Missing Texas boys found, kidnapper’s whereabouts unknown

Two missing Texas boys were found safe Wednesday as the whereabouts of their abductor remain unknown, hours after authorities issued an Amber Alert for the children.

Angel Ribera, 5, and Aiydann Ribera, 4, were last seen in Yorktown around 9 p.m. Tuesday. The Amber Alert for the children was issued around 4 a.m. Wednesday.

The Dewitt County Sheriff’s Office announced in a Facebook post at 8:55 a.m. that the children had been found.

The children were believed to have been kidnapped, and 24-year-old Julian Ribera was named as a suspect in connection with them. It is unclear whether the children were found with Julian Ribera and where he was.

Newsweek For more information, he contacted the Dewitt County Sheriff’s Office.

Police officials believed the children were in “great or imminent danger.”

The sheriff’s office is working with multiple agencies to find the children and bring them home safely. The boys were reunited with their mother.

What is an Amber Alert?

The AMBER alert system is used nationwide to notify the public about missing children.

“Any child mentioned in an AMBER Alert has been reported missing to law enforcement. The goal of an AMBER Alert is to immediately mobilize the community to help locate and safely recover a missing child,” Alan S. Nanavaty, executive director of special programs for the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, said in a previous interview with Newsweek.

Last year, 1,200 children were found through the AMBER alert system and 180 children were rescued as a result of the emergency alerts.

Warnings issued are transmitted via radio, television, traffic signs, mobile phones and other data-enabled devices.

In 2022, Texas issued the most AMBER alerts in the United States, with 31 alerts.

Recently active Amber Alerts

A Wisconsin toddler is still missing, more than three months after an Amber Alert was issued for the child.

Elijah Vue was last seen on February 20 in Two Rivers while visiting his mother’s boyfriend, 39-year-old Jesse Vang. When Vang woke up from a three-hour nap around 11 a.m., the three-year-old child was missing.

“He was last seen wearing gray sweatpants, a long-sleeved dark shirt and red and green dinosaur slippers,” Amber Alert said.

Vang and 31-year-old Katrina Baur, Vue’s mother, are being held in the Manitowoc County Jail on child neglect charges.

Also currently being sought is 15-year-old Sebastian Rogers of Tennessee. He disappeared from his mother and stepfather’s home in Sumner County, Tennessee on February 26.

Rogers is said to have a “health condition” that could affect his ability to return safely without assistance.