How did the name AMBER Alerts originate ?”
Tragedy turned into lifesaver Where did the term “Amber Alert” originate? Amber Hagerman, 9, was riding her bicycle in Arlington, Texas, in January 1996 when she was kidnapped. A witness saw it and called 911, but she was gone by the time police arrived. Her body was found four days later. Her mother, Donna Whitson, began a campaign for tougher penalties against child molesters. And one Dallas man wondered why we could have alerts about severe weather, but not for a missing child when every minute mattered. Especially in a country where 100 children are abducted every year by strangers, and 75 percent of them are murdered in the first three hours. That question morphed into the formation of the “Amber Alert,” a child abduction alert in the United States and Canada that is distributed by radio, TV, e-mail, electronic road signs and text messages with whatever is known about the crime — usually information about the victim, a description or name of the suspect and any information about t
