Amber Alert
In 1996, a 9 year old girl was kidnapped and murdered in Texas. Her name was Amber Hagerman. This is where the ‘Amber Alert’ comes from. But when best friends from Maisy Odjick from Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg First Nation and Shannon Alexander from Maniwaki, Quebec, went missing without a trace, no Amber Alert was activated. In fact, the police considered the two young girls runaways.
They have never been found.
Statistically, Indigenous children are more likely to go missing than non-Indigenous kids. So why then does it seem police are hesitant to issue Amber Alerts for Indigenous children? It is dangerous to label Indigenous children as runaways because then an Amber Alert will not be activated. The public and media will not be on the lookout for them.
“The goal of an Amber Alert is to involve as many community members as possible in the search for an abducted child — each community member becoming the eyes and the ears of law enforcement,” according to the missingkids.ca website.
In Canada, Amber alerts are provincially operated and only law enforcements can issue them. They are sent out through the Alert Ready emergency system. These alerts are received by the public through cell phones, television, and radio.
These are the current criteria for an Amber alert:
● The child is under the age of 18;
● A belief that the child has been abducted;
● A belief that the child is in grave danger;
● Information is available that may help locate the child and/or the abductor (e.g., description of the child, the suspect, or the vehicle driven by the abductor); and
● That the alert be issued within a reasonable amount of time from the moment of the abduction.
No clues have been found in Maisy’s and Shannon’s disappearance. But if you listen to the podcast, you can learn more of what the circumstances were and how the family still holds out hope that 12 years later, they may be found.
Sharing the stories of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls is important work. The team that brought you Taken worked hard to care for the women’s and their families’ stories. They have done their best to provide a platform to help shed light and perhaps bring new clues to their murders or disappearances. Some of these stories have been turned into a 10-part podcast series. We hope you will listen and share them with your networks, in the hope some of these crimes will be solved.
Kim Wheeler is a writer and publicist. She is the original writer/researcher for Taken. Her daughter, Katarina Ziervogel, is walking in her mom’s footsteps. Katarina also worked on Taken as a writer and social media producer. Kim is holding the doors open for her daughters to walk through.