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CLINTON — An Amber Alert sent out Thursday evening for two young sisters was canceled early Friday morning when the girls were found in Gallup, New Mexico. While public safety officials are happy with the outcome, they’re now working to streamline the system to make it more efficient.
It was a Motel 6 clerk who recognized Marae and Cynthia Montoya’s noncustodial parents, Chris Montoya and Monica Martinez, and called police. The couple were arrested, and the children taken into police custody.
Clinton police said the children were doing OK Friday evening, but they're not back in state custody just yet.
"They are safe and they're taken care of right now," Clinton Police Lt. Shawn Stoker said.
The Amber Alert sent out for Marae and Cynthia was the 40th in Utah since the program started in 2002.
The ordeal began Thursday afternoon when police say Montoya and Martinez abducted the children from a baby sitter’s home. At 7:24 p.m., Clinton police decided the criteria for an Amber Alert had been met and notified the media, other police agencies, the Utah Department of Public Safety (DPS), and anyone who signed up for alerts on DPS’ Amber Alert website — a total of around 8,000 individuals and agencies.
"They're the ones that get that Amber Alert notification first," said DPS spokeswoman Marissa Villasenor.
Around 7:30 p.m., KSL-TV cut into programming to alert viewers. But it wasn't until 9:18 p.m. that the statewide push notification went out to cellphones set to receive the alerts.
During that delay, DPS officials were working with Clinton police detectives to verify the case. Then DPS notified the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which issues the Amber Alert push notifications.
“If we could have sent it out immediately, that would’ve been ideal. But we’ve got to take the steps and make sure the information is correct,” Villasenor said.
DPS officials want to make sure this process is working as quickly as possible so kids can be saved.
"After each incident we do a debrief, and we try to make sure it's fresh in our minds: What can we do better?" Villasenor said.
DPS offers several options for you to be notified about Amber Alerts. Through the department’s website, you can sign up to receive them through Facebook, Twitter, Google and Yahoo accounts.
iPhone users can receive alerts directly through their phone. To set that up, go to “Settings” then “Notifications.” From there, scroll to the bottom of the list to “Amber Alert” and enable the alerts.
You can also receive push notifications from our KSL News app on major stories like this, when police need help from the public. Download that app on Google Play or the iTunes App Store.
