Kentucky Police have found Lela Black, the little daughter of a woman who died in late January 2024. Previously, Police had raised an alarm over the 5-year-old’s whereabouts.
Kentucky Police had good reason to believe she was with her dad, 42-year-old Byron Black, who was on the run. Byron Black, who is Lela’s biological father, was wanted by the Police for her mum’s murder.
Some days back, Police received a distress call from the Princeton home. When they responded and got to the scene, they found Lela’s mum dead. Kelly Black lay lifeless with a gunshot wound at the back of her head, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
Police also found the prime suspect in the murder, Byron Black, nowhere to be found. Soon after, the cops issued an Amber Alert for Lela and an arrest warrant for Mr. Black. “Lela Black, age 5, is missing,” began the alert. In the alert, Police had described 42-year-old Byron Black as potentially “armed and dangerous.”
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Police also mentioned that he had “brown eyes and hair and is six feet tall.” The Police also said that they could be traveling in a 1996 Chevrolet Silverado with a California license plate number 5J83779.
The alert also described the suspect’s vehicle specifically when it said that the car had “paint peeling off the hood.”
But on Monday, January 29, 2024, Kentucky Police canceled the alert after finding the juvenile. Law enforcement also found Mr. Black, who they believed had fled with his daughter.
The Kentucky State Police posted a statement on its X account announcing the new development. “The missing child, Lela Black, has been located safely,” the post read. “Byron Black has been taken into custody. Thank you to everyone who retweeted and shared!”
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Experts have doubted the efficacy of Amber Alerts. But Lela’s recovery, amongst others, has attracted renewed interest in the discussion.
According to the United States Department of Justice, Amber Alerts served their purpose well. Last year, authorities across the country found over 149 missing children after issuing Amber Alerts. However, the contention remains that the success rates of Amber Alerts are far from impressive.
A report by researchers at the University of Nevada-Reno described the Amber Alert system as “inherently flawed.” The report clashes with the Department of Justice, which claims that the alerts have been highly successful.
AMBER is an acronym for “America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response.” But it is also a reference to a missing child’s case.
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In 1996, authorities found Amber Hagerman, an abducted nine-year-old girl, dead in Arlington, Texas. In response to the sad news, Texas implemented the first Amber Alert system in the same year.
Soon, other states replicated the move before the federal government stepped in by constructing a national network in 2003. The government planned for the system to address the most uncommon cases of child abductions, such as Hagerman’s, where the abductor was a stranger.
However, the government has expanded the system to handle all missing children’s cases. Most of these involve abductions from close friends and relatives, especially divorced parents who failed to win custody of the child.
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