An Amber Alert helped locate a missing NC teenager. Here’s how the system works
A Durham 16-year-old kidnapped by three masked men on Friday was found safe after an Amber Alert was issued for her disappearance, according to The News and Observer.
It was the most recent instance in which an Amber Alert was used in an effort to locate a child missing and considered in danger.
Here is what an Amber Alert is, when it’s issued, and what are the system’s protocols.
What is an Amber Alert?
Amber, which stands for America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response, has criteria for which missing person’s cases require an alert, according to the broadcast system’s website. Therefore, not all kidnappings are grounds for an Amber alert.
The program started in 1996 as a result of police efforts to develop a warning system to help find abducted children.
The name carries the legacy of 9-year-old Amber Hagan, who was kidnapped while riding her bicycle in Arlington, Texas, and brutally murdered.
Alerts interrupt regular scheduled programming that is broadcast on radio, television and Department of Transportation highway signs. Digital items are also produced through online advertisements, search engines, digital billboards, or sent to your mobile device.
Why do only some kidnappings receive Amber Alerts?
Amber alerts are only issued when a child has been abducted, and the abduction meets Amber Alert requirements.
Here are some of the criteria:
A child 17 or younger has gone missing
Law enforcement believes that an abduction occurred
Law enforcement believes the child is in imminent danger of serious bodily injury or death
There is enough descriptive info about the victim and abduction
“The child’s name and other critical elements, including the Child Abduction flag, have been entered” into the National Crime Information Center’s system.
How many NC children are found after Amber Alerts?
In North Carolina, “About 95% of the more than 7,000 children who are reported missing each year are recovered,” according to the North Carolina Department of Public Safety.
Since 1996, the Amber Alert program “has contributed to the recovery of 1,127 children and wireless emergency alerts resulted in the rescue of 131 children.”
In 2021, about 254 Amber alerts were issued, with 252 of those cases resulting in the recovery of missing children, “51 of which were successfully recovered as a direct result of an Amber Alert being issued,” according to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.
When is an Amber Alert triggered in Charlotte?
The North Carolina Child Alert Notification, now the Amber Alert system, became official in 2002.
Amber Alerts are broadcast throughout North Carolina “to apprise motorists of road, traffic, weather or traveler information. And in May 2007, Amber Alert notifications began appearing on North Carolina Education Lottery terminals,” according to NC Public Safety.
In Charlotte, police receive more than 3,500 missing persons reports per year, while about “70% of those reports involve juveniles between the age of 13 and 17,” which the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department says also has the largest number of “habitual runaways.”
Most recent Charlotte-area Amber Alert cases
November 2018
Destiny Boykins, 3, was returned to her mother after being kidnapped on Nov. 11. She was abducted from a Gastonia apartment by her father, Maurice Knox, The Charlotte Observer reported.
After leading officers on a high-speed chase and crashing in Charlotte, Knox was taken into Custody by U.S. Marshalls, WSOC reported.
August 2019
An alert was canceled after police said 3-year-old Dior Muhammad and 1-year-old Aziyah Garner were located on Aug. 13.
Investigators believe Edward Garner Sr. killed pregnant Aiesha Shantel Summers, the mother of the children then took off with them, according to WBTV.
“Garner was located and arrested by CMPD officers and K-9 unit on Sept. 6 without incident,” WBTV reported.
December 2020
An Amber alert was issued on Dec. 12 for 14-year-old Uriel Baylor, 14-year-old Darnell Carden, 3-year-old King Carden, 3-year-old Queen Carden and 2-year-old Pharaoh Carden.
CMPD was searching for their mother, Joreka Izquierdo, who was believed to be suffering from mental health issues, WCNC reported.
Izquierdo and her five children were later found to be “in good health” in Florida.
Feb. 6, 2022
After being kidnapped from her home in Mint Hill by her father, Jeremy Scott Lemmond, 1-year-old Lilliana Josephine Lemmond was found safe the next day.
Lemmond was served warrants for “felony breaking and entering, assault inflicting serious injury (felony), felony speeding to elude, assault on a female (misdemeanor) and two counts of child abuse (misdemeanor),” WBTV reported.
Feb. 13, 2022
An Amber Alert was issued for Marlaya Patterson, 3, who disappeared near a Charlotte homicide scene after her father reportedly killed the child’s mother.
Marlaya’s father, Corey Patterson, was believed to have abducted her after slaying her mother, Jaqusica Wilson, the Observer reported. The girl was found unharmed several hours after the alert was issued. Patterson was charged with murder and possession of a firearm by a felon.
