National Criminal Justice Training Center

By Denise Gee Peacock

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

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

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

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

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

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

What were some advancements within the Arlington Police Department?

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

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

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

How did you keep up with all the investigative leads?

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

How has Amber’s case weighed on you?

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

And as for the investigation?

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

Tell us about the investigative task force.

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

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

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

What was the most challenging aspect of working the case?

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

How did the situation resolve?

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

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

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

What do you think most resonated with people?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What else should we know about the case?

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

What drives you forward to do that?

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

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

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

How often do you get leads on the case?

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

What would you say to Amber’s family?

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

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

By Denise Gee Peacock

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

By Denise Gee Peacock

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

By Denise Gee Peacock

May 25 is National Missing Children's Day, but for the AMBER Alert Training & Technical Assistance Program (AATTAP) and National Criminal Justice Training Center (NCJTC), we think about missing children every single day.

Janell Rasmussen, Director of the National Criminal Justice Training Center and Administrator of the AMBER Alert Training & Technical Assistance Program — **Janell Rasmussen** NCJTC Director AATTAP Administrator

“We not only train child protection professionals to quickly and safely resolve missing child incidents, but also work with some amazing family members of missing children and siblings,” says Janell Rasmussen, National Criminal Justice Training Center Director/ AATTAP Administrator.

“Family members such as Colleen Nick, Kimber Biggs, Jeffery Morehouse, and Desiree Young, to name a few, have shared their perspectives during training sessions, symposiums, and multimedia projects meant to help law enforcement understand family members’ unique perspectives. We owe them a debt of gratitude for their compassion and candor. And we stand strong with them and all other family members of missing children as they diligently work to see their missing child or sibling return home.”

*⃝ Read about the National Missing Children’s Day commemoration in Washington, D.C, which included a panel discussion with sibling-survivors and NCJTC-AATTAP Associates Kimber Biggs (featured in the above video), Rysa Lee, and Sayeh Rivazfar, who worked alongside them and others to help produce the new second edition of the What About Me? multimedia sibling survival guide.

Learn more about these loved ones who are still missing:

𒀭 𝗠𝗶𝗸𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗲 𝗕𝗶𝗴𝗴𝘀: https://www.facebook.com/mikellebiggs

𒀭 𝗔𝘁𝗼𝗺𝘂 𝗜𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗼 𝗠𝗼𝗿𝗲𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘀𝗲: https://www.bachome.org/mochi-morehouse.html

𒀭 𝗠𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗮𝗻 𝗡𝗶𝗰𝗸: https://morgannickfoundation.com/about/

𒀭 𝗞𝘆𝗿𝗼𝗻 𝗛𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗻: https://www.facebook.com/missingkyronhorman/

By Denise Gee Peacock

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

New guide’s sibling contributors

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Helpful advice for the helpers

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

During a law enforcement investigation

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

Working with traditional/social media

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

By Denise Gee Peacock

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

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

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

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

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

Collaboration for a clearer path forward

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

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

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. Wetterling is the mother of Jacob Wetterling, who was abducted and murdered in 1989. (Read more about her search for him, and her new book, Dear Jacob, here—and an excerpt from her Missing Children’s Day talk below.) Wetterling also helped update the new edition of the Family Survival Guide, released in 2023.

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

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

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

Commemoration highlights

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

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

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

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

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

Looking back—and ahead

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We can never give up hope.

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

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

By Jody Garlock

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

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

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

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

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

Case by case

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

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

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

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

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

Preparedness pays off

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

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

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

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

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

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

Partnering for a cause

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Former Investigation Supervisor Reflects on Early Days of Case—And Lessons for Today

Lead Investigator Now Assigned to Hagerman Case Discusses Hopes for DNA Testing—and Goal of Solving the Crime

Arlington Police Department Homicide Detective Krystallyne Robinson has been the lead detective on the Amber Hagerman case since summer 2023. We recently had the chance to ask her a few questions.

See Lt. O’Keefe
in ‘The First 48’