Tangipahoa sheriff says delayed Amber Alert is evidence of a ‘broken’ system • Unfiltered with Kiran

TANGIPAHOA – A somber atmosphere prevails in Tangipahoa Parish after new details emerged about the horrific events that led to the deaths of 29-year-old Callie Burnett and her four-year-old daughter Erin.

An official investigating the disappearance of two young girls expressed frustration and concern as questions arose about a delayed AMBER alert. The alert was issued nearly three hours after the girls were reported missing. Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff Daniel Edwards said Friday they did everything they could to issue the alert and it is evidence of a systemic problem.

“Something is wrong,” Edwards said. “The system is broken. We have to try to fix it.”

A representative from the Louisiana State Patrol said they waited to issue the AMBER alert because they didn’t have all the information. Edwards said the state gave them instructions on Friday on how to fully complete the AMBER alert request form and followed up. They thought they were good to go, the sheriff said.

“If they give you a form to fill out and you call them and say, ‘If you need anything else, let us know,’ I’m not really sure what else we’re supposed to do,” Edwards said.

He said the state never requested further information and “ultimately” the AMBER alert was issued.

Unfiltered with Kiran obtained the AMBER Alert application forms through a records request. Documents showed that Lt. Elizabeth Russell completed and submitted the paperwork and emailed it at 10:16 a.m.

“The vehicle hit (license plate reader) in Bryram, MS yesterday afternoon at 6:00 p.m. Can this alert also be sent to (Mississippi)?” she wrote.

The email contained photos of the children as an attachment. According to Edwards, the image of the suspect vehicle came from the license plate reader.

All fields were filled in except for the description of the suspect and any landmarks where the children were last seen.

It is also unclear if the problem is due to a lack of description of the suspect. The Louisiana State Police website says details are requested.

“There must be enough descriptive information about the child, the abductor and/or the suspect’s vehicle to reasonably believe that an immediate radio call will be helpful in recovering the child,” the website states.

Edwards said they never learned what additional details LSP needed to issue the warning earlier.

“If they wanted more information, they should have told us specifically what else they wanted,” he said.

An LSP representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“We can’t solve the case before it starts”

Edwards said by 8:30 a.m. they knew Callie Brunett had been murdered, the children were missing and the car was gone. Investigators asked for the public’s help in locating the girls and the car.

“We can’t solve the case before it starts,” he said. “You know, I don’t know what else they want, but I’m telling you that the form told them what I just told you. And if that’s not an AMBER alert that should go out immediately, I don’t know what is.”

The AMBER alert was issued hours later at 12:28 p.m. It’s unclear if issuing the notification earlier would have meant a quicker rescue, but Edwards said it helped the case immediately.

“As soon as the AMBER alert went out, people in Mississippi knew him, knew where he lived, and they went to his house and damn, the car was there,” he said. “And that’s how we found the surviving girl. And that’s how we found Callihan.”

Daniel Callihan is accused of killing his ex-girlfriend Brunett, kidnapping her children and killing one of the girls. He was arrested in a wooded area of ​​Mississippi after a manhunt that stretched across state lines.

LSP said they tried to issue the AMBER alert as quickly as possible.

“In the event of an AMBER alert, LSP works diligently to gather factual information from the investigating agency in order to disseminate the information to the public as quickly as possible,” said LSP Trooper First Class William Huggins.

Edwards said they reported the required information to state police around 9:30 a.m. He called the nearly three-hour delay “unacceptable.”

A controversial schedule

Louisiana State Police said part of the delay was due to an incomplete application submitted by Tangipahoa officials after the AMBER Alert request was issued. In an email, the LSP said UWK a timeline of yesterday’s events.

Edwards disputed that timeline. He said they filled out a form from LSP and sent all the information at 10:16 a.m. Then TPSO officials kept calling to try to get the AMBER alert issued as quickly as possible. Edwards said state officials told his office that “these things take time,” that “it’s on our side,” and that they didn’t need anything else from the sheriff’s office.

Edwards said this case shows that state police need to investigate how to improve the process.

“If they don’t say we could have done something better, they are lying to themselves and the public,” he said.

According to the state police website, the following criteria must be met for an AMBER warning:

• Law enforcement confirms the abduction of a child aged 17 or under.
• Law enforcement authorities believe that the circumstances of the abduction indicate that the child is in danger of serious bodily harm or death.
• There must be enough descriptive information about the child, the abductor, and/or the suspect’s vehicle to reasonably believe that an immediate radio alert will assist in recovering the child.

UWK spoke with Stacy Pearson, former LSP AMBER Alert Coordinator, who says it’s important that State Police follow their procedures before issuing an AMBER Alert and that the delay is normal.

“I looked at 154 AMBER Alerts issued in the state. Of those where reporting times were known, the time between the missing child being reported and the (AMBER Alert) being activated was more than three hours in over 60% of those cases,” she said. “I can say that an AMBER Alert should never be issued until all relevant information has been received and confirmed and law enforcement has determined that issuing an AMBER Alert is in the best interest of that abducted child.”

Pearson said the AMBER Alert is one of many tools authorities use to solve a missing child case. She says while the first three hours are critical in any abduction, it’s important to focus on the two main factors in any child abduction case.

“We must remember that the two most important factors in the recovery of children are the abductor’s relationship with the children and the abductor’s decision-making. A perfect police investigation sometimes cannot overcome the abductor’s decision to harm a child,” Pearson says.

MORE FROM UWK: ‘It runs in the family’: Man charged with kidnapping and murder has problematic past

The AMBER Alert System, developed in 1996, is an early warning system for searching for abducted children. It is now used in 50 states, the District of Columbia, Indian Country, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and internationally in 31 countries.

“As of December 31, 2023, 1,200 children have been successfully rescued through the AMBER Alert system and at least 180 children have been rescued thanks to wireless emergency alerts. There are 82 AMBER Alert plans throughout the United States,” the website says.

Sheriff Edwards said AMBER alerts are most effective when they are infrequent, and he knows there have to be certain criteria before they can be sent out. Otherwise, people can become desensitized and ignore them. But – the process is set “too strict,” which prevents necessary alerts from being sent out.

“The system is designed in such a way that when a call comes in requesting a response to a question about issuing an AMBER alert, the assumption is that the criteria are not met,” he said.

Megan Kelly contributed to this report.

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