Amber Alerts Focus Search, Then Find Missing Girl

A series of multi-state Amber Alerts about a California murder suspect who kidnapped a teenage girl were key in locating the pair in Idaho and bringing the girl home safely. Law enforcement officials in California, Nevada and Idaho say overhead highway signs along with TV and radio alerts reached millions of people with a look-out for James DiMaggio, 16 year-old kidnap victim Hannah Anderson, and DiMaggio’s car. One week earlier DiMaggio was suspected of killing Anderson’s mother and younger brother, and setting fire to their house. Within 24 hours police transmitted a statewide Amber Alert with the suspect’s and victim’s descriptions, and the description and license number of DiMaggio’s car. The alert included transmissions to smartphones in California, in some cases for the very first time. Within a day, two separate people in far-northern California reported sighting DiMaggio’s vehicle. And then in an amazing chance encounter, a group of four horse riders in Idaho stopped and talked to DiMaggio on Wednesday, deep within a national wilderness area. The riders sensed something was “out of place,” but Anderson did not indicate she had been kidnapped. When the foursome returned to town a day later, they saw the Amber Alert on TV, and called the Idaho State Police, kicking off an intensive search by several agencies. On Saturday, DiMaggio’s campsite was spotted in the woods by an FBI tactical team. Agents approached the camp, engaged DiMaggio and he was fatally shot. Anderson was rescued unharmed.