EDINA, Minn. - As executive director of Missing Children Minnesota, Teresa Lhotka paid close attention early Saturday afternoon when an Amber Alert was issued.
Thousands of Minnesotans were notified on their smart phones and on Facebook to be on the lookout for a white pickup truck, thought to be carrying kidnapped five-year-old Alayna Ertl.
Just hours later, police announced the child was found dead.
“I think our entire state right now is in shock,” Lhotka said. “I think it's hard for everyone to hear that.”
Although Amber Alerts are only issued when a child's life is in imminent danger, these kidnappings rarely end like this.
Nationwide, about 90 percent of Amber Alerts end with the child found safe. About five percent end, like in Alayna's case, with the child found dead.
“Those statistics tell me that Amber Alert is a very, very effective tool,” Lhotka said.
Lhotka believes Amber Alerts are usually effective in gathering tips from the public, because they are so rare. Minnesota averages about two per year. So people don't tune them out.
“If you have an alert that happens too often, people start to ignore it,” Lhotka said.
Police can't use it for every missing child case. They have to believe an abduction took place, the child is in danger of being physically harmed, and there is descriptive information, such as a license plate number, that the public can look out for.
“Those cases unfold very quickly. And the danger to the child unfolds very quickly. So the idea of the Amber Alert is to sort of crowd source that public attention and say hey, everybody be on the lookout,” Lhotka said.
Minnesota's latest Amber Alert serves as a sad reminder of just how quickly that danger unfolds.
Police tracked down a suspect thanks to a tip, though it's unclear whether the tip stemmed from the Amber Alert. Police refer to the suspect as a family friend. "Family friends" only carry out about five percent of abductions that warrant an Amber Alert.