The Amber Alert system is an integral part of today’s society, rapidly disseminating information about missing children and aiding in their safe recovery. Named after Amber Hagerman, a young girl who was tragically abducted and murdered in 1996, this system has saved countless lives since its inception. This article delves into the history of the Amber Alert system, its development, and its impact on child safety.
The Tragic Incident that Sparked Change
Amber Hagerman’s abduction and murder in Arlington, Texas, in 1996 was the catalyst for a nationwide effort to improve the way law enforcement agencies respond to child abductions. Her case garnered extensive media coverage, prompting community members and law enforcement officials to collaborate on finding effective ways to prevent such incidents in the future.
The Birth of the Amber Alert System
In response to Amber Hagerman’s tragic fate, the Dallas-Fort Worth Association of Radio Managers and local law enforcement agencies in Texas collaborated to create the Amber Alert system. They sought a way to quickly distribute information about abducted children to the public, hoping that rapid dissemination of this information could significantly increase the chances of a child’s safe recovery.
Amber Alert Criteria and Activation
The Amber Alert system follows specific criteria for activation, focusing on cases where law enforcement believes a child is in imminent danger of serious bodily harm or death. These criteria typically include the belief that the child has been abducted, the child is under 18 years old, and there’s enough descriptive information about the child, the abductor, or the suspect’s vehicle to assist in their recovery.
Expansion and Implementation
The success of the Amber Alert system in Texas led to its adoption in other states and, eventually, on a national level. In 2003, President George W. Bush signed the PROTECT Act, which authorized the U.S. Department of Justice to establish a national communications network for broadcasting Amber Alerts. This marked a significant milestone in the system’s evolution, allowing alerts to be rapidly disseminated across various media platforms, including television, radio, and digital billboards.
Technological Advancements
The rise of smartphones and social media platforms provided new avenues for reaching a wider audience in real time. Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) became an integral part of the Amber Alert system, delivering geographically targeted alerts directly to people’s mobile devices, ensuring that information about missing children reached them regardless of their location.
Criticism and Improvements
While the Amber Alert system has been largely successful in recovering abducted children, there have been instances of false alerts, technical glitches, and criticisms of its effectiveness in some cases. However, these shortcomings have prompted ongoing improvements, including refining the criteria for activation and enhancing the accuracy of the information provided in alerts.
Global Adoption
The success of the Amber Alert system inspired other countries to adopt similar systems to address child abductions. Many nations have developed their own alert systems. The Amber Alert system stands as a testament to the power of collaboration between law enforcement, media outlets, and the public in ensuring the safety and well-being of children. From its humble beginnings as a response to a tragic incident, the system has evolved into a nationwide and even global lifeline for missing children. While there may be challenges and improvements along the way, the Amber Alert system remains a vital tool in the ongoing effort to protect children from abduction and harm.
The family of a missing Indiana teen is wringing their hands this week after a search was launched for sixteen-year-old Marley Richie, who was last seen in Scottsburg on Saturday night, June 25, 2022 about 85 miles south of Indianapolis. The search has been launched nationwide in search of Marley’s whereabouts, and a Silver Alert has been issued as authorities believe Marley to be in danger.
Marley was last seen around 9:30 PM on Saturday night in Scottsburg, Indiana, wearing a white tank top and blue checkered pajama pants. According to Sheriff Jerry Goodin’s Facebook post on Sunday, June 26, “Please, if anyone knows the whereabouts of Marley Richie, I plead for you to give us a call so we can bring her home. Marley, if you see this release, please reach out to us or any law enforcement agency so we can help you and your family. Our primary goal is to see you home, nothing else.” Goodwin’s office has stated that a nationwide search for Marley will continue until she is found. The Silver Alert issued for the missing Indiana teen was attributed in the post to the point that investigators have “reason to believe Marley Richie is in extreme danger and may require medical assistance.” Silver alerts are commonly reserved for missing adults and children whom law enforcement believe to be in danger. Until this past year, Silver Alerts were only issued for endangered adults, but standards were revised to include children in this category.
Marley Richie is described as standing 5’4” tall, weighing approximately 135 pounds. She has brown hair and brown eyes. If you have any information on Marley Richie, contact the Scott County Sheriff’s Department at 812-752-550 or call 911. Sheriff Jerry Goodin has advised that everyone who calls in with information may remain anonymous.
San Antonio Police are no closer to finding 4 year-old Lina Sardar Khil, an adorable little girl who vanished from a park near her family’s home at the Villa Del Cabo apartment complex six months ago. She was last seen on December 20, 2021 at the park in the 9400 block of Fredericksburg Road in San Antonio in the late afternoon between 4:30 PM and 5:10 PM according to San Antonio Police. She left her mother’s sight for an undetermined amount of time before her disappearance was realized.
The case has changed hands from the missing person’s unit of San Antonio’s police department to the special victim’s unit over the course of those six months in order to allocate resources for the case that are typically reserved for abduction cases—not missing person cases. “We still don’t have any evidence or proof it was an abduction,” said Police Chief William McManus said in an interview. “It’s kind of a hybrid missing person and abduction…If there were video, if there were any kind of evidence of an abduction, we would have classified it as an abduction. But since we don’t have that, we can’t classify it as an abduction. ” The FBI has also joined the search for Lina Sardar Khil.
While police continue to pull resources into the case in pursuit of answers, there is still a family missing Lina every day, and feeling her absence in their lives. “Her light is missing from her family and community,” said Pamela Allen, a representative of the Khil family, “Our continuous prayer is that she will be back in the arms of those that love her.” Lina’s family is part of the Afghan community in San Antonio, Texas, having come to the U.S. back in 2019.
Little Lina has brown eyes, straight brown hair, and was last seen wearing a black jacket, red dress, and black shoes according to police.
It’s been almost fifteen years since three-year-old Madeleine McCann disappeared while on holiday with her family in Praia da Luz in the Algarve region of Portugal. She is believed to have been snatched from her bed in the middle of the night while her parents were out at a tapas restaurant less than 100 yards away from their holiday apartment. Madeleine McCann became one of the most recognized faces globally as her parents launched an international awareness campaign to find their daughter. Fifteen years later, another formal suspect has finally been named in her disappearance.
According to the BBC, “A German man has been declared an official suspect by Portuguese prosecutors investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. Christian Brueckner has been made an ‘arguido,’ but Portuguese authorities have not formally revealed the suspect’s name.” Naming Brueckner a formal suspect in the case comes ahead of an important deadline in the timeline of the investigation—the 15th anniversary of the day Madeleine was reported missing will mark the final day that investigators will be able to declare any individual to be a formal suspect, which is a crucial step in charging a suspect criminally. However, Portuguese prosecutors have clarified in a statement that this decision was in no way driven by the upcoming deadline, and was instead made due to “strong indications” that a crime had been committed.
Brueckner is currently serving a prison sentence in Germany for drug offenses and the rape of a 72-year-old woman. A phone that was attributed to Brueckner placed him in the area of Madeleine’s disappearance within a crucial 30-minute window. Brueckner had been breaking into vacation homes and apartments in the area of the resort where the McCanns had been staying and had children’s clothes in his van. Brueckner denies any involvement in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.
After the two-year anniversary of her daughter’s disappearance, the mother of Harmony Montgomery has spoken out. Crystal Sorey reached out to the media, and amidst criticism of how her daughter’s case was handled, let the public know that she believes her baby is still alive, “I don’t feel like she’s gone. I just don’t feel that in my heart…and a mother knows, a mother knows if your baby’s here or not. I know she’s here.”
The case of Harmony Montgomery faced the same issues that many missing person cases did around the time of the COVID-19 outbreak. Harmony was last seen by Manchester police when they answered a call to her home in October of 2019, according to the New Hampshire Union Leader. However, any missing person investigator will tell you that if the case is not resolved within the first week of the investigation, it’s crucial for the missing person’s face to stay in the media. The continued presence of a missing person’s face in the media raises the likelihood that someone will recognize the missing person and provide law enforcement with information they may have on their disappearance. This generates new leads, which raises the chance that the missing person will be found. However, in the case of Harmony Montgomery, just eight short weeks after her disappearance, the first news of the COVID-19 pandemic hit the media. As the virus spread, COVID-19 dominated the news cycle, and missing person cases that desperately needed the media exposure were all but forgotten by the public at large. Now two years later, Crystal Sorey is making sure the world hasn’t forgotten about her missing daughter.
Harmony Montgomery was only 5 years old when she disappeared in October 2019. Unfortunately, it had been months since Forey had seen Harmony, reportedly because the girl’s father, Adam Montgomery, had blocked all contact between Harmony and her mother, according to NBC. Last week, Adam Montgomery was arrested by authorities and formally charged with felony second-degree assault “connected to conduct against Harmony” back in 2019. The New Hampshire Police followed up to say that he may also face charges of interference with custody, and two charges of endangering the welfare of a child. Harmony’s stepmother, Kayla Montgomery, was also arrested because she fraudulently received food stamp benefits for Harmony even after her disappearance. According to police, between December 2019 and June 2021, Kayla Montgomery received $1,500 in benefits for the missing girl, even though she had not lived with her or Adam.
Despite the flurry of arrests that have taken place over the course of the investigation into Harmony Montgomery’s disappearance, little progress has actually been made in finding the now 7-year-old girl. Last Saturday, the house where Harmony Montgomery was last seen was formally searched by law enforcement, despite the fact that there are now new occupants who are not related to the case. Police have established a tip line dedicated to Harmony’s case and have offered a cash reward for information leading to Harmony’s location in the sum of $94,000.
It’s the kind of story you see in movies—a young woman discovers that the circumstances of her past may not be what she originally thought. An adoption, a missing person case, possible DNA evidence; these are all plot points in a crime film. However, for Kaylynn Stevenson, the truth could be stranger than fiction now that she has her suspicions that she may actually be Brittany Williams, who disappeared from Richmond, VA when she was only 7 years old.
Kaylynn Stevenson has been sharing her story on social media, claiming she has proof that she is actually a missing seven year-old girl who disappeared from Virginia more than 20 years ago, “Who are you? I am Brittany Renee Williams. Are you sure? Yes, I am. Why are you sure. I’m sure because I have a DNA test to prove it.”
Stevenson was raised by adoptive parents in Columbus, Ohio, and only moved to Fort Wayne within the last year. While researching her biological family, Stevenson claimed to have flashbacks to childhood. After searching her surname ‘Williams,’ Stevenson was shocked to see results for a little girl on a missing person poster. She claims she recognized the little girl as herself.
Brittany Williams was only seven years old when she vanished from her foster home in Richmond, Virginia back in 2000. Brittany was suddenly absent from class and stopped appearing at court hearings with her foster mother, Kim Parker. Parker was so uncooperative with authorities that they deemed it wise to conduct a search of her yard in search of the missing girl’s remains. The missing girl’s case had many exacerbating factors that increased the urgency for answers—for example, Brittany Williams was born with AIDS, and required medication as a result. After some time with no answers in the investigation, authorities believed the little girl to be dead without access to her medication. Allegedly, Parker attempted to give Brittany to her sister out of an inability to care for her. Her sister refused, and Parker told authorities that Parker had paid two women in California to take Brittany. Both women deny ever having custody of Brittany and do not know her whereabouts.
In addition to sharing a surname with Brittany, Stevenson also claims to have had flashes of life in Parker’s foster home called “Rainbow Kids.” Stevenson also has scars on her body from a catheter and eating tube. Catheter scars were one of the distinguishing characteristics listed on Brittany William’s missing person poster. However, a crucial thing Stevenson and Brittany do not share is a diagnosis of AIDS. Despite this crucial inconsistency, WWBT has reported that the FBI and Henrico Police are looking into Stevenson’s claim by comparing her DNA sample to that of Brittany Williams’ half-sister.
