The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) recently reported the 1,000th successful recovery. This recovery occurred after the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office in Wyoming requested an AMBER Alert for four missing children from Fremont County in April 2020.
The children’s non-custodial mother 31-year-old Stacia Potter had taken them from the home of a family member where they had placed in protective custody.
Wyoming’s AMBER Alert Program is managed by the Highway Patrol and confirmed the children were in imminent danger and that there were sufficient descriptions of the vehicle, suspect, and children for the public to help find them. WHP activated the statewide alert.
The alert generated a lead when Potter stopped at a glass company to have a rear window of the vehicle replaced and, with no money, offered to sell some guns in exchange for the work. She left her phone number with the clerk, who turned it over to law enforcement.
Another tip came when a homeless man saw the vehicle described in the alert at a truck stop. He watched the driver swapping her vehicle with someone she appeared to know in another vehicle. The first vehicle was found abandoned behind a Home Depot.
Using the phone number Potter gave the store clerk, investigators were able to identify her movements to the Denver area. At Fremont County’s request, the WHP asked Colorado to issue an AMBER Alert in that state with the updated vehicle information. That prompted a call from someone who saw a vehicle matching that description parked at a Motel 6. Using the motel’s surveillance tape, the children were found safe in a motel room, but Potter had disappeared. She was later found, arrested on felony charges, and extradited to Wyoming.
“This is a success story that could have gone really bad, really quick,” said WHP AMBER Alert Coordinator and Dispatcher Chris McGuire, who’s proud of the milestone success story. “It really does show how the AMBER Alert works to safely recover children that are placed in harm.”
The information in this release was provided by NCMEC.
Potter is facing four counts Interference with Custody and has a jury trial scheduled for August 20th, 2020. You can read more about the charges in our earlier post.