Minnesota has issued 46 Amber Alerts since 2002. All but one of the children were rescued.

The emergency messages make our phones vibrate, billboards light up, interrupt televisions, radios and our daily lives for good reason.

Amber Alert efficiently locates missing children, disseminates life-saving information quickly across the state, and results in rapid recoveries. Since Minnesota implemented the system in 2002, all but one of the 46 children who were the subject of the alerts have been safely recovered—most within the same day.

But the mother who supported the Amber Alert in Minnesota waited 27 years to find her son. During the search, Patty Wetterling made sure other parents didn’t have to wait.

“I love Amber Alert and have been involved since it was launched,” she said. “I met Amber’s mother in Texas after they created an Amber plan, and I brought it to Minnesota. I thought, ‘This is a good idea.’ And I met with the police chiefs and the sheriff’s association, and they all agreed.”

The 1989 disappearance of Jacob Wetterling predates the implementation of the system, which was named after Amber Hagerman, who was kidnapped and killed in Arlington in 1996, when Texas became the first state to use the system.

Minnesota’s success with Amber Alert doesn’t mean the system is static. Twenty-two years after it was introduced by the state’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA), it continues to improve through training and dissemination to new communities.

Minnesota’s most recent Amber Alert, for example, is the first to come from a tribal reservation.

When a three-year-old Red Lake boy was allegedly abducted by his mother in March, alarms went off. Within an hour, a citizen spotted the suspect’s vehicle and called 911. The boy was in pain but safe. His mother, Jennifer Stately, is suspected of killing his two brothers.

The alarm prevented further tragedies, said BCA Superintendent Drew Evans, and proved once again that the system is an effective tool.

“There are only so many police officers on the job at any given time,” he said. “But we have nearly 6 million Minnesotans who can be our eyes and ears in the community, and everyone in the community has a vested interest in getting our kids back on their feet.”

Amber Alert in Indian Country

However, a gap existed for years because tribal law enforcement agencies did not have an Amber Alert program to report and respond in the event of a child’s disappearance.

After an 11-year-old Navajo girl was kidnapped and murdered in 2016, her mother fought for changes that led to the Ashlynne Mike Amber Alert in Indian Country Act of 2018 to help tribal communities develop Amber Alert programs.

On the ground, this meant providing free technology toolkits to all 11 Minnesota tribes in May 2023. Kayley Sansom of the Office of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives (MMIR) at the state’s Department of Public Safety (DPS) then said that Indigenous people have long been silenced and the toolkits enable faster and better communication.

Thanks to these recent efforts, the foundation for a response in Red Lake was in place.

“All the time and effort we put into our work in Indian Country, training law enforcement and working with families … it works, it makes a difference,” said Janell Rasmussen, administrator of the National Amber Alert program.

“Today, children are safe because so many people dedicate their lives to this work.”

She said that weeks after the Red Lake warning, MMIR and DPS met again with tribal authorities in Minnesota to discuss what went right, what they had learned and what they could improve.

Alan Nanavaty, executive director of the missing children division at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, said 92 percent of missing indigenous children are reported outside of reserves.

“We’ve really seen an increase in collaboration and engagement between the state level and the tribes. There’s still a lot of work to be done, but it’s definitely moving in the right direction,” he said.

Criteria and community approval

Amber works because alerts are intentionally infrequent and Minnesotans stay alert.

The state is careful not to overstretch the system and numb the public, Rasmussen said. Each state sets its own criteria for issuing a warning.

In Minnesota, the BCA requires that the child be in immediate danger and under the age of 17. There must also be detailed information that can be released to the public, such as a description of the suspect vehicle. Without this information, the public would not know what to look for.

The BCA issues an alert on request if the criteria are met. Phones are activated nationwide. Television and radio broadcast the alert every 15 minutes for the first two hours and every 30 minutes for the next three hours. If the Amber category criteria are not met, local authorities can issue alerts about people at risk or missing people.

The Protect Act of 2003 created the national Amber Alert Network. Amber is an acronym for “America’s Missing Broadcast Emergency Response” and recalls the days when alerts didn’t reach cell phones.

Regardless of the type of alert, Minnesota’s Amber Alert’s near-perfect success rate has remained consistent for decades, thanks in large part to vigilant citizens.

In 2013, the system was the first in the country to successfully send alerts to cell phones, leading to the rapid recovery of a kidnapped baby in Minneapolis. The brand new alert flashed on a teenager’s cell phone, he spotted the abandoned car and called 911.

Barb Gusse is in a similar situation. She had just returned home from stocking bird feeders in the winter of 2021 when her phone buzzed. She noticed a lone vehicle idling in the church parking lot across from her Brooklyn Center home. She grabbed her binoculars and focused on the license plate. A match.

A screaming baby was found in the back seat of the stolen vehicle.

“My heart stopped,” Gusse told the Star Tribune at the time. “I was shaking so much I couldn’t hold a cup.”

Although the mayor of Minneapolis declared Barbara Gusse Day in her honor, she received little recognition for her actions.

“I’m not a hero,” said Gusse. “I’m just a grandmother.”

The work continues

Alayna Ertl is the only child Minnesota’s Amber Alert system could not save.

The 5-year-old girl was murdered in 2016 when her parents woke up and found her not in bed. By the time a warning was issued, it was too late.

Minnesota’s system reflects national data showing that 99 percent of missing children are found unharmed.

Rasmussen, a native of Mapleton, Minnesota, who previously worked at the BCA, said Minnesota has been a pioneer in the Amber Alert campaign from the beginning.

“In the state of Minnesota, people have really come together. And I honestly think that’s thanks in large part to Patty,” she said.

A few weeks ago, they were in Washington, DC, for National Missing Children’s Day, where Wetterling was the keynote speaker. She doesn’t think about what could have happened if a missing person alert had been issued for her son, Jacob. Instead, she focuses her energy on traveling around the country to help train police officers and support other families searching.

Theresa Jourdain is still searching for her son Jeremey, who was 17 when he disappeared in Bemidji more than six years ago. The mother continues to organize search parties and is also looking for Nevaeh Kingbird, who was 15 when she disappeared in Bemidji in 2021.

They are among 30 children from Minnesota on the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s list.

“I’ve gotten to know so many family members now, and everyone has their own experiences, and each time we find another piece of the puzzle that might help us fix this or that,” Wetterling said.

“The resilience of these searching parents gives us strength.”