Today marks day four of the search for missing Iowa girls Lyric Cook Morrissey and Elizabeth Collins. The cousins, ages 10 and 8, were supposed to be on a bike ride when they went missing on Friday, and no one has seen them since. So why hasn't an Amber Alert been issued?
Well, because their case doesn't fit the "profile." Cops in Evansdale, Iowa say they don't have a car or person associated with Lyric and Elizabeth's disappearance. So they can't put their information out in the form of an Amber Alert.
Basically that means police are working with very little information in a search that's brought out almost 1,000 volunteers to help the family of these little girls get them back. Wouldn't you think they'd want more info? The kind you'd get from, say, an alert that goes out to thousands upon thousands of people?
I'm not in law enforcement. I don't know why it's built this way. But I will say this is what makes the Amber Alert system so confusing to me.
The Department of Justice has worked long and hard to make us aware that it works and convince Americans to pay attention. They now have an enormous reach, from apps that help reach out to wireless users to traffic signs.
Amber Alert has become, for all intents and purposes, synonymous with missing children ... to the point where I know more than one person who checks the site each time they see a "missing kid" warning come across Facebook to fact check before they pass it along. It's like the Snopes of the missing kid world.
So why don't they use it more?
If you go to the Amber Alert website today and click on the link for "active" alerts, it says there are none. The girls are listed on the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children site (which also hosts Amber Alerts). That's a wonderful and helpful thing, and I don't mean to denigrate the work they do.
But if you're using the site to fact check the missing report to help some kids, you're going to be steered wrong. And if you depend on Amber Alerts to alert you so you can help some kids, well, you won't be able to do a thing for Lyric or Elizabeth.
As a parent and an American both, I'm glad we have this system. It has saved a lot of kids!
But as Iowa police struggle with only the girls' bikes and Elizabeth's purse, found by a firefighter on a bike trail near Meyers Lake, I can't help wondering if it's time to revamp it so we can help more kids.
In the meantime, will you pass along the missing poster for these girls? Did you know Amber Alert doesn't cover every missing kid?
Image via Black Hawk County Sheriff’s Office
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Comments 68
It shouldn't matter whether they may have been kidnapped or ran away, etc. Two litle girls are missing. Period. The longer they delay in releasing the information about the girls they DO HAVE, the longer it will take to find them, alive or dead. Amber alerts should not just hinge on a possible kidnapping.
People really don't undersrand the Amber Alert system. This is not a case where it fits
Just so sad- I hope and pray they're found safe and sound.....
@ Elaine Elizabeth Carey I COMPLETELY agree with you 100%. The fact is that there are 2 girls missing. Whether or not it is a system failure/misunderstanding/lack of proper protocol, implementation, etc, that isn't the point. These girls are missing and just pray for their safe return. Makes me wonder if it really would be worth to GPS our kids, like on their cell phones, etc...
www.facebook.com/missingcases....
Want to help? Post the facebook site above as many times and places you can.
As it has been said Amber Alerts are for specific information regarding the perpetrator as well as the victims, this is not known however, so there are other means of getting the information out there via news media, social media..etc. Use it instead of complaining about the system failures that do not apply to this case.
As a mom from Evansdale I think the point here should be that we are missing two little girls from our town and right now I dont think the debate about was it right to not issue an Amber Alert should be the focus. We are missing two little girls from my community and I wish this post had more information about their dissapearance as well as the number to contact the Evansdale police department if you know or suspect anything as right now officials are grasping at straws because there is literally no new evidence since finding their bikes and Elizabeth's purse on Friday afternoon. Please change the focus here from the lack of Amber Alert to spreading the word yourselves and help us find these litle girls from my community!