, a NYSP lieutenant and support staff updated Hock, who agreed there was “reasonable cause” to conclude she was in danger, and likely had been abducted, thereby meeting New York’s criteria to issue an AMBER Alert.

At 9:30 a.m., Hock issued an AMBER Alert geo-targeting two regions skirting the park. At that pointin the investigation, an FBI Child Abduction Rapid Deployment (CARD) team joined the investigation. (New York’s statewide Child Abduction Response Team (CART) was in development at the time.) The governor put out a plea for the child’s safe return. Major news outlets began reporting the story, and hundreds of tips poured in. Still, the 9-year-old’s whereabouts remained a mystery.

As word of Charlotte’s disappearance circulated, the Sena home in Greenfield received a steady flow of traffic from well-wishers—known and unknown—who dropped off messages of support. While the distraught family remained at the park, their house was under police surveillance. Nothing seemed unusual until around 4:30 a.m. Monday, when a dark F-150 pickup truck pulled up to the mailbox and placed something in it.

The trooper watching the home, unable to record the license plate, immediately retrieved the item, and saw it was a crudely produced ransom note—and a critical piece of evidence. As authorities began a search for vehicles matching the truck’s description and conducted other analytical data, they also expedited a fingerprint analysis on the ransom note. Then came a lucky break: A fingerprint was found on the note. And what’s more, it matched that of 46-year-old Craig N. Ross Jr., who had been arrested in 1999 for driving while intoxicated.

By then, the state’s Cellular Analysis Response Team had verified that Ross’s cellular device was in the vicinity of the park when Charlotte disappeared, so authorities obtained search warrants for addresses linked to Ross.

Around 6:30 that evening, tactical teams swarmed a ramshackle camper on Ross’s mother’s property. Ross briefly resisted arrest, but ultimately Charlotte was found safe in a bedroom closet. Ross was arrested and charged with kidnapping, and later would be charged with sexual assault. In February 2024, he pleaded guilty to those charges.

Photos of Charlotte Sena's abductor, Craig N. Ross, and Ross' camper the 9-year-old girl was discovered in. — Craig N. Ross Jr. was booked at the Saratoga County jail shortly after tactical teams found Charlotte concealed in his camper.

As Ross awaits sentencing, Hock and Martuscello continue to field questions about how the case was handled. While there are lessons to learn from every case, the key takeaway for both investigators was that adhering to the state’s protocol for issuing AMBER Alerts worked.

From the outset, their investigative team worked quickly to find Charlotte using comprehensive investigative strategies and tools. The public was alerted once the criteria had been met—and only in a specific area where the 9-year-old was likely to be. The goal is to provide the public with information that can help, rather than confuse, efforts to locate a missing child. Strategic, targeted alerting helps prevent people from becoming de-sensitized to AMBER Alerts, which can be a deadly consequence of public indifference.

Both Hock and Martuscello remain confident in their roles and the established protocols.

“I have friends ask why AMBER Alerts aren’t issued for every missing child, but if you get an AMBER Alert every time a child goes missing, your phone would be going off all day long,” Martuscello says. “I ask them what they think they would do because of that. They say, ‘You’re right, I would turn off that alert.’”

“This case had so many aspects that defied the odds,” says Erika Hock, New York State Police Senior Investigator and AMBER Alert Coordinator. Here she shares insights on what she learned—with lessons other Coordinators can apply.

Be prepared for scrutiny and criticism. Any case—but especially a high-profile one—underscores the need to meticulously follow protocols. Members of the public and media often don’t understand how and why AMBER Alerts are issued, Hock explains, so “as an AMBER Alert Coordinator, you can’t have a weak spine. These cases aren’t cut and dried—each one has a gray area. It’s not easy to make the decisions but you have to [using the information you have at the time].”
Act without delay on the information you have. Having critical details—a license plate number or description of the suspected abductor—helps find missing children faster, but sometimes AMBER Alert Coordinators must alert the public using only a photo and description of the missing child. Geo-targeting focuses the information on the people most likely to see the child, and prevents citizens within a large area from receiving alerts that might prompt them to disable their cellphone’s AMBER Alert function.
Understand that cases are fluid. Some New Yorkers questioned why there wasn’t an immediate AMBER Alert, or why they didn’t receive the notification in their region—which prompted a New York legislator to begin pushing a bill to allow parents or guardians to request early activation. New York’s criteria for an activation specifies “reasonable cause”—defined as an eyewitness account or the elimination of other possibilities—to believe a child has been abducted. Without an eyewitness, Hock knew to let the initial search rule out possibilities, such as Charlotte being injured from falling down an embankment. She was also prepared to expand the alert to other activation regions in the state if new information warranted.
Make it a team effort. Hock advises AMBER Alert Coordinators to loop in their Public Information Officer as soon as the decision to activate is made. That person or team can then help the media and public understand the criteria.
Cultivate relationships with state law enforcement. In the Sena case, some officers had previously worked in Hock’s unit, and thus were familiar with the activation criteria. “In the past we’ve had demands to activate an AMBER Alert when it’s not even close to meeting our criteria,” Hock says. “But we have these criteria for a reason, and take the time to explain it to agencies [and the public] so they can understand.”

AMBER Alert Training & Technical Assistance Program Administrator Janell Rasmussen speaks to more than 200 Symposium attendees. {Photo credit: AATTAP}

AATTAP Region One Liaison Joan Collins helps Megan Eschleman of the California Department of Justice use a QR code to check in for a session using the Whova app. {Photo credit: AATTAP}

Photo of two women hugging at the Symposium. AMBER Alert Coordinators and child protection professionals from across the nation and abroad reunited for the annual learning event. {Photo credit: AATTAP}

Missing Child Center-Hawaii Coordinator Amanda Leonard and Honolulu Police Department Detective William Oku “hang loose” during a break. {Photo credit: AATTAP}

AATTAP Region 4 Liaison Josefina Sabori is honored to wear her badge for the event. {Photo credit: AATTAP}

Sibling-survivor Kimber Biggs shares her story during the Symposium. {Photo credit: AATTAP}

AATTAP-NCJTC Instructor/retired FBI Special Agent David Fallon leads a workshop on family member abductions. {Photo credit: AATTAP}

Sibling-survivor Kimber Biggs (right) talks with parent-survivor Pamela Foster at the Symposium. “Pamela is such an inspiration to me—and anyone who has endured a similar loss,” Biggs said. {Photo credit: AATTAP}

Sibling-survivor Kimber Biggs photographed her AMBER Alert lapel pin and two gifts from Ashlynne’s mother, Pamela Foster: a memorial button and a pair of earrings with wording from the Ashlynne Mike AMBER Alert in Indian Country Act of 2018.

The DOJ’s Native American Outreach Services Liaison, Marlys Big Eagle (who served as a keynote speaker), discusses her MMIP work with AIIC Program Manager Tyesha Wood. {Photo credit: AATTAP}

AMBER Alert Coordinators Janell Twardowski of Minnesota (left) and Melissa Marchant of Wisconsin pose for a photo. {Photo credit: AATTAP}

By Denise Gee Peacock

Hundreds of state and regional AMBER Alert Coordinators, Missing Person Clearinghouse Managers, Tribal law enforcement officers, public alerting/emergency management experts, and federal officials gathered in New Orleans February 27–28 to attend the 2024 National AMBER Alert and AMBER Alert in Indian Country Symposium.

The no-fee training and collaborative learning event, funded through the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, and administered by the AMBER Alert Training and Technical Assistance Program (AATTAP), engaged attendees in discussing developing trends and case studies, sharing best practices, and training with other child protection partners to better respond to endangered missing and abducted child cases.

Held at the historic Hotel Monteleone in New Orleans’ French Quarter, the Symposium featured 26 workshops led by dozens of subject-matter experts as well as three keynote speakers. It also included six regional and Tribal breakout sessions that allowed for in-depth discussions on issues of importance to their states and Tribes.

Amanda Leonard, Coordinator for the Missing Child Center-Hawaii/Department of the Attorney General, flew more than 4,200 miles to attend the Symposium with Honolulu Police Department Detective William “Billy” Oku.

“The survivors and trainers at this event give us the needed reminder of why we serve as AMBER Alert Coordinators,” Leonard said. “It’s an incredible opportunity to excel in our important collective work. One team, one fight!”

AATTAP Administrator Janell Rasmussen welcomed hundreds of participants representing nearly every state in the nation, as well as the program’s Northern Border Initiative partner, Canada.

In crediting the grant support that the AATTAP and its AMBER Alert in Indian Country (AIIC) Initiative receives from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), Rasmussen recognized two OJJDP attendees—AATTAP Grant Manager Alex Sarrano, and Lou Ann Holland, Grant Manager for the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), “for their dedication to protecting children, and their passion for the work being done” by those at the Symposium.

Rasmussen praised attendees’ “hard work—work most people could not do—on behalf of missing children. Many of them are home today, but some are not. Let’s remember Elijah Vue in Wisconsin, Morgan Nick in Arkansas, Mikelle Biggs in Arizona, and Navaeh Kingbird in Minnesota. These children and so many others deserve to be found, to be reunited with their families, and to grow up in a safe environment.”

Training ‘for you, by you’

The AATTAP team develops and delivers training opportunities crafted “for you, by you”—and each Symposium is the standard bearer of that.

“ ‘For you, by you’ isn’t just a catchphrase—it’s our guiding principle,” said Byron Fassett, AATTAP Deputy Administrator. “Everything on the agenda is the result of our team asking everyone at last year’s Symposium—and everyone who participated in hundreds of our classes since then—‘What do you want to see?’ and ‘What are your needs?’”

Additionally, Symposium-goers had a digital, interactive tool for planning, collaborating, and providing feedback: the event app Whova. The platform let participants review the agenda, plan for sessions they wished to attend, map out class locations, check into sessions, weigh in on discussion topics, connect for lunch or dinner, share photos, and much more. Attendees also could suggest topics and locations for next year’s Symposium.

Guest speaker Brad Russ, Executive Director of the National Criminal Justice Training Center (NCJTC) of Fox Valley Technical College (FVTC), said he was proud to see how far training topics and techniques have advanced from what he experienced during his early days in law enforcement in New Hampshire.

Russ’s respected work would ultimately lead the OJJDP to seek his involvement in nationwide training that began more than 30 years ago. During that time, missing child advocate Patty Wetterling of Minnesota “helped open the eyes and hearts of stoic police officers with her powerful insight into what parents face when their child goes missing,” he recalled.

Russ also commended an early mentor—OJJDP/FVTC instructor and retired Pennsylvania Police Sergeant Gary O’Connor—for advancing traditional training techniques that historically involved staid presentations full of statistics into curriculum and instructional design employing more dynamic approaches, such as engaging participants through robust discussions, knowledge checks, and tabletop exercises. Russ has ensured such effective strategies have carried forward since the NCJTC’s creation in 2009.

The power of family perspectives

Cover of the resource guide "When Your Child Is Missing: A Family Survival Guide" with link to website: https://amberadvocate.org/families — **Visit the *Family Survival Guide* website: amberadvocate.org/families.**

Symposium attendees received copies of the newly updated resource, When Your Child Is Missing: A Family Survival Guide. They also learned about its companion website, which gives caregivers and law enforcement instant access to the Guide’s multimedia content, including videos of the parent-survivors sharing powerful stories and advice.

“When we released the Guide on Missing Children’s Day 2023, the families involved in its production joined us for a meeting with OJJDP Administrator Liz Ryan and her team,” said AATTAP Administrator Rasmussen. “The parent-authors were adamant that law enforcement needed more guidance on how to best work with, and understand, families of missing children. They also emphasized that missing child cases, and relevant training, should be a priority for law enforcement.”

As a result, Ryan asked the AATTAP to help update the resource guide, What About Me? Coping With the Abduction of a Brother or Sister. “Siblings of missing children often suffer in silence, but need so much support,” Rasmussen said.

Two family members who are helping produce the new sibling guide served as keynote speakers for the Symposium.

Kimber Biggs spoke about the devastating loss of her 11-year-old sister, Mikelle Biggs. On January 2, 1999, Mikelle was abducted while riding her bike near her family’s Arizona home—and never seen again. Biggs was 9 years old when that trauma took place, but she has spent 25 years advocating on her sister’s behalf. She now works as an Associate with the AATTAP-NCJTC.

Photo of young girl with her bicycle. — Mikelle Biggs is shown shortly before she was abducted near her Arizona home in 1999. She is still missing. {Photo: Courtesy Biggs family}

Biggs shared several distressing interactions with law enforcement “that I hope you all can learn from.” The biggest blow, she said, was set in motion after detectives learned that her father was having an affair at the time of her sister’s disappearance.

“And instead of looking at other suspects—including a registered sex offender on our street—they fixated on my dad and the affair. That was a huge setback for the case,” Biggs said. “Their thinking that he was guilty of harming my sister only added to our family’s trauma.”

While it’s taken more than two decades to see renewed interest “in what was a very cold case,” a new detective has been assigned to it, Biggs said. “That’s a great relief. It’s nice to have someone now who is trustworthy and proactive. We communicate at least weekly. And the fact that he’s eyeing a significant suspect in the case makes it feel like something is finally happening.”

On the Symposium’s second day, Pamela Foster shared her powerful story. Foster is the mother of the late 11-year-old Ashlynne Mike, whose May 2016 abduction and murder on the Navajo Nation in New Mexico led to Foster becoming a self-described “warrior mom”—not only for her daughter, but for all children in Indian Country.

“Words cannot describe the brokenness I felt when I learned Ashlynne had been murdered,” Foster said. “Words cannot describe the sheer anguish my family and the community felt at the sudden death of our precious little girl. A deep heartache followed.”

Her anguish would be further heightened after learning that the Navajo Nation—the nation’s largest Indian reservation, spanning three states—was not equipped to quickly issue an AMBER Alert. And confusion by outside law enforcement over who had the proper jurisdiction to issue the alert created a major delay in finding Ashlynne.

“Within weeks, I started petitions to bring the AMBER Alert to Indian Country,” she said. “I called for action from my friends, the Navajo Nation, and the federal government. And though I was physically exhausted and spiritually broken, I poured my heart into effecting legislative change.”

With the support of late U.S. Senator John McCain and Representative Andy Biggs, both of Arizona, by 2018, the Ashlynne Mike AMBER Alert in Indian Country Act was signed into law—and ultimately lead to the creation of AATTAP’s AMBER Alert in Indian Country Initiative. “I’m always reassured whenever I see an AMBER Alert doing what it’s supposed to do,” Foster said.

Photo of Derek VanLuchene and Pamela Foster holding quilt. — **COVER STORY EXTRA:** Parent-survivor/2024 Symposium keynote speaker Pamela Foster surprised sibling-survivor/AATTAP Project Coordinator Derek VanLuchene with an art quilt that she made in tribute to VanLuchene’s late brother, Ryan, and his dog, Herschel. **Read “Healing Through Comfort.” https://amberadvocate.org/amber-feature/aa58-healing-through-comfort-quilt/**

After Foster’s talk, AATTAP Administrator Rasmussen and AIIC Program Manager Tyesha Wood presented her with a gift “in recognition of her ongoing bravery, generosity, and never-ending commitment to moving AMBER Alert in Indian Country initiatives forward in memory of Ashlynne—and all missing children,” Rasmussen said. “Pamela’s tireless work has changed the way we respond to missing children in Indian Country. Today, the Navajo Nation has an AMBER Alert Plan, and many other Tribal nations are working with state and regional partners to ensure that what happened to Ashlynne never happens again.”

“As painful as Kimber and Pamela’s experiences are to hear, it’s important that we do hear them to help improve our response,” said keynote speaker Marlys Big Eagle. A member of the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe in South Dakota, Big Eagle serves as the National Native American Outreach Services Liaison for the U.S. Department of Justice, and has worked in criminal justice for more than two decades. Her work centers on the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons (MMIP) Initiative and other public safety issues in Indian Country.

Over and out—and energized

At the conclusion of the Symposium, Rasmussen reminded attendees of what family members of missing children said after finalizing their work on the Family Survival Guide. “When we asked them, ‘If you could tell law enforcement what they need to hear, what would you say? ’ One of the parents mentioned earlier, Patty Wetterling, said, ‘We know the work that you do is hard; that you have families to go home to; that the work you’ve done during the day remains with you. But remember: We’re suffering the most horrific event of our lives. So we’re counting on you to do everything possible to bring our child home. But also know that we thank you for everything you do.’”

These and other words of advice and encouragement bolstered conversations long after the Symposium ended. Using the Whova app, attendees could continue discussing how to fund new technology; start and sustain a CART; improve leads management; navigate the changing social media landscape; adapt to the growing number of emergency alert classifications; develop ways to capture data; and keep people properly trained during staffing shortages. They also used the Whova platform to provide important feedback for next year’s Symposium.

Calling the conference “one of the most outstanding ones to date,” Hawaii’s AMBER Alert Coordinator Amanda Leonard also shared this: “On my way home to Honolulu via Houston, as soon as the plane landed, I received an AMBER Alert for a 12-year-old girl abducted in the city. I felt so connected to the Texas law enforcement team working her case and helping her terrified loved ones. The work never ends—and abducted children need us to be prepared to issue a lifesaving AMBER Alert for them.”

(more…)

By Denise Gee Peacock

Photo of Tyesha Wood, AMBER Alert Training & Technical Assistance Program Manager of the AMBER Alert in Indian Country Initiative — Tyesha M. Wood

Tyesha M. Wood—a Program Manager for the AMBER Alert Training & Technical Assistance Program (AATTAP) who oversees the AMBER Alert in Indian Country (AIIC) Initiative—is one of five public servants selected by the End Violence Against Women International (EVAWI) organization as a 2024 “Champion of Change.”

EVAWI operates as a catalyst for justice and healing, “so that every survivor of sexual assault and domestic violence gets the right response, every time,” the non-profit group says. “Champions of Change work on a state or national level, to create system-level reforms in the way we respond to sexual assault, intimate partner violence, and other forms of gender-based violence.”

Wood was chosen as a “Champion of Change” because she is a “powerful advocate with an unwavering commitment to justice for children and victims of interpersonal violence in Indian Country,” the EVAWI notes.

Crediting Wood’s 17-year career in law enforcement—during which she was a detective specializing in domestic violence cases and crimes against children—EVAWI notes this about her:

Ms. Wood, a member of the Navajo Nation, is revered for her expertise in helping communities develop strategic, cross-jurisdictional responses to safely recover missing or abducted children. … A national speaker on issues of protecting Native youth from human trafficking and abuse, Wood works directly with communities, traveling to remote villages and Tribal lands around the country. Because culturally specific responses are crucial to protecting Indigenous children, she helps communities apply relevant solutions and implement comprehensive child recovery strategies. …

Wood’s leadership in promoting culturally and trauma-informed responses also extends to survivors of sexual assault. As a detective with Gila River Police Department, she helped launch the first “Start by Believing” campaign in Indian Country.

Wood’s personal dedication and professional effectiveness in strengthening responses to sex trafficking, aiding missing and exploited children, and driving implementation of culturally sensitive approaches make her an inspiration to all.

AATTAP’s AMBER Alert in Indian Country Initiative was established in 2007 by the Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs with the goal of creating and expanding child recovery practices, capacity, and resources in Tribal communities. For more details about the AIIC’s training opportunities and outreach, visit https://bit.ly/AIICinfo or its website, amber-ic.org.

The EVAWI was founded in 2003 by Sergeant Joanne Archambault of the San Diego Police Department. During her decades of work with victims, Sergeant Archambault saw a critical need for training law enforcement in how to investigate sexual assault and domestic violence. Criminal justice practitioners simply did not have the training and support they needed to conduct thorough investigations guided by best practices. EVAWI was created to fill this void. For more details about the 2024 “Champions of Change,” visit https://evawintl.org/creating-change/.

By Jody Garlock

Each second felt like an eternity as Eddie Bertola stared at the blank screen in front of him. While composing an AMBER Alert for the California Highway Patrol, then-Sergeant Bertola was all too aware that a child’s life depended on him getting the procedure right. That’s why he dedicated himself to learning everything he could about alerting technology—and became very good at his job.

We recently caught up with Bertola, and fellow AMBER Alert Training & Technical Assistance Program (AATTAP) Associate Instructor Tony Godwin, to find out what new or emerging technological tools are on their radars for 2024—and think they should be on yours too.

While Eddie Bertola and Tony Godwin have taken different paths in law enforcement, both nationally respected professionals embrace the significant role that technology plays in helping prevent, and find, missing and exploited children.

After 15 years with the California Highway Patrol, Bertola now serves as an Associate with the National Criminal Justice Training Center (NCJTC) and AATTAP, helping train law enforcement to use the latest technological tools and resources to operate better and faster. He’s also working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to test new software that can generate exacting emergency messages with just a few clicks.

NCJTC-AATTAP Associate Godwin is a veteran detective with the Garland Police Department in Texas, and a member of the North Texas Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force. He remembers when “high tech” meant the ability to send emails. Now he’s a certified cellphone and computer forensics examiner who investigates child exploitation and other crimes against children that occur in areas where young people may be lured into a false sense of safety, such as a gaming app’s chat room. The combined knowledge of Godwin and Bertola is invaluable for law enforcement trainees.

1) Message Design Dashboard: Building a better WEA

New message-writing software is in development that will allow for more effective Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEAs)—not only to spur the public into action, but also to lessen the pressure on officials tasked with writing and disseminating the alerts.

The Message Design Dashboard, developed by the Center for Technology in Government at the University at Albany in New York, creates a common structure so that alerting authorities can compile consistent messaging via easy-to-use dropdown menus and prompts.

The Dashboard stems from a FEMA-funded project to support the agency’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS), which powers and authenticates the nation’s emergency alerts. The Dashboard project used research to develop the software, which factored in social science to form clear, actionable messaging.

The software should be ready for use with AMBER Alert messaging in early 2024 says Jeannette Sutton, a University at Albany professor who heads the project and specializes in disaster and risk. Bertola and Sutton emphasize the ease of using the Dashboard, where users can click desired descriptors from dropdown menus. As answers are selected, the message is automatically built in a preview box at the side of the screen, with all content remaining editable. “We believe a common structure will improve messaging and get people to follow a consistent set of information and style of writing,” Sutton says.

The software tracks the character count, building a 90-character message that IPAWS requires, along with a 360-character message that most of today’s devices can receive. Hyperlinks are also checked to ensure they don’t go to an invalid page, which can erode public trust in the process.

2) Flock Safety: Real-time vehicle intelligence

One product that’s making a marked difference in how police officers do their jobs is Flock Safety, a system with high-quality cameras, video, and other technology (shown at right) that reads license plates in order to provide real-time actionable intelligence.

“It’s been the biggest game-changer for us,” Godwin says. “It’s really altered how we work in law enforcement.”

Thirty years ago, the process of running tags and finding a vehicle was “almost like trying to catch a unicorn,” he says. With Flock Safety, officers receive alerts when a wanted vehicle passes by a camera. The notifications give the reason for the alert, date/time, and which camera the vehicle drove past. The alert also sends a picture of the vehicle, the license plate, and a map location.

In September 2023, Flock Safety equipment helped Elizabethtown, Kentucky, police safely recover a toddler caught up in a carjacking.

“Of all the years I’ve been doing this, I can’t think of … a more game-changing piece of technology for law enforcement,” said Elizabethtown Police Chief Jeremy Thompson when asking the city council for more Flock cameras to be added to the system installed six months earlier. “I’ve heard council members say that if we recover one kidnapped child, it was worth it. And in my opinion, no truer words have been spoken.”

Flock gathers only open source data, such as car tag information. The cameras read license plates only; they don’t identify motorists (there’s no facial recognition) or record speeds. The system, which uses artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, sends an alert to law enforcement only if the vehicle has been entered into the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database, such as if it’s a stolen vehicle or wanted in connection with an AMBER Alert, or if an officer has entered it as a follow-up on an investigation. Data collected is deleted after 30 days.

At $2,500 per camera per year, the system is decidedly an investment. But if such a cost is prohibitive, Godwin says traditional license plate recognition (LPR) technology is still beneficial.

Screengrab from Ring doorbell: In 2022, a Ring doorbell camera documented the attempted abduction of a 6-year-old Ohio girl who was taking out the family’s trash. A man grabbed her and started dragging her down the sidewalk, but released her due to her screams. The video helped authorities apprehend the abductor. — In 2022, a Ring doorbell camera **documented** the attempted abduction of a 6-year-old Ohio girl who was taking out the family’s trash. A man grabbed her and started dragging her down the sidewalk but released her due to her screams. The video helped authorities apprehend the abductor.

3) Doorbell cameras: Public-engaging technology

Crime-fighting technology is branching beyond expensive equipment in patrol cars and computers in the office. Everyday consumer technology, such as doorbell cameras available for as little as $60, has emerged as a valuable resource to help law enforcement piece together investigations and prosecute cases.

“The growing public engagement in this area is one of the things I’m most excited about,” Bertola says.

He expects a continued increase in the public’s proactive sharing of video from doorbell, security, car dashboard, and cellphone cameras when they think it may help—rather than officers having to knock on doors and ask for the information.

“This type of rapid exchange of information is huge,” Bertola says. “Law enforcement seems to be starting to focus on harnessing that.” Some agencies have begun mapping subdivisions and other areas to note places with doorbell or other security cameras.

“Doing little things like that is going to help with trust in the community,” he says. “And as the community sees this, they’re going to become even more willing to share and become a partner.”

4) Open Source Intelligence: Digging deep for answers

“Any investigation into a child’s disappearance should include Open Source Intelligence (OSINT),” Godwin says. He considers it “one of the most crucial law enforcement techniques in the digital world.”

OSINT is an umbrella term for collecting and analyzing data from publicly available sources, much of it via the Internet, for intelligence purposes. Its origins date to World War II, when William Donovan began using it for the Office of Strategic Services, the forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency.

“It’s an important tool as we are looking into investigations, especially reactive ones where we don’t know much about our person,” Godwin says.

Screengrab of Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) research site recommended by AATTAP tech expert Tony Godwin — Godwin suggests investigators use the multiple layers of research tools available at **OSINTFramework.com**.

Most crimes today leave digital traces, and OSINT picks up those fragments of data. The information is vast, so an OSINT framework provides links to the best resources to easily find information about a target and browse various OSINT tools.

The main types of OSINT resources are mass media (such as print, digital, TV, radio); “gray literature” (such as documents and reports from charities, census data, and academic publications); and social media.

Web searches encompass three categories:
• Surface web, which is the traditional method/platform;
• Deep web/dark net, which requires a specific URL or IP address; and
• Dark web, which requires special tools, such as the anonymizing browser Tor.

The OSINT cycle starts with planning to ensure there’s a clear understanding of the types of information needed. It then proceeds to collecting, processing, and analyzing the data before the intelligence is ultimately disseminated.

The process is time-consuming, which is why Godwin is encouraged to see departments hiring full-time crime analysts to lead the charge and ensure information is gathered effectively and ethically.

5) Artificial intelligence: Growing & evolving

No technology has exploded more in recent times than artificial intelligence (AI). It’s considered the next big thing, even though machine learning dates to the 1950s. “AI is not yet widely used internally, but it will be,” Godwin says.

Police departments around the United States already use a form of AI in image recognition technology that reads license plates and other vehicle information. Similarly, Godwin expects facial recognition technology to become a “more powerful and more important” tool in improving efficiencies in law enforcement and getting criminals off the streets.

“There are so many cameras everywhere you go,” he says. “I think that’s where the future will go for us, making it much easier to solve crimes.” (Facial recognition technology helped authorities identify some of the rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. More recently, authorities in the United Kingdom used it to investigate child exploitation cold cases, which led to the arrest of a Missouri man.)

Analytically, AI is being used in criminal investigations to help sift through vast amounts of data. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) uses Logikcull to filter, gather, and package information for law enforcement and prosecutors. The AI tool has saved NCMEC thousands of hours, allowing its legal staff to operate more efficiently.

The downsides of AI include deepfake technology that can convincingly mimic a person’s physical appearance and voice. Last year, federal officials even issued warnings about virtual kidnapping fraud that uses AI to clone a loved one’s voice.

Godwin expects deepfake detection apps and tools to make strides, though they are evolving.

Detection tools already available include Google’s SynthID and Meta’s Stable Signature, which embed digital watermarks in video and audio; Pindrop and Veridas, which examine details such as how sounds of words sync up with a speaker’s mouth; and AntiFake, which scrambles an audio signal to make it harder to be cloned by AI.

As deepfake technology becomes more sophisticated, some experts are calling on the federal government to regulate it. Additionally, critics claim that law enforcement’s use of AI technology could infringe on privacy and civil rights, leading to false arrests. And there’s concern that “automation bias”—a person’s propensity to trust automated systems over their own judgment—could have authorities failing to look at the information critically.

Godwin knows that organizations will need to balance the risk and rewards of AI, which U.S. Department of Justice Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco calls one of “the most important issues we face in law enforcement, national security, the protection of privacy, and civil liberties.”

Be on the Lookout: More Tech Advances

Better Equipping Indian Country

FEDERAL WINS:

On November 30, 2023, the U.S. Department of the Interior established a new Office of Indigenous Communications and Technology (OICT) to assist Tribal Nations in managing, developing, and maintaining broadband infrastructure, new electromagnetic spectrum easing mechanisms, and in providing technical assistance for the establishment of wireless, digital, and technological projects on Tribal lands.
The Biden administration has pledged nearly $3 billion to expand access to broadband on Tribal lands. The Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program, part of the White House’s “Internet for All Initiative,” has so far awarded $1.86 billion in grants to 226 Tribal communities to build highspeed Internet infrastructures, establish affordable Internet access programs, and support digital inclusion projects.

AMBER ALERT IN INDIAN COUNTRY:

The AATTAP’s AMBER Alert in Indian Country (AIIC) team is continuing to distribute Technology Toolkits to Tribal law enforcement agencies from Alabama to Washington. Equipped with a rugged portable case, Toughbook tablet, digital camera, and more, the toolkits provide Tribal authorities with additional resources to best respond to cases of missing and abducted children. “Tribal communities have long lacked access to high-speed Internet, limiting their ability in the field—especially in remote areas where rugged terrain makes it difficult to build infrastructure,” says AIIC Program Manager Tyesha Wood.
The AIIC has partnered with the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) to offer high-speed, wireless Internet service to select Tribes. Congress established the independent authority to develop a nationwide broadband network dedicated to public safety. More than 70 Tribal nations use FirstNet, and in the last two years, coverage (through AT&T) has increased more than 40 percent on federally recognized Tribal lands.
The Navajo Nation—the largest Indian reservation in the U.S., spanning three states—is building a vast modern communications system. The Navajo Tribal Utility Authority earmarked its $50 million grant to fund 11 new telecommunications towers, install more than 200 miles of fiber and cable/wireless broadband equipment, and increase or connect high-speed Internet to more than 20,000 Native American households. It also aims to enhance mobile broadband connectivity for first responders.

NCMEC’s QR Code to the Rescue

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) is confident one of its newest tech-smart initiatives—using a QR code on missing child posters—can revolutionize the search for endangered missing children.

By scanning the poster’s QR code with a cell phone, the user can get much more information than what a poster typically would allow. Users can also access photos and descriptive details for all missing children reported within a 50-mile radius. “Instead of sharing one missing child poster, the public can view all missing children in their immediate area, whether they are at home or traveling,” said Dr. John E. Bischoff, Vice President of NCMEC’s Missing Children Division, at the 2023 AATTAP-AIIC National Symposium.

NCMEC’s posters will also have larger photos of the missing child and eliminate extraneous details, such as date of birth, when the child’s age will suffice.

Policing Bad Apps

A tool powered by artificial intelligence (AI) is identifying risky apps concerning child exploitation. The App Danger Project, a website designed to create a safer online environment and help parents determine what apps are safe for their children to use, lists more than 180 apps across Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store that meet its criteria for being considered dangerous. The website also includes a search tool to easily analyze user reviews of specific apps. As a result of the initiative, Apple has removed 10 apps to date that violated the company’s guidelines.

Data Mining is Gold—But Tricky

With the amount of data law enforcement can leverage through technology, it’s crucial to have a strategy to mine the information efficiently and ethically. According to a recent article in Police Chief Magazine, the data should be stored in a single platform that can be accessed by everyone in the department, while ensuring the public’s trust is maintained. Some agencies are innovating to effectively create real-time crime centers (RTCC) that bring together data from various sources to improve efficiencies and enhance public safety.

For Searches, the Heat is On

Drones with thermal cameras are becoming a must-have tool in missing persons searches. The drones, which can be deployed quickly and cover vast areas, are able to detect body heat, even if the person reported missing is in thick brush or dark conditions. The heat signature from the thermal camera provides real-time intelligence to direct searchers to the location.

Forensic Genetic Genealogy Cracks Cold Cases

Even as the debate about DNA-related privacy issues persists, forensic investigative genetic genealogy (“FIGG”) is solving high-profile cases previously thought to be unsolvable. The emerging practice combines DNA analysis with traditional genealogy research to identify suspects and the remains of missing persons. Using FIGG, law enforcement can search ancestry databases containing DNA profiles of consenting people who are tracking family history. FIGG took hold in 2018 after authorities used GEDmatch to identify the Golden State Killer; and one researcher estimates more than 500 cold cases have been solved since.

Geolocation Finds Favor

Police in Pennsylvania have an iPad to thank for the swift recovery of an abducted 11-year-old girl—and the case serves as an example of how geolocation has become a proven investigative tool. Authorities were able to ping the location of the girl’s tablet to track her whereabouts, and ultimately arrest a man on luring charges. Geolocation uses GPS, cell phone towers, and WiFi signals to track a device (such as a cell phone, tablet, or computer), and the pings have become a key part of searches. More recently, geolocation satellite data is being integrated into artificial intelligence to enhance data analysis.

Photo of Carlos Morales Rojas, Mexico’s Alerta Amber National Coordination Liaison. At a regional conference, he showed faces of missing children—even as he was working a developing case that prompted issuance of a national AMBER Alert. — Carlos Morales Rojas, Mexico’s Alerta Amber National Coordination Liaison, showed faces of missing children—even as he was working a developing case that prompted issuance of a national AMBER Alert.

By Rebecca Sherman

On the morning of August 29, 2023, as AMBER Alert Coordinators from northern Mexico gathered in a Monterrey hotel ballroom for a three-day child protection training conference with top U.S. officials, a real-life child abduction
emergency was unfolding behind the scenes.

Hours earlier, and some 230 miles away, 15-month-old Angela Chávez had been taken from her home in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, by armed criminals during a home invasion that left her parents and another adult dead.

Angela was discovered missing by her distraught grandmother, who arrived at the home with local authorities after the murders. Realizing the infant was in grave danger, officials immediately notified Yubia Yumiko Ayala Narváez, Regional Coordinator of the Gender-Based Violence Unit of the Regional de la Fiscalia del Estado de Chihuahua, or Chihuahua North Prosecutor’s Office. But like many of her colleagues in Mexico, Narváez was at the conference, organized by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Overseas Prosecutorial Development, Assistance and Training (OPDAT) team (based in Mexico City’s U.S. Embassy) and attended by leaders of the AMBER Alert Training & Technical Assistance Program (AATTAP).

Even while at the event, Narváez discreetly sprang into action, issuing a regional Alerta Amber, Mexico’s version of a U.S. AMBER Alert. Posters of Angela—a cherubic girl with large brown eyes—were circulated on social media, and alerts buzzed on cellphones throughout the region.

Narváez also briefed fellow conference attendee Carlos Morales Rojas on the situation. As Alerta Amber National Coordination Liaison, Rojas works with Mexico’s 32 state AMBER Alert Coordinators while based in the Special Prosecutor’s Office for Crimes of Violence Against Women and Human Trafficking for the Fiscalía General de la República (FGR), or Office of the Attorney General.

Amid intense and hushed conversations, Narváez and Rojas exchanged information on the abduction during the conference presentations taking place. “Given the seriousness and urgency of the case, we knew we had to work quickly to activate the (national) AMBER Alert, but we also maintained a certain confidentiality of the information,” Rojas recalls.

The effort to rescue baby Angela quickly became a real-time case study that had officials drawing from a deep well of collective experience and training. “That allowed us to disseminate the alert with urgency, encouraging the media to reach as many people as possible,” Rojas says.

Several hours after the first alert was issued—and still with no sign of baby Angela—Rojas elevated the alert to the national level, an expanded presence that would no doubt heighten public awareness of the child’s case. Then, once the national AMBER Alert was activated, Rojas and Narváez informed conference attendees about the developing situation.

Fortuitously, the room was filled with experts on missing and endangered children who collaborated to ensure a swift response in the emerging case. They included: AATTAP Administrator Janell Rasmussen; Yesenia “Jesi” Leon Baron, AATTAP’s Project Coordinator of International and Territorial Programs (including the Southern Border Initiative) and Certification Manager for Child Abduction Response Team (CART) training initiatives; and top officials with the U.S. State Department and U.S. Embassy in Mexico City, including Gigi Scoles, Gabriela Betance, Flor Reyes, and Oswaldo Casillas.

“All of them facilitated our work, allowing us to carry it out right there at the conference,” Rojas says.

Media and public response came swiftly. Kidnappers, likely aware the case was receiving national attention, abandoned Angela in a doorway in Ciudad Juarez. A woman spotted the infant and promptly called 911, helping authorities to safely recover her 30 hours after the first AMBER Alert was issued.

“Those who took baby Angela definitely felt pressure due to the wide dissemination of the AMBER Alert,” Rojas says. “They knew that many people were looking for her.”

Mexican authorities had baby Angela in their caring hands 30 hours after the first Alerta Amber wasactivated. — Mexican authorities had baby Angela in their caring hands 30 hours after the first *Alerta Amber* was activated. The toddler is now living with relatives.

With Angela’s rescue occurring on August 31—the last day of the OPDAT conference—Narváez and Rojas were offered the opportunity to present what had just unfolded as a successful case study, “one that was the result of excellent coordination between Mexican authorities and the public,” Rojas says.

“With the conference focused on sharing AMBER Alert success stories, the case of baby Angela was significant. Training is the most important aspect of our work; that’s why we constantly share our experiences.”

AMBER Alerts, along with media reports and the public’s help in searching for a missing child, are powerful tools in the effort to recover endangered missing children, as conference attendees witnessed in real time. “Without the support of our citizens, our work would essentially be futile,” Rojas says. “We would simply be spectators of what happens.”

Photo of Dr. Noelle Hunter with her daughter, Maayimuna “Muna” — Dr. Noelle Hunter shares a happy moment with her daughter, Maayimuna “Muna.”

By Jody Garlock

Sitting in a McDonald’s restaurant in Kentucky on New Year’s Day 2011, Dr. Noelle Hunter had a sinking feeling that something was wrong. Her ex-husband was three hours late to their planned meeting spot, where he was to return their 4-year-old daughter, Maayimuna “Muna” from a holiday visit. Her maternal instinct proved to be right. She and Muna had become victims of international parental child abduction (IPCA).

It was the start of an ordeal that Dr. Hunter never could have imagined.

After the FBI was able to confirm that her ex-husband had illegally taken Muna to Mali, West Africa, Hunter thrust herself into a tireless effort to bring her daughter home. She navigated cultural nuances and complex international law, staged protests in front of embassies in Washington, D.C., pleaded with United Nations members, and worked with a congressional delegation to pressure the Mali government to return Muna. In 2014, she was finally able to bring Muna, almost 7 by that time, home safely. But Hunter never took her foot off the gas.

Dr. Noelle Hunter (at far right) walks with fellow advocates for the iStand Parent Network in Washington, D.C. — Dr. Noelle Hunter (shown far right) walks with her fellow advocates for the iStand Parent Network in Washington, D.C.

For the past decade, the mother-turned-advocate has led the iStand Parent Network, which she co-founded in February 2014 to provide resources, support, and advocacy to IPCA survivors—parents and children alike. With Muna’s help (as an iStand Youth Ambassador), she has been a champion for change to ensure other parents don’t suffer the same fate—and a support for those enduring a similar struggle. Hunter was one of eight parent co-authors of the newly updated multimedia resource, When Your Child Is Missing: A Family Survival Guide.

In September 2023, the iStand Parent Network held its final annual conference and gala as the organization concluded nearly a decade of important and committed work to bring greater awareness and better understanding about the problem of IPCA, and support families impacted by it. Hunter—a clinical assistant professor at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH)—is now transitioning from advocacy work to a behind-the-scenes role in research and policy analysis through the university’s new International Child Abduction Prevention and Research Office (ICAPRO), which she spearheaded. “I’m just hard-wired to fight for children,” she says. We spoke with her about her journey—and what’s ahead.

Quote: “There are far too many parents unaware that it can happen—until it happens.” From Dr. Noelle Hunter—IPCA victim, child advocate, and professor — **>> WATCH:** To hear Dr. Hunter tell her story and share advice for the newly updated, W *hen Your Child Is Missing: A Family Survival Guide*, visit familysurvival.amberadvocate.org/video-library/ and click on “Dr. Noelle Hunter.”

How are you and Muna doing? How have you managed to move forward?

Muna is having the best year of her life. She’s 16 and a 10th-grader. She has a close friend group who shares her quirky humor and love for anime. She’s a naturally gifted visual artist, and just started her first job at a supermarket to earn her own money. Most of all, though, she is a truly gracious young lady—very kind, respectful, gentle—with a very strong sense of self. I marvel because she could justifiably be angry, non-trusting, or generally unhappy after her abduction. But she was never that way. As for me, my bedrock faith has always sustained and empowered me—first to bring Muna home, and then to help other families, and speak truth to power. It’s the simplest and greatest reason I thrive.

Did you imagine the iStand Parent Network would last a decade?

I honestly envisioned iStand enduring in perpetuity. Our motto is [the hashtag] #iStandUntilAllChildrenComeHome, so there is grief. But it was time to sunset the organization since its parent-driven engagement had decreased. It had become basically two parts—myself and Jeffery Morehouse [also a Family Survival Guide parent-author]—doing the policy work, with a few others helping. But iStand has catalyzed other organizations to form and continue the work, including iHOPE, a Lebanon-based NGO that will take it to the next level of global engagement. And most importantly, we’ve helped empower parents to bring children home. We’ve seen most elements of our 10-point vision statement come to life. So we can rest knowing that iStand has impacted generations.

What has changed with IPCA—good or bad—in the past 10 years?

We’ve seen legislation enacted, such as the Sean and David Goldman International Child Abduction Prevention and Return Act (aka “the Goldman Act” or ICAPRA) designed to ensure compliance with the Hague Abduction Convention, which set standards of practice between countries to resolve abductions. We’ve seen the U.S. government fully implement an abduction prevention program that includes a no-fly list for at-risk children—I’m most proud of that. We’ve also seen Congress recognize April as IPCA Awareness Month.

In 2014, Hunter, her daughter Maayimuna “Muna,” and a family friend visited U.S. Senator MitchMcConnell. McConnell was part of the Kentucky delegation Hunter worked with to secure Muna’s safe return. — In 2014, Hunter, her daughter Maayimuna “Muna,” and a family friend visited U.S. Senator Mitch
McConnell. McConnell was part of the Kentucky delegation Hunter worked with to secure Muna’s safe return.

But during the pandemic, we lost a great deal of our momentum. We also believe Congress has rested on its laurels after passing ICAPRA, not giving weighty consideration to stronger enforcement of it and other laws. And tragically, there’s been little global reform on this issue. Some nations, such as the U.K., perform relatively well, while others, such as Japan, India, and Brazil, continue to disregard the Hague treaty and international norms concerning abducted children. This is brutal policy work and we’ve been doing it from a parent-advocate prospective, which gets us only so far. It’s time to shift to a data-driven approach.

Tell us about your new research initiative at UAH.

The goal is to begin to create a body of current literature in research on IPCA. Existing research is almost 20 years old and the information is woefully out of date. We want data to illustrate the scope of the problem, the gaps in federal and international responses. We want to take what we learn from the initial research to make policy recommendations to Congress. This all came about in a beautiful way. I teach classes at UAH, and in one of them we created a IPCA think tank. Students did such a wonderful job that I asked permission to develop it into an office concept, which took a year. Our 10th point of vision with iStand was to establish an independent entity that would guide research and engagement, so this is really an evolution of that.

In May 2023, Dr. Noelle Hunter spoke before the U.S. House Foreign Affairs subcommittee hearing “Bring Abducted Children Home,” televised on C-SPAN. — >> **WATCH:** Dr. Hunter speak before the U.S. House Foreign Affairs subcommittee hearing “Bring Abducted Children Home,” **televised** in May 2023.

What do you want law enforcement to know about IPCA cases?

No. 1, it is not a civil matter. The response tends to be, “We can’t do anything unless you get a court order,” and a court order is by definition a civil matter. But a parent is not required to have a court order to report their child missing. Federal law requires the child to be immediately entered into the NCIC database. No. 2, there are other laws that require law enforcement to fulfill first-responder duties without waiting for a court order. And No. 3, consider a child to be at risk when they’ve been taken internationally, regardless of if he or she is with a parent.

What was it like being one of the parent-authors of the updated When Your Child Is Missing: Family Survival Guide?

Eye-opening and transformative. I honestly had only thought about international abductions and didn’t see the number of similarities with domestic ones. I was also truly humbled by the grace of my co-authors whose children were murdered. What magnificent valor to continue to help others after the unimaginable. I was honored to be in their company and work with them on this project—which I already know is helping people: I received a call from a parent who was going down the checklist. Our hope is for it to be a widely known go-to source—for law enforcement, attorneys, social services, child and victim advocates, and others—as the first step to empower parents on this awful journey.

What’s next for you?

Besides the work I plan to do with the new International Child Abduction Prevention and Research Office, it’s time for me to live a little. Time to rest. I haven’t stopped since 2011 when my daughter was taken. It’s time to slow down and enjoy life knowing I’ve been a good soldier. And perhaps it’s time to start writing a book of this amazing story that doesn’t seem to have an end.

IPCA Myth Busters

Dr. Noelle Hunter dispels three common myths surrounding international parental child abduction (IPCA) cases

Myth: It’s feuding parents, not criminal action, that harms children and families.
Reality: Local law enforcement initially brushed off Hunter’s abduction claim, assuming she and her ex-husband had simply had a fight that would resolve itself. “I remember the exact words from them: ‘Well, I guess he just got tired of dealing with you and took her.’ ” She urges law enforcement to take parental child abduction seriously and treat it as the criminal matter it is.

Myth: Parents can just go get their child.
Reality: To get her daughter home safely, it took Hunter nearly three years of nonstop work, which involved developing a network of attorneys in both the U.S. and abroad. Despite court rulings in her favor, her ex-husband would file appeals to delay the process. Fortunately for Hunter, Muna’s return happened shortly before she turned 7—the age when a mother’s custodial rights greatly decrease in Mali. Hunter also contends that governments have been lax in enforcing the Hague Abduction Convention and holding non-compliant countries accountable.

Myth: The child is fine because he/she is with the other parent.
Reality: Even if there’s no physical harm, abducted children who have their life uprooted and are forced to adapt to a different culture takes an emotional toll, Hunter says. “My daughter was in a foreign country—she didn’t know anyone.”

Members of the AMBER Alert Training & Technical Assistance Program /AMBER Alert in Indian Country Initiative team recently presented Technology Toolkits to six Wisconsin Tribal Nations during a quarterly Native American Drug and Gang Initiative Task Force Advisory Board meeting at Oneida Indian Nation Police Headquarters in Oneida, Wisconsin.

Oneida Nation Police Lieutenant Justine Wheelock with a Technology Toolkit in Oneida, Wisconsin — Oneida Nation Police Lieutenant Justine Wheelock shows off her agency’s new Technology Toolkit in Wisconsin.

By Denise Gee Peacock

The AMBER Alert Training & Technical Assistance Program’s AMBER Alert in Indian Country (AIIC) team recently provided Technology Toolkits to nearly two dozen Tribal nations in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Each durable toolkit—containing a rugged laptop, webcam, digital camera, scanner, and hotspot device with six free months of WiFi—can help Tribes work more quickly and efficiently during missing child cases.

Funding for the toolkits, offered to any federally recognized Tribe, is provided by the U.S. Department of Justice and Ashlynne Mike AMBER Alert in Indian Country Act of 2018.

In Wisconsin, the toolkits were provided during the quarterly Native American Drug and Gang Initiative Task Force Advisory Board meeting at the Oneida Nation Police headquarters in Oneida.

In Minnesota, Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe Holistic Health Spiritual Care CoordinatorGary Charwood blessed the event with a smudging ceremony. — In Minnesota, Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe Holistic Health Spiritual Care Coordinator Gary Charwood blessed the event with a **smudging** ceremony.

In Minnesota, the toolkits presentation occurred during a quarterly meeting with leaders from state Tribal law enforcement as well as the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) and Minnesota Department of Public Safety (DPS).

The event was held at the Cedar Lakes Casino and Hotel, owned by the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe.

Law enforcement leaders from six federally recognized Tribes in Minnesota recently met with representatives from the AMBER Alert Training and Technical Assistance Program and AMBER Alert in Indian Country Initiative, as well as the state’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and Department of Public Safety. — In Minnesota, law enforcement leaders from six federally recognized Tribes recently met with representatives from the AMBER Alert Training & Technical Assistance Program and AMBER Alert in Indian Country Initiative, as well as the state’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and Department of Public Safety, to accept Technology Toolkits.

Collage of images showing the eight "Family Survival Guide" parent-authors and their children, along with a candle during a vigil — **>>Click here to learn more about the parent-authors and their children.**

“I remember standing in the middle of chaos, wishing I had a book to tell me what to do.”
Colleen Nick
Mother of Morgan Nick, abducted at age 6 while catching fireflies with friends during a Little League baseball game in 1995

Thankfully, there is such a resource: When Your Child Is Missing: A Family Survival Guide. And its new multimedia format—with updated, actionable information—is more relevant and accessible than ever.

The Guide’s advice reflects the hard-won lessons of eight parents, including Colleen Nick, who have faced “the worst thing any of us could ever imagine—and no parent ever wants to think about: having their child go missing,” says parent-author Patty Wetterling.

Organized with numerous checklists and resources, the fifth edition of the Guide is a compass for parents in the midst of chaos. Its new iteration is fully digital, with a website offering a downloadable, printable guide, plus searchable online content and more than 100 videos covering the myriad of issues a parent may face during the search for their child.

Officially released on National Missing Children’s Day in May 2023, the Family Survival Guide was a labor of love for its parent-authors, who worked with the AMBER Alert Training and Technical Assistance Program (AATTAP) publications team and others for nearly two years to bring it to fruition. Reliving their experiences “is never easy; in fact, it’s agonizing—but it’s important for us,” Patty says.

Cover of "When Your Child Is Missing: A Family Survival Guide" (Fifth Edition) — **>> Visit the “Family Survival Guide” website to download the publication or browse its searchable content and videos.**

When first published in 1998, When Your Child Is Missing: A Family Survival Guide was the first comprehensive resource of its kind, offering parents of missing children guidance on effectively working with law enforcement, the media, and volunteers; managing rewards and donations; and “simply surviving to fight another day in the search for their child,” Colleen says.

She and Patty were among a small group of families that Ron Laney of the U.S. Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) invited to work on the project with help from Helen Connelly, then a senior consultant for the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ)—and later a Program Administrator for Fox Valley Technical College (FVTC), home to AATTAP and the National Criminal Justice Program (NCJTC).

The Guide quickly became the go-to source for people who “speak the language of missing”—not only in this country, but also abroad, where agencies from the United Kingdom to Australia include it on their websites. “But a lot has changed in 25 years,” Patty says. “It was time for a new look, both in its content and design.”

Patty and Colleen rejoined Helen to work with six other parents to produce the Guide’s update with the AATTAP publications team—an initiative funded and guided by the DOJ’s Office of Justice Programs (OJP) and the OJJDP.

“Though there have been several prior updates to the Guide, this one is especially important,” Helen says. “It incorporates the most current information on a wider range of missing child situations. It also gives families immediate access to information via its online format. And there they can hear the parents’ advice and encouragement from the parents themselves, who speak directly to them through powerful videos.”

The parents share these goals: To give voice to children who have been forever silenced. To give hope to parents of missing children when life is at its lowest point. And to help law enforcement best work with parents who desperately want to find their missing child.

For 18 months beginning in fall 2021, the parents worked with the AATTAP project team to begin analyzing every aspect of the Guide: deciding what needed revision, what information needed emphasis, and what new resources and guidance should be added.

Getting the Guide to completion took numerous virtual meetings, independent work spanning weeks, and multiple rounds of peer review that included input from top law enforcement professionals with expertise in finding missing children. The parents aimed to highlight more advanced technology, new and helpful laws, better ways of investigating, and expanded resources. Another goal was to speak more directly and clearly to parents.

Beyond being able to download a PDF of the document, they wanted to ensure parents could access its content from any place with WiFi. They worked diligently to develop information on topics relevant to today: broader classifications of missing children; the impact of social media and communication apps; ever-growing concerns about trafficking; increased public alerting options; and “how to work with law enforcement who may not be trained on new laws, or know how to access specialized resources,” says parent-author Jeffery Morehouse.

The parent-authors shared advice for searching parents and law enforcement during video filming sessions earlier this year in Salt Lake City. See highlights of their advocacy work by visiting [ADD HERE] — The parent-authors shared advice for searching parents as well as law enforcement during filming.

In January 2023, a week of filming took place in Salt Lake City. The parents flew in from New York, Washington, Minnesota, Tennessee, Arizona, Colorado, and Alabama to help contribute to what would become a vast library of video segments for the Guide’s website. (Colleen was unable to attend the session due to her work on the documentary “Still Missing Morgan.”)

The film crew and AATTAP team worked carefully and compassionately with families to capture the parents’ heart-wrenching stories and invaluable guidance available only from those who have survived what they have and been left resilient. Tears flowed. Hugs were plentiful. Connections were electric.

On the final day, parents were asked to speak directly to law enforcement to share advice that could be used for both the Guide and AATTAP training events. And at the end of the session, not a dry eye was visible.

AATTAP Administrator Janell Rasmussen was in attendance—and awe. “The strength in this room is so powerful,” she said. “The wisdom you’ve shared inspires me to share a quote [from Saint Augustine] that I think is appropriate for this moment.”

Parent-author Dr. Noelle Hunter replied, “As Ahmad says, ‘This is the club that none of us ever wanted to be in.’ But we’re in it. And, oh, my goodness—the power of solidarity you feel with people who get you exactly is transformative. It’s one of the reasons I never gave up working to see my child returned, and why I stay in this cause to help parents reunite with their children. There is no substitute for the new family that we have built through this work.”

For parent-author Yvonne Ambrose, “this process has been like going to counseling,” she said. “We all had a support system in place until our child went missing. Then we lost people who didn’t understand what we were going through. But even though we’ve lost them, we’ve found each other. That gives us the strength to keep fighting—and be there for others.”

Four months after filming, the Family Survival Guide “family” (or “FSG power team,” Yvonne calls them) reunited in Washington, D.C., to attend this year’s National Missing Children’s Day—where the completed Guide was first announced May 23. They also were invited to participate in a roundtable discussion with OJJDP Administrator Elizabeth Ryan and her team.

Prior to the DOJ-hosted Missing Children’s Day event, the FSG family gathered at their Alexandria, Virginia, hotel for a reception hosted by AATTAP staff. They held the first bound copies of the 96-page Family Survival Guide and previewed the new companion website. They also watched “The Power of Support,” a video encapsulating some of their most powerful messages shared during the Family Survival Guide filming sessions.

“You all embody incredible courage,” Janell said, “and your wisdom and candor will be immensely valuable to both parents and law enforcement, who can learn from it and share it with others.” The parents said they plan to continue helping train law enforcement by working with the AATTAP and NCJTC of Fox Valley Technical College. They also want to continue advocating for legislative changes that support parents facing situations similar to theirs.

They also emphasized the value of volunteering with Team HOPE, a cornerstone program of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC). The group is made up of trained parent and family volunteers who have experienced the trauma of having a missing or exploited child. Counseling is offered 24/7 to families coping with all the complex issues surrounding the search for their missing child.

Parent-author Ahmad Rivazfar tends to the "Family Survival Guide" table during the 2023 National Missing Children's Day event at the U.S. Department of Justice — Parent-author Ahmad Rivazfar tends to the *Family Survival Guide* table during the 2023 National Missing Children’s Day event at the U.S. Department of Justice.

The parent-authors joined members of the AMBER Alert Training and Technical Assistance team during National Missing Children's Day 2023 in Washington, D.C. — The parent-authors joined members of the AMBER Alert Training and Technical Assistance team during National Missing Children’s Day 2023.

The parents were front and center when the Guide was announced at the 40th annual National Missing Children’s Day event at the U.S. Department of Justice Great Hall in Washington, D.C. “The terror felt by a parent when their child has disappeared is overwhelming,” said U.S. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “I have great respect for the brave and resourceful professionals who work every day to protect children from harm, reunite missing children with their families, and provide support in the aftermath of a traumatic event. There is no cause more worthy of honor.”

Following the event, the FSG team gathered at the OJJDP office to talk with Administrator Elizabeth Ryan and OJJDP Program Managers Lou Ann Holland and Alex Sarrano. The parents thanked the OJJDP team for inviting them to participate in the project, and discussed ways to increase awareness of the Guide and further help searching parents.

One conversation addressed the need for parents and law enforcement to understand what types of financial support are available for crime victims. “The criteria around accessing these funds is not clearly defined or understood,” Ahmad said. Patty then described hardships that her son, Trevor—who witnessed is brother’s abduction—has experienced while trying to receive victim resource support as an adult.

Administrator Ryan assured the parents that her team would help address such obstacles, and assist families of missing children in every way possible. Yvonne expressed her gratitude.

Group photo. Shown at the OJJDP "Family Survival Guide" meeting in D.C. are, front row from left: Lou Ann Holland (OJJDP), Janell Rasmussen (AATTAP/NCJTC), and parents Nacole Svendgard, Elaine Hall, Yvonne Ambrose, and Patty Wetterling; shown back row from left: Denise Gee Peacock (AATTAP), Alex Sarrano (OJJDP), Brad Russ (NCJTC), parent Ahmad Rivazfar, Liz Ryan (OJJDP), Bonnie Ferenbach (AATTAP), and parents Dr. Noelle Hunter and Jeffery Morehouse. — Shown at the OJJDP *Family Survival Guide* meeting in D.C. are, front row from left: Lou Ann Holland (OJJDP), Janell Rasmussen (AATTAP/NCJTC), and parents Nacole Svendgard, Elaine Hall, Yvonne Ambrose, and Patty Wetterling; shown back row from left: Denise Gee Peacock (AATTAP), Alex Sarrano (OJJDP), Brad Russ (NCJTC), parent Ahmad Rivazfar, Elizabeth Ryan (OJJDP), Bonnie Ferenbach (AATTAP), and parents Dr. Noelle Hunter and Jeffery Morehouse.

“The fact that you all are supporting this new Guide, and allowing us to help others—and having us here today to talk about what families need—means the world to us,” she said. In response, Ryan told the group, “What you have built together is immensely powerful—and greatly needed.”

At the meeting’s close, Patty returned the focus on the parent-authors’ children—some of them found, but some still lost—as well as all children who remain missing.

“Why not get ahead of the problem?” she said. “How do we raise our kids to be the way we want them to be, and not cause harm to another human being? I can talk forever about how we want the world to be—the world that Jacob knew, that innocent world in St. Joseph, Minnesota. We refuse to let the man who took Jacob take that too.”

“One of my favorite quotes is by Pablo Casals, who said, ‘We must work to make the world worthy of its children.’ So why not do that?,” Patty proposed. “Let’s all work to build a world where kids can feel safe enough to follow their dreams.”
– Denise Gee Peacock

Ashley Johnson-Barr: The Girl Who Changed the Conversation

Missing in Alaska: The Webinars

Ashley's Legacy in Alaska

A Crisis Hidden in Plain Sight

Jurisdictions, Geography, and Delays

A Community in Grief—and Action

The Work That Remains

By the Numbers

Sources: Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA); compiled from multiple sources by National Congress of American Indians (NCAI).

Important Days

Ashley Johnson-Barr Disappearance Timeline

ANCSA & PL280 at a Glance

Working for More Just MMIP Investigations

Former Investigation Supervisor Reflects on Early Days of Case—And Lessons for Today

Lead Investigator Now Assigned to Hagerman Case Discusses Hopes for DNA Testing—and Goal of Solving the Crime

Arlington Police Department Homicide Detective Krystallyne Robinson has been the lead detective on the Amber Hagerman case since summer 2023. We recently had the chance to ask her a few questions.

A Timeline

12 Core Components of a CART

AATTAP's Northern Border Initiative: What is it and what's ahead?

Every time a child runs away, it’s a cry for help. That child is screaming out for our help, and it’s our job to do something.

Empathy & Respect: Hallmarks of Cindy Neff's Child Protection Career

We all have a role to play in protecting our children. By working together, we can ensure that every community in Indian Country has the resources and support they need to implement AMBER Alert effectively.

Although we are many nations, we are one in this commitment.

ACTION ITEMS:

Words like ‘sovereignty’ and ‘jurisdiction’ have almost become taboo. But any child who is missing should be the priority. It doesn’t matter where the resources are coming from. Let’s locate that child.

You don’t have to do it alone. Tribes across the U.S. are willing to share what works in getting AMBER Alert in Indian Country.

When missing children go silent, it’s a scream you cannot hear. Reach out to the AMBER Alert in Indian Country program nowto be prepared.

AMBER Alert is the safety net for our children in danger. It’s our job and our responsibility to fight for them and be their voice.

How can we protect our children? How can we ensure the best response is made when a child is missing or kidnapped?

When a child goes missing I can see the hurt in their family’s eyes. That empowers our team to work quickly, and diligently, on their behalf.

Just because nothing’s happened doesn’t mean it won’t. The wolf is at the door. And we need to help each other or we won’tsolve this problem.

Being fortunate doesn’t alleviate the responsibility of having a comprehensive plan for prevention and response in place.

'Telling Stories With Care, Authenticity & Dignity'

See Lt. O’Keefe in ‘The First 48’

Janell Rasmussen

Sayeh Rivazfar

U.S. Representative Andy Biggs

Jada Breaux

Kelsey Commisso

Whytley Jones

Michael Garcia

John Graham

Ana Flores

Learning From Survivors: A Top Theme

'All Abductions Are Local'

Pamela Foster: ‘Indian Country Needs AMBER Alert’

From Resources to Technology: More Takeaways

Click each dropdown box below for highlights from top-rated workshops & events.

Morrissa Ahl-Moyer uses a flow chart during a training session to help participants visualize the steps in activating an AMBER Alert: “I tell them the part on the left is what they need to worry about, and I handle everything else.”

Calling All 911 Telecommunicators

New guide’s sibling contributors

Helpful advice for the helpers

During a law enforcement investigation

Working with traditional/social media

CART on Camera: Burlington County, New Jersey

American Samoa, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands

Puerto Rico

Southern Border Initiative (Mexico) and Northern Border Initiative (Canada)

Serbia and Argentina

Dominican Republic, U.S. Virgin Islands, and beyond

Collaboration for a clearer path forward

Commemoration highlights

Looking back—and ahead

Parent-advocate Patty Wetterling to DOJ and NCMEC: ‘You save lives. You saved mine.’

Remembering Maile

Take 5: Ways to keep stress in check

“Most people will experience a traumatic incident maybe five to seven times in their entire life. Meantime, a cop may experience a traumatic incident five to seven times a shift.”

The article includes these highlights:

Recognition and collaboration for better understanding—and a clear path forward

Commemoration highlights

Looking back—and ahead

Wetterling to DOJ & NCMEC: ‘You Save Lives. You Saved Mine.’

The power of family perspectives

2) Flock Safety: Real-time vehicle intelligence

3) Doorbell cameras: Public-engaging technology

5) Artificial intelligence: Growing & evolving

Be on the Lookout: More Tech Advances

NCMEC’s QR Code to the Rescue

Policing Bad Apps

Data Mining is Gold—But Tricky

See Lt. O’Keefe
in ‘The First 48’