Heartbreaking
Body of Missing Teen Found, But Could an Amber Alert Have Saved Her Life?
A body found in a furniture truck in Van Zandt County, Texas has been confirmed to be missing 16-year-old Alicia Chanta Moore, who was last seen getting off the school bus just a block away from her home on November 2. Her family was immediately suspicious because they described the girl as shy and a homebody, so the possibilities of the typical teen runaway or wandering off with a friend scenarios were slim.
Still, despite being a minor and the red flag-raising circumstances around her disappearance, no Amber Alert was ever issued to find her. Now her relatives are rightfully questioning how standard procedure failed Alicia. Even more upsetting: authorities have discovered that the victim had also been sexually abused well before her death. They’re investigating a possible connection between her assault and her death. All I keep thinking is that poor baby.
Police have now arrested one man and questioned another in the case. But months before she was murdered, Alicia’s mother reported a 49-year-old man, Terry Dwayne Ramsire, to authorities. He was subsequently charged with sexual assault of a child and is being held on $70,000 bond, but he was locked up at the time of Alicia’s disappearance and murder.
Whether there is a connection between the incidents remains to be seen, but the family is now pleading with anyone who may have information and begging the person actually responsible to come forward and give them some peace.
They have also publicly questioned police’s investment in finding Alicia before she was discovered dead in the back of that vehicle. Officers handling the case maintain that it’s hard to issue an Amber Alert for a 16-year-old because there are so many factors that may lead to the disappearance of someone that age.
Maybe they dropped the ball in alerting the public, maybe they didn’t. But even though the investigation probably could’ve been handled better and may be a learning experience for authorities, the focus should be on finding the brazen sludge who would abduct a child a block away from her home and leave her dead in the back of a truck like a piece of gutter trash.
In the meantime, may Alicia rest in peace.
Do you think an Amber Alert should have been issued for Alicia Moore? Would it have made a difference?
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Pinkmani
WOW! That's just horrible! Maybe it would have, maybe it wouldn't have...
Reepicheep.CSL
I feel for this family and u pray they get justice for Alicia.
PRIMA487
puasaurusrex
jalaz77
ElenaMarie4
To issue an Amber Alert, police have to confirm there was an abduction AND have sufficient descriptive information of the child, captor, or of the captor's vehicle. In this case, no one saw her be abducted, no one had a license plate number and vehicle type, etc. So unfortunately they COULDN'T do the alert. :( My heart goes out to her family, this is tragic.
PonyChaser
A while back, we had the EXACT SAME DISCUSSION over the disappearance of Elizabeth Collins and Lyric Cook Morrissey from Iowa. There was screaming then about an Amber Alert not being issued. I suspect that people do not understand how the system works...
When a child simply "vanishes", an Amber Alert cannot be issued. There needs to be a description of the suspect. A license plate. The make of a vehicle. Something for police/authorites to go on. If it is simply issued for every single kid that "goes missing", you will have Amber Alerts issued for kids who go home with friends without telling their parents. Teens who go joy riding. Teens who hook from school for a day to go hang at their boy/girlfriend's house. That kind of thing will muddy the waters for the investigative team, and ultimately SLOW DOWN the investigative process.
So yes, it's sad, what happened to this young lady. I would not wish it on my worst enemy. People around my town are STILL reeling over the fact that Elizabeth and Lyric have not been found. But neither of these cases met the parameters of an Amber Alert.
It's sad that in this day and age, children are still being taken, hurt, killed. We want a simple answer. We want to open an app on our smartphones and make the horror go away. But sometimes we can't. Sometimes we have to trust that our local authorities really ARE doing the best they can, and using the tools they have to the best of their abilities.
PinkButterfly66
It depends on the state. There have been amber alerts for missing child where there was no information or discription of abductor or vehicle. If a child goes missing, I think an amber alert should be issued to get the kid's picture out to the public as quickly as possible. Someone saw her before she died. If that person had known to come forward, maybe she would have been found alive.
Amy Morales
MaiasMommy619