multi-state AMBER Alert – AMBER Advocate

Mugshot of suspect Donnie Shelton alongside portrait of daughter Elysha Shelton — Suspect Donnie Shelton, left, and his daughter, abduction victim Elysha Shelton, right.

Donnie Shelton had a protective order forbidding him from contacting his estranged wife and their children. Authorities at the Pickens County Sheriff's Office in South Carolina said the order did not stop Shelton from breaking into the family home on Monday, November 22, 2010, and attacking his wife and 10-year-old son. The father found his 8-year-old daughter hiding in a closet and forced her into his truck.

Dispatchers received the initial call at 6 p.m. and investigators tried to find the child before contacting the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division at 11:40 p.m. about issuing an AMBER Alert. Lieutenant Cal Reighley said he considered the father's history of domestic violence and drug problems before sending the alert out just after midnight.

“We felt like the child was in danger because of his history of violence and how he took the child,” said Reighley. “It was better to be safe than sorry, and we decided to go ahead and issue the AMBER Alert.”

Reighley notified the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and contacted all AMBER Alert partners. He also made a courtesy call to Georgia and North Carolina about the alert. Every part of the South Carolina AMBER Alert Plan seemed to be working.

At 3:30 a.m. Tuesday, a man showed up at the Baptist Regional Medical Center in Corbin, Kentucky, with a girl who said she had stomach pains. A nurse became suspicious when the girl would not make eye contact with her. Staff members checked an AMBER Alert website and discovered the child had been abducted three states away in South Carolina. The police arrived at 4:05 a.m. and arrested Shelton.

Patti Ruff, the South Carolina AMBER Alert Coordinator, said she was about to relieve Reighley when the AMBER Alert was cancelled.

“I think the alert was awesome,” said Ruff. “Whoever took the initiative to check online to see if there was an AMBER Alert should be recognized. They could have checked the little girl and sent her on her way with her father. This is a lesson for all hospital staff members to check something out even if there is not an AMBER Alert in their state.”

Ruff became the state AMBER Alert Coordinator only seven months before this alert went out. She offered this advice for other new coordinators: “Work with someone who is experienced and has been involved with AMBER Alerts. If you are a parent and you are new to the process, you will want to activate the alert as fast as you can. However, it is important to get it right, so you do not desensitize the public with too many alerts.”

“You learn something with every alert, and nothing happens exactly the same with each one,” added Reighley. “The biggest surprise was where the suspect was located. The most important lesson we learned was to check other states because the suspect can pretty much go anywhere, and you do not know where they will turn up.”

Shelton has been charged with assault and battery, burglary, custodial interference, criminal domestic violence, and trespassing.

It began with an ambush of a family as they were coming home from church in West Columbia, South Carolina. David Allen Dietz and an unidentified accomplice allegedly ordered his ex-girlfriend, and their 7-month-old son to get into his silver Ford Explorer.

Dietz allegedly fired shots as he sped away with Eva Arce Perez, and their son, Allim Dietz. South Carolina issued an AMBER Alert at 12:46 a.m. on Jan. 4, 2009, in a desperate attempt to recover the infant and his mother.

“It was just so tense,” said Glenda Booth, South Carolina's AMBER Alert Coordinator for the past four years. “This was a very frightening AMBER Alert. I really thought we were going to lose our victims.”

Dietz was a former law enforcement officer with a history of aggression. On the night of the abduction, he was wearing a black T-shirt with the word “Police” on the sleeves and on the back of the shirt.

A small army of federal, state and local law enforcement officers quickly gathered at the command center. “Everyone was working on it together,” said Booth. “It was a huge effort, and it was going non-stop from Saturday night until Monday morning.”

South Carolina AMBER Alert Coordinator Glenda Booth

Near the beginning of the ordeal Booth called Lamar Advertising to see if the company could post an AMBER Alert on its electronic signs. The company offered to post the alerts on the signs for the next three hours. “Those types of partners are invaluable,” said Booth.

A break came when a citizen saw the AMBER Alert and recognized the suspect as someone she had seen with Jamie Burgess, a 17-year-old runaway. Law enforcement confirmed that Burgess was with Dietz during the abduction.

“We made the decision to list Burgess as a victim because law enforcement did not have enough information to charge her as an accomplice,” said Booth. Her database screens only have fields for a “victim” or a “suspect” but now a field is being considered for a “person of interest.”

Another break occurred when the female victim borrowed a phone and called her mother. Investigators traced the call to Madison, Georgia. South Carolina cancelled its alert, and an AMBER Alert was activated in Georgia.

A police officer located the suspect's vehicle and law enforcement officers surrounded a hotel for the next 13 hours until a negotiator convinced Dietz to give up. “I'm just so thankful the mother and child are safe,” said a relieved Booth.

Looking back, Booth said they experienced a few problems with their IT and blast fax, plus questions about listing the accomplice. But the AMBER Alert still went out through the Emergency Alert System, National Weather Service and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

South Carolina will start testing their plan monthly to correct any possible problems, but Booth is pleased that once again the AMBER Alert worked. The public was notified, law enforcement received tips and a small baby and his mother are miraculously safe.

AMBER Alert Fact: More than $1.5 billion dollars in federal stimulus money has been earmarked for innovative road projects. Some states plan to use the money to install more electronic signs that can warn drivers about accidents and inform them about AMBER Alerts.