Computer glitch occurs in debut of abduction alert system

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Missouri's abduction alert system debuted with less-than-steller results when an 11-year-old girl was reported kidnapped in a rural Missouri town.

Because of a computer glitch, the abduction alert sent Monday night was retransmitted to hundreds of police and media agencies again, and again and again -- clogging fax machines well into Tuesday.

Law enforcement agencies in Cape Girardeau, Scott and Perry counties experienced no problems from the glitch, officials said. The incident occurred just east of Kansas City.

The girl was returned home safely a little more than an hour after the alert went out. But the notice canceling the alert was delayed because the state's computer system was still sending out the original abduction notice.

By late Tuesday morning, some outlets still had not received notice of the girl's safe return.

"The system we're using got the message out. Unfortunately it kept getting the message out," said Capt. Chris Ricks, a spokesman for the Missouri State Highway Patrol, which coordinates the new alert system.

Lexington police notified the highway patrol on Monday evening that a girl had been taken from school around 2 p.m. by a former baby sitter. An abduction alert was sent at 8:03 p.m. with a description of the girl and the potential suspect's vehicle.

The patrol sent an alert cancellation notice at 9:16 p.m. after Lexington police found the girl unharmed at the suspect's house. But many outlets never received the cancellation notice.

Ricks said the problem originated with a computer server in the Department of Health and Senior Services, which was used to send the faxes to law enforcement agencies and the media.

"It apparently got into what the technocrats call a 'loop,"' Ricks said, "and even when they shut it down, when it came back up it continued to stay in that loop.

"They think we have the problem solved for now," Ricks said Tuesday. "Our concern is if we have it solved for the future."

Lexington police chief Don Rector said Tuesday that the alleged abduction "could be a little bit of miscommunication." He said the girl's parents had failed to tell the school that the former baby sitter was no longer on their approved list to pick up the child.

The baby sitter drove about 40 miles to Kansas City with the missing child -- and her own two children -- and was involved in an unreported traffic accident on the way back to Lexington, Rector said. The woman, Charlene Chambers, was charged Tuesday with felony endangerment of a child and misdemeanor drug possession, Lexington police said.

Gov. Bob Holden ordered the development of a statewide abduction alert system last October as a collaboration among five state agencies, private groups, the media and local law enforcement agencies.

Although similar alert systems already existed in the Kansas City, St. Louis and Springfield areas, Missouri previously did not have a statewide system.

The Missouri system is similar to the so-called Amber Alerts used in other states.

The program originated in Arlington, Texas, after the 1996 abduction, sexual assault and murder of 9-year-old Amber Hagerman. Residents there, who were convinced the girl could have been saved if her kidnapping had been instantly publicized, persuaded a radio station to start the system.

Ricks said the six-hour delay between the alleged abduction and the activation of Missouri's alert system was not ideal.

"Getting this out as soon as possible is critical. ...We'd like to get it within the first hour," Rick said. "We had a couple of glitches, but the important thing is we got the information out."