A child abducted by a custodial parent from California in 2020 has been safely recovered in North Carolina after six years.Now 11 years old, the child was found enrolled in a local school system under an alias through a Department of Children and Family Services investigation by the Washington County Sheriff's Office. Her recovery followed a National Center for Missing & Exploited Children age progression image released three months prior and involved close coordination between Los Angeles County authorities and North Carolina law enforcement. This case demonstrates the critical role of sustained interstate communication, updated age-progression technology, and the diligence of school resource officers in resolving long-term missing child cases.
After the initiation of a custodial parent child welfare investigation, the mother stopped communicating with the Department of Children and Family Services and relocated across the country. The child was enrolled in a North Carolina public school under an alias. School resource officers played a direct role in locating the child, proving that educational systems are vital hubs for recognizing missing children.
Age-progression technology remains a vital tool in long-term missing children cases. Updating visual profiles—such as the NCMEC image released three months prior to this rescue—keeps cold cases visible and equips law enforcement with current, actionable data.
The outcome relied heavily on cross-country coordination.Information shared from Los Angeles County directly prompted the Washington County Sheriff's Office to act.
Key Findings
The abduction occurred during an active child welfare investigation when the custodial parent severed contact.
The missing child evaded detection for six years by using a false name to enroll in a school system.
The release of an age-progression image three months before the recovery refreshed case visibility.
The successful recovery resulted from direct intelligence sharing between California and North Carolina law enforcement.
Local school deputies were instrumental in confirming the child's identity and taking her into protective custody.
Sources
NCMEC (March 11, 2026): NCMEC report on the safe recovery of Karen Rojas in North Carolina (Link)
FOX 11 Los Angeles (March 11, 2026): Missing California girl kidnapped in 2020 found safe in North Carolina 6 years later (Link)
ABC10 (March 13, 2026): California girl who vanished 6 years ago found safe 2,500 miles away (Link)
The Independent (March 11, 2026): Missing California girl, 11, last seen in 2020 found enrolled at North Carolina school under 'an alias name' (Link)
An AMBER Alert issued for a 9-year-old boy in South Salt Lake, Utah, concluded with a quick recovery after the suspect surrendered to police. The suspect, a former family acquaintance, used her own minor children as a manipulation tactic to gain access to the victim. Initial police efforts utilized an active Facebook Messenger conversation to communicate with the suspect before she realized law enforcement was involved. During these calls, the suspect falsely claimed to have dropped the boy off at a park and with a child services worker. The alert was canceled shortly after when the suspect provided her true location. This case shows how familiarity and digital communication play key roles in responses to abductions.
The suspect used calculated deception to carry out the abduction. By bringing her own minor children to the encounter, the suspect created a false sense of security that convinced the victim's family to allow the 9-year-old boy to leave with her.
Real-time digital communication proved valuable during the initial response. The victim's mother was already communicating with the suspect via Facebook Messenger. Responding officers used this active digital link to speak directly with the suspect by phone. Because the suspect was initially unaware of police involvement, investigators gathered real-time intelligence and assessed the suspect's behavior and story.
During the investigation, the suspect actively misled authorities to delay the recovery. She provided false locations, claiming the child was left at a local park and, later, with a Division of Child and Family Services (DCFS) caseworker. Officers lost valuable time checking the victim's residence and the park.
The alert generated immediate public attention. The suspect ultimately contacted the police, revealed the actual address where she was holding the boy, and allowed officers to take her into custody. The quick resolution underscores the effectiveness of public alerts in forcing an offender's hand, even when a known acquaintance commits the abduction.
Key Findings
The suspect used her own minor children to build trust and gain access to the victim.
Police leveraged an active Facebook Messenger conversation to speak directly with the suspect during the early stages of the investigation.
The suspect deliberately misled officers by claiming the child was dropped off with a DCFS worker and at a local park.
The AMBER Alert directly prompted the suspect to contact police and provide her real location.
Sources
KSL News (Jun 14, 2024): Amber Alert canceled after boy was reported missing out of South Salt Lake (Link)
KSL News (Jun 14, 2024): Woman arrested, accused of child kidnapping in South Salt Lake Amber Alert (Link)
Inside Missouri State Highway Patrol Troop F's AMBER Alert Leadership Team
Lt. Chris Daniels, Lt. Jim Lowary, Lt. Morgan Patterson, Capt. Jason Crites, Lt. Joe Davidson, Lt. Casey Utterback
Eleven minutes. That's how long it took a Troop F trooper to spot a stolen vehicle at a convenience store, arrest the driver, and pull a child out of the back seat safe. Minutes earlier, an AMBER Alert had gone out: a non-custodial father, wanted for killing the child's mother, was on the run with his son. By the time backup arrived, it was already over.
Ask three different members of Troop F’s leadership team about that case, and three different vantage points come back—the operations director who watched the request move through channels, the lieutenant weighing whether the facts met the legal threshold, the coordinator trusting that the alert reached exactly the people who needed to see it. It’s the case each of them reaches for first when asked what this work looks like when it succeeds.
That overlap says something about how this team operates. Missouri State Highway Patrol's Troop F covers the state's central region—Jefferson City, Columbia, the Lake of the Ozarks—through a command structure built on military service, small-town policing, and decades inside the Patrol. Captain Jason Crites and five lieutenants each run a different piece of Troop F's operations while sharing one high-stakes responsibility: deciding, often within minutes, whether a missing child meets the statutory threshold for a statewide AMBER Alert.
Ask any of them what the public gets wrong, and the answer comes back almost word for word: people assume an alert should go out for every missing child. It doesn’t. The criteria are deliberately narrow—evidence of abduction, evidence of imminent danger—and cases that fall short are routed instead to Missouri’s Endangered Person Advisory system. It’s a distinction the team spends real energy explaining, and worth stating plainly before their individual stories begin.
Lt. Jim Lowary, Lt. Chris Daniels, Lt. Morgan Patterson, Capt. Jason Crites, Lt. Joe Davidson, Lt. Casey Utterback
Capt. Jason N. Crites, Badge #32
Missouri Statewide AMBER Alert Coordinator & Troop F Commander
Crites grew up in Portageville, in Missouri’s southeast bootheel, and served four years in the U.S. Marine Corps before joining the Highway Patrol in 1998. He's held nearly every rank between Troops F and E—corporal, sergeant, lieutenant —and ran the Patrol’s Research and Development Division before returning to Troop F as commander and statewide AMBER Alert Coordinator, a dual role that puts him in charge of both central-region operations and every alert-activation decision in the state.
The pull toward the job started next door. “An MSHP trooper moved in next door and let me ride along during his shifts,” he says. “Seeing him take decisive action during criminal encounters and help stranded motorists inspired me. I looked up to him as a mentor.” After the Marine Corps, becoming a trooper felt like the natural next step.
As coordinator, Crites is the one drawing the line the public most often misunderstands. “We maintain very strict criteria for these activations,” he says, but a missing child who doesn’t meet AMBER Alert parameters isn’t simply left uncovered. Missouri's Endangered Person Advisory exists precisely for those cases.
The case Crites points to as a defining success is a different one: a child abducted in central Missouri, where the reporting agency moved fast with a vehicle description, plate number, and direction of travel. Troop F targeted the alert to that corridor; a motorist spotted the car on the interstate; and because a saturation detail happened to be working nearby, a trooper made the stop and recovered the child within minutes.
“Knowing that a child has been successfully recovered makes the entire grind of maintaining and improving the system completely worth the effort. As a parent, I cannot imagine the fear of having a child abducted.” — Capt. Jason N. Crites
The job's weight doesn't disappear at the end of a shift. Crites manages it with a small ritual: “A personal coping mechanism I developed when I was younger is watching a movie after a critical incident or stressful day. It allows me to temporarily disconnect so I can return to duty with a clear mind.” His advice to newer Coordinators is practical rather than sentimental—master the criteria, tighten your transmission process, and never work without backup. “Having six qualified staff members allows us to consult one another on complicated requests to ensure we make the right call.”
Lt. Joseph D. Davidson, Badge #66
District 4 Operations Director
Davidson grew up in Kahoka, in Missouri’s far northeast corner, and spent seven years in local law enforcement—three as a detention officer, four as a Clark County deputy—before joining the Highway Patrol in 2004. He spent his first two decades in Troop B, rising to corporal and sergeant, before a promotion to lieutenant in August 2024 moved his family to Jefferson City. He now runs District 4 operations, supervising three zones along Interstate 70 and commercial vehicle enforcement, while also serving as motor equipment manager, Honor Guard coordinator, awards coordinator, and property control administrator.
His grandfather was a law enforcement officer, and watching that career shaped his own. “By the time I was in high school, I knew I wanted to follow in his footsteps,” he says.
Davidson's read on the public’s biggest misunderstanding goes a step further than most: it’s not just that people expect an alert for every missing child—many also assume an alert failed simply because they didn’t personally receive it. In most cases, that's a matter of geography, not system failure; alerts are targeted to the area where the child is believed to be.
His own defining case unfolded on Interstate 70, not at a convenience store. FLOCK license-plate cameras flagged the suspect vehicle, and rapid coordination between radio operators and road troopers turned that lead into a safe recovery within minutes—a case that shows how much depends on technology and dispatch working in sync, not just a trooper’s instincts in the moment.
Davidson’s role is largely support—keeping troopers and clerical staff equipped and functioning—and that’s where his motivation comes from: “Knowing that they depend on me every day to get them what they need keeps me highly motivated.” Outside of work, it’s family: 18 years married to his wife, Haley, three kids, weekends at the Lake of the Ozarks, golf, pickleball, and lawn care.
“Seek help when you need it; it is a sign of strength, not weakness … do your best not to let your career become your entire identity.” — Lt. Joseph D. Davidson
Lt. Chris S. Daniels, Badge #55
District Lieutenant & Public Order Unit Assistant Platoon Leader
Daniels grew up in Richmond, Missouri, and graduated from Missouri Western State University before joining the Missouri State Water Patrol in 2000, working the Lake of the Ozarks as a patrol officer. When the Water Patrol merged into the Highway Patrol in 2011, he became a trooper without leaving the Lake, working up to corporal and sergeant before a 2022 promotion to lieutenant. He now manages four road zones within Troop F, supervises radio and maintenance staff, coordinates the University of Missouri football detail, serves as an assistant platoon leader for the Public Order Unit, and acts as the Exposure Control Plan coordinator.
His path into the field was simple and direct: “Upon completing college, I had a simple, direct desire to work in a public service field where I could actively help people and improve the community I live in.” He names integrity, clear communication, critical thinking, and decisiveness as the traits the job demands—and describes the daily balancing act at the center of alert decisions as “a high-stakes balancing act of gathering and verifying facts against established criteria while managing the extreme urgency required to issue a timely alert.” He’s one of several on the team who point to the Interstate 70 recovery described above as the case that stays with him.
What keeps him going is uncomplicated: “Having the distinct knowledge that the work I perform actually matters to people and makes a tangible difference in our communities.” Off duty, he protects time with his family deliberately, calling it essential to not “take the burdens of the job home with you.”
Lt. James E. Lowary, Badge #91
District Lieutenant & Public Order Unit Coordinator
Lowary grew up in Quincy, Illinois, and attended Missouri Southern College in Joplin before the Missouri State Water Patrol hired him in 2000 at the Lake of the Ozarks. He moved into the Highway Patrol in 2004, first assigned to Audrain County, then serving across Camden, Miller, and Cole counties as a corporal and sergeant before making lieutenant in 2023. He now oversees Troop F’s marine zones and the Lake of the Ozarks road zones, coordinates the Public Order Unit, and serves as the troop’s drug test officer.
Lowary’s draw to the work is rooted in protecting people who can’t protect themselves: “I have always felt drawn to protecting vulnerable individuals who cannot advocate for themselves … law enforcement offers a powerful platform to hold offenders accountable while helping impacted families rebuild their lives.” He describes integrity and “a rock-solid moral compass” as non-negotiable, since “children depend entirely on law enforcement to advocate for them.” Like several of his colleagues, the case he returns to is the interstate recovery of the boy abducted by his non-custodial father—a reminder, he says, that “every second is critical, yet all actions must remain tethered to verified facts.”
Outside the uniform, Lowary's life runs on a different clock entirely: a farm with horses and cattle, a wife and daughter who compete in barrel racing, and time spent deer hunting.
“It is essential to focus on interests outside the patrol, so work does not interfere with family life.” — Lt. James E. Lowary
Lt. Casey Utterback, Badge #103
District I Commander & Assistant Patrol ALERT Coordinator
Utterback grew up in a small central Missouri town and joined the Missouri Army National Guard in 1997 before earning an Associate of Arts degree and completing a 470-hour police academy. After three years in municipal policing, he joined the Highway Patrol in 2002, working up through corporal and master sergeant in Troop A out of Kansas City before a promotion to lieutenant brought him to Troop F in 2021. He now commands District I, overseeing Motor Vehicle Inspection, Driver Examination, the Chaplain program, and the SWAT team, in addition to his role as assistant Patrol ALERT Coordinator.
“I knew by high school that I wanted to pursue both the military and law enforcement,” he says, describing an empathetic nature and a drive to serve that predates his career. He points to communication and emotional intelligence—paired with “a solid moral compass and core integrity”—as the foundation of effective leadership in the role.
The hardest part of his job isn’t any single case; it’s the whiplash between them. “The toughest challenge is rapidly shifting gears between radically different tasks within a span of minutes—such as transitioning from tedious administrative paperwork directly to supervising a high-speed vehicle pursuit or managing an officer-involved shooting scene.”
His defining case happened in the Kansas City area: a vehicle stolen with a child inside while the mother ran into a store. The AMBER Alert triggered a multi-jurisdictional pursuit—local, county, and state agencies working together—that ended with a tire-spike, a short foot chase, an arrest, and the child safely back with her mother.
Utterback manages the job’s weight by accepting its limits: “certain outcomes are completely beyond your control, regardless of how much effort you expend.” He protects time for physical fitness and family—sporting events, holidays, family dinners.
“Life is short, so make a conscious effort to make it enjoyable for yourself and those around you.” — Lt. Casey Utterback
Lt. Morgan B. Patterson, Badge #88
Administrative Services Director & Assistant Troop F SWAT Director
Patterson is a Jefferson City native who attended the State Technical College of Missouri and joined the Highway Patrol in 2010 as part of the 92nd Recruit Class. He worked the road in Osage and Gasconade counties before being promoted to corporal, then sergeant in Cole County, then spent a tour instructing at the Patrol’s Academy before making lieutenant in 2023. He now serves as Troop F’s administrative services director and assistant director of Troop F SWAT.
“I witnessed firsthand how dedicated law enforcement officers could change lives,” he says of his path into the field, describing a lasting sense of responsibility “to stand up for those who cannot protect themselves.” He names integrity and communication as the two pillars of emergency response—the first ensuring decisions are based on accurate data, the second keeping field officers, agencies, and the public aligned during a crisis.
The case Patterson points to isn’t a clean rescue—it’s one that almost didn’t happen. A request initially fell short of AMBER Alert criteria, and the team made the harder call: deny it and tell the detective exactly what evidence was missing. Once the agency came back with what was needed, the alert went out immediately. A trooper spotted the vehicle, made a brief pursuit, and recovered the children unharmed. It’s a story less about speed than restraint—proof that getting the criteria right, even when it means saying no first, is what makes the system work.
Patterson’s motivation is close to home: a husband and father of three young boys, he says they’re “a daily reminder of exactly why this work is so important.” He recharges by coaching their sports teams, calling it “a healthy, positive outlet outside of the uniform.”
“Never attempt to make critical, life-altering decisions in isolation … build a cohesive team that communicates openly and trusts one another.” — Lt. Morgan B. Patterson
Six Paths, One Clock
Six different paths into the job, six different corners of Troop F's territory—but the same math shows up in every conversation: children can’t wait, the criteria can’t bend, and no single person carries that weight alone. That's the case this team keeps making, one alert at a time.
Connect with the Missouri State Highway Patrol Troop F's AMBER Alert Leadership Team through the Portal.
Lieutenant Jenna Clawson Huibregtse speaking at a podium with a North Dakota State Patrol SUV in the background.
Lieutenant Jenna Clawson Huibregtse coaching two teams of five young boy basketball teams.
“Progress moves at the speed of trust.”
For Lieutenant Jenna Clawson Huibregtse, this principle is the foundation of effective emergency response. Serving with the North Dakota Highway Patrol (NDHP) and operating as the state's AMBER Alert Coordinator/Clearinghouse Manager, she navigates the intense intersection of urgent missing persons cases and strict policy enforcement. From pioneering cultural liaison programs to implementing North Dakota's newly established Feather and Missing Endangered Persons Alerts, Clawson Huibregtse shares her expert perspective on managing high-stakes alerts, overcoming interjurisdictional complexities, and maintaining resilience in a demanding field.
Lieutenant Jenna Clawson Huibregtse, North Dakota's AMBER Alert Coordinator
Could you share a bit about your current role, the region you serve, and your background?
As a NDHP lieutenant, my responsibilities span public information, social media, dignitary protection, Capitol security, recruitment, and the crash/victims assistance program. I am also North Dakota’s Missing Persons Clearinghouse Manager/AMBER Alert Coordinator, overseeing statewide activations including Blue, Silver, Feather, and Missing Endangered Persons Alerts.
I grew up in Plentywood, Montana, and began my career with the agency in 2015 after earning a master’s degree from North Dakota State University. Proudly, I am a first-generation college graduate and a first-generation law enforcement officer.
What led you to your position as an AMBER Alert Coordinator and Missing Persons Clearinghouse Manager?
I always desired a dynamic career, and my path was heavily influenced by personal and community experiences. After joining the NDHP in 2015, I helped create our Cultural Liaison Officer Program following the 2016 Dakota Access Pipeline protests. The program's goal was to build relationships, increase trust, and reduce jurisdictional complexities with Tribal nations. Since then, I have worked closely with local, county, Tribal, state, and federal partners.
Throughout my tenure, I have served as a patrol trooper, cultural liaison officer, planning officer, safety and education officer, and dignitary protection officer. Managing the Clearinghouse has been exceptionally rewarding, allowing me to strengthen statewide communication while helping locate missing and endangered individuals.
How has the Clearinghouse approached training and communication since the introduction of new adult alerts?
The Feather Alert and Missing Endangered Persons Alert were established during the 2025 legislative session to address a critical gap for endangered adults 18 and older at risk of serious bodily injury or death. While we have utilized these alerts a few times over the last year, we maintain strict activation criteria, particularly concerning Wireless Emergency Alerts.
Expanding a clearinghouse mandate naturally impacts day-to-day operations, but our successful implementation stems from pre-existing relationships with law enforcement agencies and Tribal nations. One of my personal rules is that relationships must be built before an emergency occurs; trying to forge them in the middle of a crisis rarely works well.
Following the legislation, our team took proactive steps:
We conducted more than 15 training sessions directly in communities across North Dakota.
The training was provided to licensed law enforcement officers, emergency managers, and telecommunicators.
We delivered training to four of the five Tribal nations that share geography with North Dakota, with the fifth pending scheduling.
We emphasized front-end education to clarify alert criteria, reducing unqualified requests and helping agencies navigate cases that fall into a gray area.
We actively guided local agencies to maximize existing resources like reverse 911 systems, social media, and media releases.
With every alert request, we continue learning and refining the process. This success is a shared team effort among the NDHP, the Bureau of Criminal Investigation, the State Emergency Communications Center, and the North Dakota Department of Emergency Services.
What essential skills make someone effective in this demanding role?
Coordinators require strong relationship-building abilities, excellent communication skills, and the capacity to lead with empathy while making firm, decisive choices. These rapid-moving cases involve numerous partners and require balancing extreme urgency with strict policy compliance. Success demands building trust beforehand and sustaining it under pressure. The role also brings heavy public scrutiny, especially when cases do not meet alert criteria, making a strong support system essential for staying grounded and effective.
What is the biggest public misconception about issuing alerts?
The public often believes law enforcement can activate an AMBER Alert or Missing Child Advisory anytime a child goes missing. In reality, these tools are reserved for the highest-risk scenarios where immediate public awareness can save a life, and they are only utilized when public assistance is actively needed.
Another misconception is that an unissued alert means law enforcement is ignoring the case. Extensive behind-the-scenes investigative work, agency coordination, and local outreach happen continuously without a statewide broadcast being activated. Overusing alerts outside established guidelines causes "alert fatigue," leading the public to ignore true emergencies. Our goal is always to use the right tool at the right time.
Can you share a specific success story?
One profound success involved an AMBER Alert issued from the Fort Berthold Reservation for a 2-year-old child trapped in the backseat of a stolen vehicle. The rapid alert activation generated multiple public sightings and made the suspect aware of the massive law enforcement response, resulting in the child's safe return. That outcome hinged on several factors: quick reporting, swift law enforcement action, and seamless interagency partnerships. Cases like that reinforce why these alert systems exist and how important timing can be.
We also handle a high volume of Silver Alert requests. By working these cases aggressively from the beginning with local technology and resources, we often resolve them safely before a public broadcast even becomes necessary. Ultimately, our extremely high success rate comes directly from collaboration between law enforcement, emergency communications, media, Tribal nations, and an attentive public.
How do you manage the stress of the job and recharge?
This heavy work stays with you, especially cases involving vulnerable children. No one does it alone. I rely on trusted colleagues and focus on the core mission: protecting vulnerable people and supporting families on some of the worst days of their lives. I stay motivated by watching local, Tribal, state, and federal partners unite to bring loved ones home.
To recharge, I coach youth sports, stay active, and prioritize intentional time with my family. Law enforcement can easily consume your entire identity; maintaining balance allows me to keep perspective and continue showing up for the communities we serve.
What advice do you have for fellow coordinators and new professionals?
Build relationships before you need them, because progress moves at the speed of trust.
Invest time in getting to know your partners before a crisis hits, as these collaborative partnerships cannot be created in the middle of an emergency.
Remember that policies, criteria, and technology matter, but communication and empathy matter just as much when guiding families and agencies through difficult, fast-paced decisions.
Stay collaborative by finding mentors, asking questions, and being willing to learn from every single case.
Stay humble and never lose sight of why the work matters in the first place.
Connect with Lt. Jenna Clawson Huibregtse through the Portal.
The tragic loss of 17-year-old Hailey Buzbee in Indiana highlights a critical shift in missing youth recoveries. Because she was lured online and appeared to leave voluntarily, her case initially fell outside strict AMBER Alert criteria. In response, Indiana enacted legislation expanding the Silver Alert program to include all missing children believed to be in danger, alongside broadened alert discretion for enticement cases. By focusing on credible vulnerability indicators—such as digital grooming—rather than physical abduction definitions, Coordinators and law enforcement can trigger rapid public notifications. This modernization ensures multiagency mobilization for tech-facilitated disappearances, safely closing the gap for high-risk teens.
The February 2026 recovery of a 2-year-old offers critical takeaways on multiagency operations. The abduction was identified after the armed suspect left the assaulted mother at a local emergency room. Rapid hospital-to-police communication enabled the Starke County Sheriff’s Office to issue a statewide AMBER Alert by 5:30 a.m. The child was recovered safely two hours later during a welfare check. By isolating the child’s recovery from the suspect’s apprehension, the FBI GRIT Task Force and U.S. Marshals could deploy chemical agents to secure the barricaded suspect. This case proves how pre-established task force partnerships safely resolve high-threat scenarios.
A coordinated law enforcement response and a swiftly issued Missouri AMBER Alert led to the safe recovery of two siblings, aged 10 and 8, just 45 minutes after activation. The children were abducted in the Northland area by 27-year-old Lyrick Bryson. The alert included critical vehicle descriptors (a silver Infiniti with a temporary Missouri tag). This information allowed Kansas City Police to locate the suspect vehicle and children in south Kansas City. The rapid resolution highlights the effectiveness of seamless cross-jurisdictional communication between the Missouri State Highway Patrol and local agencies.
A multi-state AMBER Alert successfully resolved the Jan. 31 abduction of a 4-year-old from Mansfield, Texas. The speed of recovery, just six hours from the initial 8:50 a.m. call to the 2:40 p.m. arrest, highlights the efficacy of rapid data entry, and the Mansfield Police identifying the suspect’s vehicle path into Missouri. Leveraging interstate databases allowed Missouri Highway Patrol to locate the stolen Toyota Corolla shortly after the alert broadcast. This case underscores how cross-jurisdictional intelligence and license-plate-reader hits are vital when suspects flee across state lines during the critical response window.
Highlighting the complex decision-making involved in modern abductions, the Martin County (Florida) Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) successfully recovered two sisters, aged 12 and 15, by strategically delaying an AMBER Alert to maintain a tactical advantage. Investigators determined the suspect, 19-year-old Hser Mu Lah Say, was actively monitoring digital channels. Fearing an alert would cause him to flee or harm the victims, detectives instead commandeered the family's device, impersonating relatives in chats to track his movement along I-75 without revealing law enforcement involvement. This "silent pursuit" allowed the Georgia Highway Patrol to intercept the suspect's Honda CR-V in Lowndes County just minutes before the alert was scheduled to launch. The case offers a vital case study for Coordinators on weighing the benefits of public saturation against the risks of tipping off digitally savvy predators.
Demonstrating the critical impact of rapid vehicle identification, the Sherburne County (Minnesota) Sheriff's Office successfully recovered a missing 7-year-old girl just 90 minutes after issuing a statewide AMBER Alert. While hundreds of volunteers braved freezing conditions to search local ice castles and outbuildings, the alert proved decisive when Albert Lea Police intercepted the suspect’s vehicle on Interstate 35, nearly 130 miles from the abduction site. The investigation revealed a social media tie, reinforcing the need for parents to have open lines of communication with their children about social media use.
A Timeline
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.
Long-term cases like Amber Hagerman’s are solvable. Technology continues to evolve and so do peoples’ lives. People will decide to talk for whatever reason when circumstances change.
Chuck Fleeger Region 3 Liaison, AMBER Alert Training & Technical Assistance Program
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.”
Shortly after phones in Prince George’s County, Maryland, began buzzing about a SUV wanted in a suspected child abduction, a group of friends captured the moment they recognized the SUV from the AMBER Alert—and started recording. In a viral TikTokvideo posted by one of the friends, a gray Volkswagen SUV rolls up alongside them, and they elicit excited recognition. Deciding not to engage with the suspect (as law enforcement had instructed), the clip ends with a short view of the SUV surrounded by police vehicles farther up the road. “Thanks to a great community partnership, an alert citizen [in another vehicle] spotted the AMBER Alert car,” the Prince George’s County Police Department wrote on X. “That citizen contacted [dispatch] who relayed the locations to [us] through our interoperable radio system.” The missing girl was found safe.
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.
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.”
Law enforcement relies on the public to be on the lookout for critically endangered missing and abducted children. This case illustrates how critical it is to follow those leads.
Carri Gordon AATTAP Region 5 Liaison and former AMBER Alert Coordinator
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.
TikTok is teaming up with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) to bring critical, time-sensitive information directly to people’s “For You” feeds. The goal is to raise awareness of missing children and leverage the power of the U.S. TikTok community to help reunite missing children with their families. The project was piloted in Texas from January to December 2024, when AMBER Alerts were viewed more than 20 million times and contributed to 2.5 million visits to NCMEC’s website. The AMBER Alerts will now reach more than 170 million Americans.
The software assigns a unique three-word “address” to each 10-foot by 10-foot grid within a location observed by satellite.
What is what3words? Thea satellite-powered digital geocoding system—available free for first responders and as an iOS or Android app–helps identify precise locations. It has decided the world into a grid of 57 trillion 10-foot by 10-foot squares, and given each square a unique combination of three random words. Each three-word “address” lets emergency responders pinpoint a cellphone caller’s GPS coordinates–even in sprawling national parks and large bodies of water. All that is needed is a cellular signal and a smartphone with “location service” enabled.
What U.S. law enforcement agencies are using it—and how? Morethan400 public safety teams (including police departments in Dallas and Los Angeles) across 49 U.S. states are using what3words technology to locate people.The software is compatible with many CAD systems and public safety communication tools, including RapidSOS, Rapid Deploy, and other software partners.
How can it help find children?
For a law enforcement agency equipped with what3words technology, any child or endangered adult who calls can be found within minutes if they call 911 from a location-service enabled cellphone. This is especially helpful if an individual does not know where they are—which often is the case if they have been transported to an unknown location.
Who created it?
The technology—developed in 2013 by Chris Sheldrick in the United Kingdom in 2013—was created to solve issues caused by poor addressing across all sectors, including automotive, e-commerce, emergency, travel and logistics.
Is using what3words more accurate than cellphonepinging? The use of what3words is not meant to replace the analysis of cellphone geolocation data, which can paint a fuller picture of where a missing child (or a suspected abductor) has been and may be headed. Its advantage lies in being able to narrow a search to 10 feet, which is valuable in large urban areas (with a density of cell towers), where a cellphone ping can land thousands of feet away—up to 10 football fields—from where a phone may be.
How is the public using it?
Family members and friends of younger smartphone users are enlisting the app to more quickly and accurately find each other in large venue environments, such state fairs, large malls, and other big or crowded events.
What other countries use it?
The software is used by 85 percent of UK emergency services, as well as 50 control centers across Canada. It also is used throughout Europe, Australia, South Africa, India, and most recently, Vietnam.
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
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.
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.
Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers signed dozens of bills in March that would invest $10 million in support of crime and human trafficking victims. A new formal partnership between Wisconsin Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force (WAHTTF) and the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Relatives (MMIWR) addresses the prevalence of human trafficking in Wisconsin’s Indigenous communities. In April, Wisconsin signed two new missing person alerts into law, an effort to strengthen the state’s existing AMBER Alert system. The Prince Act expands Wisconsin’s missing person alerts for children after the murders of 5-year-old Prince McCree in 2023 and 10-year-old Lily Peters in 2022. In both cases, law enforcement didn’t have enough information to satisfy the strict requirements for issuing an AMBER Alert. As part of the Act, a new Purple Alert includes missing children under age 10 and children under the age of 18 incapable of returning home without help due to a disability.
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).”
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 MikeAMBER 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.)
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.
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.
“While more than 1,200 children have come home safely as a direct result of AMBER Alerts, we must not forget that while the system is at work, searching for that missing child, that child’s loved ones are scared, frustrated, and mentally isolated. Providing emotional support to these family members is one of our most important jobs.”
Amy L. Solomon Assistant U.S. Attorney General
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.”
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.”
“I’m honored to reflect on our shared responsibility of responding to [cases involving] missing children and supporting their loved ones. And it's especially meaningful to be in the company of parents and family members of missing children. Your presence honors your loved one, and helps represent the thousands of families still searching for their children.”
Michelle DeLaune President and CEO, National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
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.
Janell Rasmussen
Minnesota AMBER Alert Coordinator Janell Rasmussen has stepped down after setting up the state's AMBER Alert Program and overseeing the recovery of abducted children for the past 16 years. Rasmussen now serves as the Deputy Director for the Archdiocese of St. Paul, Minneapolis, where she plans to continue her work in protecting children.
“This has been the most meaningful work that I have ever done,” said Rasmussen. “I can point blank say, kids are alive today because of the AMBER Alert program.”
Minnesota was the 7th state in the U.S. to implement a statewide AMBER Alert program, along with a missing and endangered persons alert through the Minnesota Crime Alert Network for cases not meeting AMBER Alert criteria.
“One of my fondest memories was the very first interstate success with Utah,” said Rasmussen. “The work between the two states in this case and the many interstate cases that followed were a direct result of the training and relationships developed for AMBER Alert coordinators.”
The case occurred in 2003, when an 11-year-old girl was abducted in Minnesota and police had information the suspected abductor was taking the child to Utah. Utah issued the AMBER Alert. A Utah State trooper monitored one of the highways likely to be used by the suspect and calculated the approximate travel time from Minnesota. Moments later the trooper recognized the vehicle based on the description in the AMBER Alert. The suspect was arrested and the child was recovered safely.
“I cannot tell you how hard it is to see Janell leave,” said James Walters, AMBER Alert Training and Technical Assistance Program Director. “Janell has been such an important part of the AMBER Alert program not only in Minnesota but everywhere else. She had been a vital mentor and provided guidance to AMBER Alert coordinators and Missing Person Clearinghouse managers across the country.”
Rasmussen credits the U.S. Department of Justice, National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Fox Valley Technical College and her colleagues for helping make the AMBER Alert program a success. “When children were abducted, we were ready to work together to bring them home,” she said.
Retired Texas Detective Mark Simpson
Before the AMBER Alert came into existence, a seasoned detective was determined to find the person who would abduct and kill a little girl in Arlington, Texas. On January 13, 1996, 9-year-old Amber Hagerman was snatched while riding her bicycle. Amber's abandoned body was found in an outdoor location 4 days later.
Sergeant Mark Simpson was the Task Force Supervisor for the case and worked with numerous detectives and agents for months to determine how Amber could be taken in broad daylight without anyone noticing. He also began working with broadcasters, law enforcement officers and members of the public to develop an alert that could be used when a child is abducted.
“Although we truly believed it would be a powerful tool, our goal was to make the process of issuing the AMBER Alert a quick, simple exercise,” said Simpson. “The AMBER Alert is now used in all 50 states and some foreign countries. None of us thought it would ever be used beyond the Dallas-Fort Worth area.”
During his 32 years with the Arlington Police, Simpson also implemented the Department's Cold Case Homicide Team, a “No Drop Policy” for domestic violence cases, a Sex Offender Registration Program and a Gang Suppression Task Force.
Although Simpson retired in 2007, he continues to present Amber's case at trainings so other law enforcement and public safety personnel might benefit from important lessons learned in the investigation of this tragic incident, while also contributing their ideas and strategies to the ongoing effort to identify and bring Amber's killer to justice.
Amber Hagerman's abduction is one of more than 20 case studies Simpson has developed while working as a consultant for the AMBER Alert Training and Technical Assistance Program (AATTAP). While he may be soft-spoken, the detective's voice has been heard loud and clear by law enforcement officers and other public safety professionals in hundreds of training events over the past decade.
“Doing and presenting the case studies is one of the most satisfying parts of my teaching,” said Simpson. “It lets me examine not only what the criminal acts were, but also how the investigators responded to a variety of scenarios and the impact of their actions.”
“Child abduction investigations are like no other police response. The best way to be successful is to preplan some of our responses and be able to anticipate some of the challenges. Our training not only makes the student aware of what the issues are when they are faced with a child abduction, but also how to make good decisions to move the investigation forward.”
Simpson has worked diligently through his case study development and many years of investigative experience to identify trends and specific challenges for children, parents and police officers when children go missing or are abducted. He shares what has and has not worked in these complex cases, collaborating with and informing law enforcement, families and community in a relevant and understandable way that resonates with audiences across the U.S. and internationally.
“When Amber Hagerman was abducted in 1996, there was not much training available in how to prosecute the investigation,” he said. “The program is not just instructors delivering lectures, it is that special group of investigators who have done the job, learned the lessons and are able to communicate those lessons to others.”
One of the most notable attributes when you meet Simpson is his humility. Despite all of his accomplishments, he is dedicated and driven to do more to help children. Besides offering the case studies, Simpson also teaches courses on Advanced Strategies in Child Abduction Investigations; Major Crimes Investigations Teams; Advanced Cold Case and Long-Term Missing Cases; Search, Canvass, and Recovery Strategies; and “Build A Course” classes. He also assists AATTAP with important curriculum development and technical assistance projects in a number of key areas, including tribal child protection initiatives and work with survivors and their families.
“For all of us who find a calling to crimes against children; the victims and those who perpetrate atrocities against them, there is always something we fall back on as an anchor to reality. For me it is my bride of 42 years, Donna,” said Simpson. “Throughout my career, she has been the one who kept me grounded in reality, pushing me when I needed it and supporting me in every way.”
Simpson does occasionally take a break and loves to go duck hunting with “a good dog, black coffee and the sounds and smells of a new day's dawn.”
Back at work, he continues to look for ways to promote AMBER Alert initiatives and programs, and to build and strengthen awareness and knowledge through effective training and resources. Simpson takes great satisfaction in the fact that the program has been expanded to include work on understanding, identifying and responding to the rapidly growing crime of human trafficking.
“We are changing the way we look at young girls and boys that wind up engaging in prostitution and related forms of involuntary servitude,” he said. “In the past they were often identified as suspects, when in fact they too were victims who found themselves in a situation they didn't know how to escape from.”
For Mark Simpson and so many others, a vigilant focus on Amber Hagerman's case will not cease until her murder is solved. It is also likely Simpson will remain ever-focused on combatting child abduction and other crimes against children, tirelessly working to help other law enforcement officers do the same.
Fairbury, Nebraska, Police Chief Chad Sprunk
Megan Smetter woke up on the morning of Saturday, February 20, 2016, to discover her two-month-old son Jaxon, her friend Earnest Howard, 35, and her car were missing. She reported the incident to the Fairbury, Nebraska, Police Department for help at 7:15 a.m. An officer was immediately dispatched in an attempt to locate the missing vehicle and make contact with the suspect.
The initial responding officer contacted Fairbury Police Chief Chad Sprunk at 11:15 a.m. that morning and requested additional assistance; he also requested consideration of issuing an AMBER Alert. Chief Sprunk personally called the missing child’s mother to verify that the case met the criteria for an AMBER Alert.
“I was convinced it met the criteria because of the suspect’s prior drug use, violent criminal history, a previous attempted abduction of a child,” said Sprunk. “He was also not the biological father of the child, didn’t notify the mother he was taking [him] and refused to bring the child back.”
The Fairbury Police Department notified the media and law enforcement in the area about the possible abduction. The AMBER Alert was issued at 2:26 p.m.
Nebraska State Patrol Lieutenant Jeromy McCoy is the state’s AMBER Alert Coordinator. He was without his laptop when he received the call for the alert. He called another officer for help and the alert was quickly sent to the state’s electronic highway signs and broadcast via the Wireless Emergency Alert System. However, obtaining pictures of the suspect and victim required approximately 20 additional minutes before the AMBER Alert was posted to the Department’s website.
“These images were in a different format that caused our webpage to crash when we attempted to submit the AMBER Alert,” said Lieutenant McCoy. “We determined the problem and changed the format to a JPEG.”
The Fairbury Police Department has six full-time officers. The small department’s phones quickly starting ringing with tips and possible sightings of the suspect’s vehicle, including tips from Ohio, California, Kansas, Missouri and Texas. Help also started pouring in from several county sheriff’s offices, the Nebraska State Patrol, the FBI and several civilian organizations offering assistance in working tips and the investigation.
“I required everyone to contact the agency where the tip was generated,” said Chief Sprunk. “Absolutely no tip was set aside and not handled.”
This was the 18th AMBER Alert issued by Nebraska since its program began in 2002. It was the 7th alert issued by Lieutenant McCoy since he became a verification officer in 2007. He became the state’s AMBER Alert coordinator three years ago. However, it was the first alert for the Fairbury Police Department, and it added strain to AMBER Alert veterans as well as everyone who was new to the alert system.
“Obviously, you think the worst has happened to the child; however you still have hope the child is safe,” said Chief Sprunk. “It was extremely emotional not knowing what the outcome was going to be.”
“The longer an AMBER Alert goes on, the more worried I get,” added Lieutenant McCoy.
A citizen called to report the suspect’s vehicle was stuck in the mud in Fairbury. Police located and arrested Howard and the baby was taken to a local hospital. The AMBER Alert was cancelled at 6:41 p.m., about 4 hours after it was initiated.
“If I could see that person, I don’t know how I would be able to thank them,” expressed Megan Smetter in speaking to KOLN-TV about the person who provided the tip leading to Howard’s location. “I think there was more anger and fear I would never see him again.”
Howard was taken to jail and booked on charges including kidnapping, felony child abuse and making terroristic threats. His case is still pending and all suspects are presumed innocent unless they are convicted. Police said Howard also had a glass pipe used in smoking methamphetamine in his possession and could be charged at a later time with that offense.
“I do feel the AMBER Alert saved the child’s life,” said Chief Sprunk. “If the alert did not go out, the citizen who located the suspect and child would not have known about the abduction.”
The Fairbury Police Department has trained for years on the AMBER Alert system, but lessons are always learned after each alert—especially the first one.
“Time is of the essence,” said Chief Sprunk. “If there is any doubt, send the AMBER Alert out to the coordinator immediately. It was so easy and flawless working with the Nebraska State Patrol on getting the alert out.”
Nebraska also has a strong AMBER Alert committee that reviews every alert issued.
“We review problems and make changes based on input from media, law enforcement and other AMBER Alert partners,” added Lieutenant McCoy. “We have good discussions and try to make the alert process better after each one.”
Both the AMBER Alert coordinator and the police chief said this alert is further proof the AMBER Alert system is a vital tool to save abducted children.
“Children are vulnerable and can’t control their environment or circumstances they are put in,” said Lieutenant McCoy. “I do whatever I can do to protect this segment of our society.”
“Safety of the children is what motivates me,” added Chief Sprunk. “Children are helpless and fragile and it puts them in a very scary and unsafe environment.”
Twenty years ago on January 13, 1996, 9-year-old Amber Hagerman of Arlington, Texas, was abducted and subsequently assaulted and murdered. The tragic events and subsequent investigation of Amber’s death sparked what has grown from a local, to nationwide and now international effort to improve and expand efforts to locate, identify and safely recover abducted children.
The case of Amber Hagerman’s abduction and murder remains unresolved. During the initial investigation, a witness reported seeing a man in a black truck grab her off her bike and drive away. Four days following Amber’s disappearance, a man walking his dog found her body in a drainage ditch in Arlington.
A local citizen, Diane Simone, called a Dallas radio station the day Amber’s body was found and asked if local broadcasters could team up with law enforcement to somehow get information out immediately following a child abduction. Dallas and Fort Worth area broadcasters began work to establish a coordinated system with local law enforcement whereby they could warn the public when a child was kidnapped and in danger. Over the two decades that have followed, the AMBER Alert system has grown through grass-roots efforts at the local, regional and state levels. AMBER Alert programs are now operating in every state across the U.S., and have been developed in other countries around the world.
The AMBER Alert system bears Amber’s name, and also stands for America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response. AMBER Alert Programs have helped bring more than 800 children home safely. “If it wasn’t for Amber, we would not have the AMBER Alert today,” Donna Williams, Amber’s mother, told reporters.
Communities across the U.S. joined in observing National AMBER Alert Awareness Day on January 13, 2016. Here is a look at key milestones achieved over the past two decades:
2002: AMBER Alerts become nationally focused and highway signs are added to the warning system. President George W. Bush names the first National AMBER Alert Coordinator.
2003: The PROTECT Act is signed into law, strengthening the ability of law enforcement and the judicial system to prevent, investigate, prosecute, and punish violent crimes committed against children.
2005: A nationwide initiative to train Child Abduction Response Teams (CART) is launched.
2011: The Southern Border Initiative implements Alerta AMBER Mexico, a national protocol to coordinate child abductions in the U.S. and Mexico.
2015: The AMBER Alert Training and Technical Assistance Program launches a new Tribal Database website (www.tribaldatabase.org) to promote awareness and provide access to important child protection and human trafficking prevention resources for tribal communities.
Amber’s mother continues on bravely, with hope that her daughter’s killer will be found. “I’m not going to give up,” she said. “I still have hope that he will be caught one day.”
The AMBER Alert Training and Technical Assistance Program (AATTAP) is proud to honor Mrs. Fran Keith on her retirement and to celebrate her 11 years of dedicated leadership and commitment to AATTAP staff, consultants and partners across the US and internationally. For more than a decade, Keith’s expertise, attention to detail and unsurpassed professionalism were central to building the excellence for which the program has come to be recognized. Fran’s careful and critical decision-making formed a bedrock of operations, while her tireless work with staff, partners and stakeholders fueled the program’s innovations in finding new and better ways to protect children and safely recover those who were missing and abducted.
Keith began her career as an educator in mathematics. One might wonder how a math teacher from Norfolk, Virginia, became such a pivotal member of the AATTAP. Keith moved from her work in mathematics education to serving as a crime and business analyst for the Norfolk Police Department, progressing through her 31-year career there as a division manager in planning and research and a member of the department’s senior executive team. In 2004, Keith joined AATTAP in a consultant role and soon became a program manager, providing leadership and her management expertise across all aspects and operations of the grant.
“I really did not have any personal experience with missing children,” said Keith. “I was simply fortunate enough to meet the people who worked with the program. I learned so much from the AMBER Alert coordinators and other partners and was thrilled to be able to continue in a full-time capacity.”
As the AATTAP worked to achieve the National AMBER Alert Initiative’s goal of every state and territory in the US developing an AMBER Alert program, a central focus was to develop and provide training events across the nation. Keith’s extensive background in operations management was key to executing the massive rollout of local, state and national training, conference events and related technical assistance required to achieve this significant goal.
“Since I started the improvements are too numerous to list,” said Keith. “The expanding network of partners, development of training programs and new techniques for recovery such as social media, Endangered Missing Advisories, plus the outreach to tribal communities and partners in Mexico and other countries.”
With Keith’s help, AATTAP launched and successfully delivered an aggressive schedule of training programs designed to make missing children a “mainstream” issue for law enforcement and the public. Keith provided a legacy of excellence to the program and her colleagues, effective delivery and her innovative approaches to training and technical assistance continue on.
“The work is not over and should be continued for the welfare of America’s children,” added Keith. “Our children’s soft voice should be interpreted as a cry for help when they are endangered, so my hope is enough decision makers will be vocal supporters and maintain the training programs for law enforcement and communities.”
While Keith retired, she will no doubt maintain a keen interest in what can still be accomplished though the AMBER Alert Program. She would like to see more communities develop a Child Abduction Response Team (CART) and is passionate about the program’s involvement of helping victims of human trafficking.
“So many of the victims and survivors of human trafficking were at one time abducted or kidnapped at an early age,” said Keith. “Not every survivor was abducted or reported missing, some were just ‘thrown away.’ Regardless, the vast majority are ‘missing’ and need to be rescued.”
Keith believes training law enforcement, broadcasters and all AMBER Alert partners are still needed to change policies, beliefs and practices, and will continue to represent a critical step for the U.S. to address the epidemic of human trafficking.
“Children are our most vulnerable population and if we do not rescue them and change our approaches, we will only compound the stress on all public service providers,” she said. “Many of the victims and survivors suffer from severe mental health challenges from their abduction and abuse.”
Fran and Phil Keith, former Program Director of AATTAP, recently married and now enjoy traveling and spending time with family and friends. They remain strong advocates for missing and abducted children and welcome opportunities to support and advocate for the work of child protection professionals across the country and around the world.
“I have many fond memories, and most importantly the relationships developed with such wonderful people,” said Keith. “My biggest disappointment is that we still need a program to find missing and abducted children.”
Editor’s note: Despite my title, Fran Keith has been my editor for THE AMBER Advocate since its inception in 2006. She has read every word, corrected every typo, doggedly pushed for its publication and provided invaluable guidance for a publication that now reaches more than 50,000 AMBER Alert partners. “The AMBER Advocate brings real stories from the people who actually handle missing, abducted and endangered children cases and puts a face on the situations they deal with each day,” noted Keith. Personally, I will miss her but I am grateful for Bonnie Davis, who is also a skilled wordsmith, and has assumed Keith’s duties with this important publication.
The Butte County Sheriff’s Office in California issued an AMBER Alert for 3 children on June 14, 2014. Nine minutes later the children were recovered safely and the suspect was in custody. A citizen saw the Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) on his cell phone and looked up and saw the suspect’s blue van.
“I can’t believe right when the AMBER Alert came is right when I see the van. That was right within 5 seconds,” Gurinder Jhutty told a reporter. “My gut told me ‘Let’s go back and check it out.’ That’s when I came back and I looked at the license plate and that’s when I started calling 911 and I saw 3 kids in the back. That’s when I started following him.”
Matthew Kline allegedly took his 3-year-old daughter, 18-month-old son and an unrelated 4-year-old girl earlier in the morning. The AMBER Alert cautioned citizens to not approach the suspect because authorities believed he was carrying firearms.
Sergeant Jason Hail has spent 19 years with the Butte County Sheriff’s Office and this was the first AMBER Alert for him and the agency. The sheriff’s office immediately set up a command post and a call center. Officers had an idea where the suspect was heading but did not know at the time the alert would go to all the cell phones in the area.
“I was very surprised and relieved how quickly it was resolved,” said Hail. “I was impressed and it renewed my faith by showing that people really do care and will take appropriate action.”
He also credits the AMBER Alert training he had received in the past for the positive outcome. “I learned that in order to have a smooth operation, it would be beneficial to have all of the involved parties’ information and the circumstances written down, including officer safety information and if there is an arrest warrant active or in the process,” added Hail. “We were flooded with calls in our dispatch center. I learned we need to have a sufficient amount of people on duty to handle calls from the public and assign tasks to individuals to handle the media, make contact with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) and other logistics.”
California Highway Patrol Captain Jay Bart has been California’s AMBER Alert Coordinator for the past 2 years. He said it was an easy decision to realize this case was eligible for an AMBER Alert. “The children were in imminent danger because the suspect was violent and mentally unstable,” said Bart. “He was also in possession of stolen firearms and had made threats toward the children and their mother.”
The highway patrol uses a step-by-step process to initiate a chain of notifications to try and recover children during an AMBER Alert, including:
The Emergency Alert System was activated.
Changeable Message Signs were activated to display the suspect vehicle’s information on the national and state highway systems.
The suspect vehicle’s information was entered into the California Highway Patrol License Plate Reader database.
The California Lottery was contacted to display the AMBER Alert information on their display systems.
A message was posted to the California Office of Emergency Services’ Emergency Digital Information System website and it was also sent to all law enforcement agencies in California, including off-duty highway patrol officers.
NCMEC was contacted to request the WEA activation and other secondary notifications.
A flyer with information and pictures was sent to law enforcement, first responders, medical facilities, media outlets and missing persons’ organizations.
“I firmly believe our protocols aided in the success of this AMBER Alert. We are all aware time is a critical factor in cases where missing and abducted children are involved,” said Bart. “I was ecstatic to learn the suspect was apprehended in a very short time frame.”
NCMEC believes this AMBER Alert had the fastest resolution of any alert involving WEA. “This case really shows what a game changer it is to have AMBER Alerts come directly to cell phones in the targeted area,” said Robert Hoever, NCMEC’s Director of Special Programs in the Missing Children Division. “Nearly everyone is carrying a phone and we just need one person to be in the right place at the right time.”
Hail has this advice for those who have yet to issue an AMBER Alert: “I believe the most important part is to have enough staff in place to handle calls from the public,” he said. “Have individuals in place and assign those individuals responsibilities as you would with any other critical incident.”
Preparation, protocols and new technology made this AMBER Alert a case study on what works to recover abducted children.
“Factoring in the time it takes to gather information, approve the alert and activate the emergency alert system, the suspect was arrested and the victims were safely recovered in less than one hour from the activation,” concluded Bart.
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.
Who created it?
By Denise Gee Peacock
The Butte County Sheriff’s Office in California issued an AMBER Alert for 3 children on June 14, 2014. Nine minutes later the children were recovered safely and the suspect was in custody. A citizen saw the Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) on his cell phone and looked up and saw the suspect’s blue van.