Data shows how the Ohio Amber Alert that ended with a 5-year-old being found dead is uncommon
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — Investigators in two Ohio cities are piecing together what happened during an Amber Alert that ended with a 5-year-old dead and his legal guardian arrested, as part of a case outside the norm for the state and nation at large.
Amber Alerts are usually resolved within hours, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. A majority of missing children at the center of Amber Alerts were recovered between one and three hours in 2022, according to the most recent national Amber Alert report.
A child is considered recovered when they are returned to their legal guardian, in the custody of law enforcement or their remains have been found and identified.
Data on Amber Alerts in Ohio follow the same trend as national data – most Amber Alerts are resolved within hours. However, the most recent Ohio Amber Alert for Darnell Taylor on Feb. 14 spanned more than a day. After approximately 44 hours of the Amber Alert activation, Taylor’s body was found in a sewage drain.
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This year in Ohio, there have been three Amber Alerts issued including the one for Taylor. The first Amber Alert of the year was issued on Jan. 31, 2024, after a child was abducted while in a running car in Cincinnati. The child was recovered in 35 minutes.
The above chart excludes some Cuyahoga Emergency Communications System for the Central and Lakeshore Region cases, in which data was not made available.
Another alert was issued on Feb. 14, when there was a regional activation by the Cuyahoga Emergency Communications System for the Central and Lakeshore Region. It can do local activations for their region only. The child was recovered in four hours.
Although the length of time Taylor’s Amber Alert was active may not be common, it’s not unheard of. In 2022, infants Kason and Ky’air Thomas were abducted when a running vehicle was stolen with the twins inside. Both Kason and Ky’air were recovered alive after 67 hours, although Ky’air later died of unrelated causes.
Additionally, on Dec. 24, 2023, a Cuyahoga Amber Alert was issued at the request of the Lakewood Police Department when a 1-year-old girl was taken by her mother, after the mother stabbed the child’s father. The alert was active for 125 hours before the child was brought to the police station by her mother.
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Retired FBI agent and Ohio Amber Alert Advisory Committee member Harry Trombitas said specific factors come into play with the decision to terminate an Amber Alert.
“At some point, it would be an investigative decision on when to end the Amber Alert,” Trombitas said. “If there’s no information, I go back to the originating necessity for the Amber Alert: you got to have certain information and if you no longer have that, if you don’t have anything for the public to look for then it would be terminated.”
Although their Amber Alerts may not remain active, there are still children and adults missing who were the subject of an Amber Alert. In the U.S., there are currently 38 missing people who were subjects of Amber Alerts, dating to 2003. Among these is Ohio teenager Keshawn Williams, for whom an Amber Alert was issued in June 2023.
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