The federal government has a list of criteria they recommend states use for Amber alerts and most states are said to stay fairly close to the recommendations. The very first item on the list is that law enforcement must confirm that an abduction has taken place. It's the same on the Idaho list. This case doesn't even make it past the first criteria before failing.
MOO, but amber alerts are designed and intended for the situation where a child was abducted and the kidnapper is on the move with the kidnapped child, law enforcement is fairly certain what vehicle is being used, and there is a decent chance that by blasting this information out that someone will spot them and the child will be recovered before the kidnappers go to ground.
IMO, this case was never a reasonable situation for an amber alert. What is an amber alert going to gain over what they're already doing (blasting out to media that the children are missing, why they are concerned, etc)? As far as I can tell the main difference is that it would sound an alert on all our cell phones saying two kids are missing, but we have no idea where they are or might be traveling or what vehicle they're in, so we can't tell you what to be looking for. But please look. Then for the next day or so those inclined will be looking out for ... nothing, since they don't know what to look for.
Visibility of the missing people at almost any stage of the investigation can be of great value to LE.
Other states have been a bit more flexible in their use of Amber and also have other alert options (Silver etc.) and don't always treat the criteria in a sequential order as you suggest. The analysis undertaken by LE in Rexburg ID PD was quite literal and so no alert was issued. The only thing that seemed to get visibility for the fact that 2 children were missing was social media and not LE unfortunately.
But, look at the tragedy of what is now being faced due in part of the lack of visibility this case received from Rexburg PD! Not only were the 2 children not reported missing for 2 months (still don't understand how families as large as the groups involved with this case allowed this to happen) but then Rexburg PD appeared to do little other than putting the missing information on their social media pages. Eventually the AZ and TX families became involved and activated social media as to the fact that the 2 children had been missing for 2 months. At some point the FBI became involved but its not clear whether its just random SLC field office people being 'consulted' or whether there is a full scale deployment of FBI and the CARD Team as we have seen be so effective in other cases. I'm not even sure if we know who has primary accountability for finding the 2 missing children given the multiple states involved in the search? IS THE FBI THE PRIMARY AGENCY RESPONSIBLE OR NOT?
I am absolutely stuck on the fact that not one person in Rexburg ID either at a school or a friend of any of the parties involved had the courage to contact LE. Not one. I'm not sure what this says about the local community which is over 90% LDS either but I believe its quite shocking. But, its what we are dealing with in this case sadly. Are children simply treated as possessions of their parents and placed in and out of school and nobody questions what is happening around them? It seems like people stay in their own lane and close their eyes to what goes on in other families unfortunately.
Are Rexburg ID PD powerless against Parents such as Lori and Chad who remove minor children (possibly against their will) to places unknown and take them out of school for long periods of time? Is there no accountability required for parents of minor children in ID and UT? ID seems to have the most lax home schooling laws in the US but does this mean that parents can simply 'disappear' their minor children with no accountability? As others have suggested, we don't even know if Tylee at 17 yo was married to some cult member to offer her shelter during this period and whether this might have been done against her will too!
Rexburg PD according to MSM allegedly knew that the 2 children were NOT with Lori and Chad at the time these 2 hit the road and entered hiding. Lori as the legal guardian I do believe has legal responsibility for the children, yet she isn't being held to account so far as we can see by LE.
The reason I'm arguing for creative use of ANY alert system is that the children could be anywhere but most likely have been seen by someone during their travels. The geographic search region is huge and there is no way for LE to get the photos out across such a huge region absent some kind of alert IMO.
We don't even know if BOLOs were issued for any of the Lori or Chad vehicles over the past 2 months or if any warrants have been obtained for Lori and Chad or related family members that might have information? The Rexburg PD website has a vague reference to a possible car being driven by Chad I believe but yet has zero license plate information.
Assuming the 2 children are alive (I think this is sadly highly doubtful at this point) then connecting the dots between some of the players and family involved in this case, you have a search area that ranges from Kansas (location of Julie Rowe and some key LDS historical sites), TX (family locations), AZ (family locations), ID (family locations and LDS sites), and possibly UT.
There have been theories floated that the 2 children are with family of Lori. So, where are these people and are they speaking to LE and assisting the investigation or are they like Chads extended family hiding behind lawyers?
If the children are alive then its likely they are being sheltered by family or 'cult' members. It now appears unlikely any of these people will cooperate with LE IMO. It just seems like the only hope to finding the children alive would be someone not affiliated with the situation making a call to LE that they have seen the 2 children. But, given the huge possible search area its unlikely that people even know these 2 children are missing.
Given that Rexburg PD seems to be on 'vacation' until after Christmas then who is running this investigation and why have we not seen a Press Conference from ID or AZ State Police or even the FBI? So far as I can tell more is happening on social media to track what is going on here rather than with LE and this is concerning, if true.
I've seen many missing cases but never one like this. Who is the primary LE spokesperson for this case? What responsibility is the State of ID State Police taking for the overall situation? Where is the FBI Spokesperson for this case that so far as I can tell based on sketchy information potentially touches 5 very large States?
MOO
