Missing girl located

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This article was published 01/12/2016 (2699 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Mounties located an eight-year-old girl less than two hours after issuing an Amber Alert related to her alleged abduction on Friday.

The Amber Alert, issued around 5 p.m. in the afternoon, alleged that eight-year-old girl had been abducted by her mother, Friday at 11 a.m. from Portage la Prairie.

“Just know we’re concerned,” said RCMP spokesperson Tara Seel, “and we need everybody’s eyes open.”

It worked. After word of the incident spread through news outlets and social media, reports of sightings began to flow into RCMP headquarters.

In fact, news that the girl had been found broke just after 6 p.m. as Winnipeg RCMP Chief Superintendent Mark Fisher was beginning to brief reporters on live TV.

“She’s been located in Winnipeg and she’s safe,” Fisher said, interrupting his own news conference after staff mouthed the words, “We’ve found her” off camera.

Later, Fisher confirmed that a concerned citizen had spotted the vehicle outlined in the Amber Alert driving along Portage Avenue. Both the girl and her mother were later stopped by police.

It was the first time RCMP had issued an Amber Alert in Manitoba, which occurs when a set of criteria is met for missing children – in particular, threat of harm. Fisher told the press earlier that police believed the girl was in “immenent danger of serious bodily harm.”

“The results speak for themselves as far as how it’s worked,” Fisher said, when asked about the effectiveness of the program, which is designed to blanket the public with details of the missing childen and circumstances of abduction. “Obviously, there’s many eyes on the street, many more than we could put on the street, looking for a vulnerable individual we feel is in serious danger.

“We don’t do this often. We have to be satisfied there was a significant risk to the individual we were looking for. And I was satisfied.”

Fisher confirmed that neither the child nor parent were injured. There was no immediate word on whether charges will be laid. The incident is still under investigation.

At the time the alert was issued, it was believed the mother and daughter could be at Long Plain First Nation and the search was concentrated in that area. Police said they were very concerned for the girl’s immediate well-being.

Fisher said the concern for her well-being was based on the background of the abductor and statements from family. The girl was reported missing by her grandmother, the primary care giver.

“She (the parent) had some involvement with us in the past, yes,” Fisher allowed. “But I won’t go into details.”