Posted on 03/04/2002 3:27:44 PM PST by FresnoDA
I cannot seriously credit the idea, that parents who are allegedly complicite or guilty themselves would take this route. The risks of exposure seem to great.
But desperate and innocent parents would. They would do anything, and skeletons in their closet be damned, they will take the hits to get their daughter back.
What Is the AMBER Plan?
The AMBER Plan is a voluntary partnership between law-enforcement agencies and broadcasters to activate an urgent bulletin in the most serious child-abduction cases.Broadcasters use the Emergency Alert System (EAS), formerly called the Emergency Broadcast System, to air a description of the missing child and suspected abductor.
This is the same concept used during severe weather emergencies. The goal of the AMBER Alert is to instantly galvanize the entire community to assist in the search for and safe return of the child.
When and Why Was the AMBER Plan Created?
The AMBER Plan was created in 1996 as a powerful legacy to 9-year-old Amber Hagerman, a bright little girl who was kidnapped and brutally murdered while riding her bicycle in Arlington, Texas. The tragedy shocked and outraged the entire community. Residents contacted radio stations in the Dallas area and suggested they broadcast special “alerts” over the airwaves so that they could help prevent such incidents in the future.
In response to the community’s concern for the safety of local children, the Dallas/Fort Worth Association of Radio Managers teamed up with local law-enforcement agencies in northern Texas and developed this innovative early warning system to help find abducted children. Statistics show that, when abducted, a child’s greatest enemy is time.
How Does the AMBER Plan Work?
Once law enforcement has been notified about an abducted child, they must first determine if the case meets the AMBER Plan’s criteria for triggering an alert.
Each program establishes its own AMBER Plan criteria; however, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children suggests three criteria that should be met before an Alert is activated.
• law enforcement confirms a child has been abducted
• law enforcement believes the circumstances surrounding the abduction indicate that the child is in danger of serious bodily harm or death
• there is enough descriptive information about the child, abductor, and/or suspect’s vehicle to believe an immediate broadcast alert will helpIf these criteria are met, alert information must be put together for public distribution. This information can include descriptions and pictures of the missing child, the suspected abductor, a suspected vehicle, and any other information available and valuable to identifying the child and suspect.
The information is then faxed to radio stations designated as primary stations under the Emergency Alert System (EAS).
The primary stations send the same information to area radio and television stations and cable systems via the EAS, and it is immediately broadcast by participating stations to millions of listeners.
Radio stations interrupt programming to announce the Alert, and television stations and cable systems run a “crawl” on the screen along with a picture of the child.
Is the AMBER Plan Successful!
Tremendously! The program’s popularity has been sweeping across the United States and into Canada. Since the original AMBER Plan was established, 26 modified versions have been adopted at local, regional, and statewide levels. To date the AMBER Plan has been credited with recovering 16 children!
Those 16 kids are worth any amount of public humilation. They are alive and with their families.
That's part of it. I also believe that some people feel that the VD's "alternate" life style was in large part responsible for what happened to their daughter.
If only a third of what I have read about these two is accurate, I would agree.
This is the part that really gets me!!!
About the "close to the road" angle: The body was 25 feet from the edge of the road and the embankment was 7 feet high so it was never visible from the highway. (The fact that it was 7 feet up is why they built those stairs).
I cannot seriously credit the idea, that parents who are allegedly complicite or guilty themselves would take this route. The risks of exposure seem to great.
But desperate and innocent parents would. They would do anything, and skeletons in their closet be damned, they will take the hits to get their daughter back.
But isn't this exactly what Susan Smith did???
I am going to try not to be too greusome about this..... But have you ever been anywhere near a decaying body? Because if you have, it is a smell that is unmistakable and unfogettable. If the area was searched prior to the time the body was found, and the body was in such an advanced state of decay, how could it not have been found in the first search? The smell alone should have led anyone to the area that the child's body was.
The situations are not even close. The Van Dam family has been ruled out as suspects and is closely cooperating with the investigations according to SDPD press releases.
I am not giving "lifestyle" rumors much credence until confirmed by reliable sources willing to give up faces and names. No anonymous sources, or posters meet that criteria.
I am going to "trust" SDPD is doing it right, unless somebody can show more than gossip and innuendo is at work.
As for conflicting stories - press versions are often conflicting, especially in the early days, as they rush to be first with publication, or cut and chop the story to fit the space available on the web or print page.
There are no credible (or even any) reports that I know of saying their statements to police conflict.
The child was missing, and the circumstances allowing for her easy abduction have to be examined.
If Westerfield comes up being the perp, and he did it, then he deserves his eternity in hell.
Meanwhile, we need all the facts about that evening brought forth, including what the van Dams relationship was with him, even if it hurts their "reputation". For the sake of their Daughter, they should have answered the question about their fun and games honestly, with a simple "yes or no", instead of allowing this so-called rumor and inuendo to spiral out of control. At the least, it's only good PR.
sw
I was referring to the fact that Susan Smith did in fact go on the talk show route. I made no reference to any other similarities in the two cases. You are correct that she was told that she passed the lie detector test, Are you absolutely sure that the VD's have? could they be being told the same thing?
I am not going to join in the "slam the Van Dam's" fest that goes on here - and I admit that the Ramsey/Smith/Yates/Barnes cases have maybe left me a little jaded, but something is just not right about this case.
sw
I hope they are examining all that trash. If the body laid there for 25 days or so, the trash in the immediate area should contain a lot of clues. But that only applies if the authorities are actively pursuing clues.
My thoughts were that her body could not have been there very long. There are coyotes that roam the hills in East County and there are birds of prey and other animals that would have drawn attention to a body there.
We did not stop but there were many people paying tribute and the small parking lot was full.
It all seems very strange...
And this is not a job for the police but the torch waving gossip mongers. Right?
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