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SALT LAKE CITY -- Utah's Amber Alert system was tested Wednesday morning to make sure all the technology used in broadcasting the alerts is working.
The system is tested twice a year. Paul Murphy, who is Utah's coordinator for the Amber Alert system, says he'd rather find any bugs in the system now than when it's for real.
To date, there have been 28 Amber Alerts for 33 children. Of those 33 children, 26 were returned safely, three died, and four are still unknown.
One successful case happened in December of 2005 when Box Elder County issued an Amber Alert for two missing brothers. They were found the next day in the southern Utah city of Ivins when a person who had heard the Amber Alert noticed the license plate on a car investigators were looking for.
This past January, a trucker in St. George heard an Amber Alert for a 14-year-old Ogden girl on the radio and realized the car detectives were looking for was in front of him on Interstate 15.
"Really, it comes down to one person in the right place to find a child, and we see it happening again and again," Murphy said.
Three of the four children whose whereabouts are still unknown one Amber Alert.
In September of last year, police believe Israel Hernandez took his three children from their West Valley home and went to Mexico. No one has heard from him or 6-year-old Alicia Hernandez, 4-year-old Pablo Hernandez and 3-year-old Xiomara Hernandez since.
Cases like that one will be addressed when Murphy attends an Amber Alert conference in San Diego next month.
Mexican states have shown an interest in creating an Amber Alert system. Murphy says Baja California is the first to get one going.
"By cooperating and making contacts with Mexican authorities, we hope that when a child goes to Mexico, that's not going to be a safe haven, that the perpetrator will be caught and the child will be returned safely," Murphy said.
Murphy believes it will be a way to make Utah's Amber Alert system even better.
"We want them to know we have the resources to bring that child back," he said.
E-mail: acabrero@ksl.com
