NEWS
Amber alert in question about missing child in North Augusta
Melissa Tune
News 12 at 11 o'clock, November 20, 2009
NORTH AUGUSTA,S.C.-- A 10-year-old boy is safe and sound Friday night after going missing but there are still a lot of questions about his disappearance and how law enforcement handled things.
Some wonder why there was never an amber alert for the little boy.
North Augusta Department of Social Services is now investigating why Tyson Curry left his foster home in the first place. Investigators say he was heading to a family friend's home on his bike. He apparently rode it from Summit Commons Court, a couple of miles away to the North Augusta Gardens Apartments. His foster family didn't know Tyson was missing at first. Investigators say the child ended up at family friend's home where he spent the night. The next morning, that family friend a called his biological father to tell him the 10-year-old was fine. The child's biological father then called North Augusta Public Safety to tell them the child was safe.
Officers tell News 12, Tyson was never in any danger and they have closed the investigation. It was 12 hours before he was located, but there was a search party looking for the child.
"They had the volunteer firemen out, as well as off duty personnel checking, going door to door knocking on residences seeing if anybody had seen this child,"says Sgt. Eric Schafer.
Curry left his home on Summit Commons Court about 4:15pm on Thursday riding his bike. He ended up almost two miles away at the North Augusta Gardens Apartments.
"We notified all the patrol officers in the area as well as started notifying other surrounding agencies," added Schafer.
The question still remains, why wasn't an amber alert issued?
Here's why: North Augusta Public Safety investigators say the case did not meet the criteria. Although Curry, unaccounted for, he wasn't believed to have been in danger.
According to SLED- the South Carolina Amber Alert Plan will be activated in the following situations:
-- the child is 17 years old or younger, and the police believes the child is in immediate danger
--The child is 17 years old or older and has a physical or mental disability that would place him/her at a greater risk
--a parental or family abduction when the child is 16 years or younger the child's life is in danger
"The longer the child's missing, the further he could be away from the last place he's been seen, "says the Sergeant.
That's why time is of the essence. Most children abducted are killed within the first three hours of their disappearance. Sgt. Schafer says that's why the media is usually a notified to spread the word.
"Usually within the 30 minutes or so if we can't locate the child and there's a good possibility that, he could be abducted or lost in the woods, it's a good time to go notify the media," he adds.
As soon as we were notified, News 12 sent out a cell alert and started to get phone calls within minutes. Under an actual Amber Alert however,radio and television stations will immediately interrupt regular programming to broadcast information about the child.
"A major thing to do is is to notify the local media because you all can broadcast it over a larger wide array of area."
After Curry was found, he was removed from the foster family. North Augusta Public Safety investigators say that now an investigation is being conducted by the North Augusta Department of Social Services to figure out why the child left without allegedly telling anyone.
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