Conservatively Speaking

"Bring Our Missing Children Home"

Posted by Mary Lazich on Jan. 28, 2010

Wisconsin schools will partake in a national contest to design a poster to commemorate National Amber Alert Awareness Day. The winning poster will be unveiled at the annual National Missing Children’s Day Ceremony in Washington, D.C.  The theme of the contest is, ““Bring Our Missing Children Home.”

Here are more details from the office of Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen. On a warm Saturday afternoon in Texas during January 1996, niine-year-old Amber Hagerman was riding her bicycle when a neighbor heard Amber scream.  The neighbor saw a man pull Amber off her bike, throw her into the front seat of his pickup truck, and speed away.

The neighbor immediately called police and gave a description of the suspect and his truck. A search ensued, but four days later, Amber’s body was found in a drainage ditch four miles away, her throat slashed. The young girl’s assailant has never been found. 

Amber Hagerman


A citizen made a suggestion to a Dallas radio station that the news media repeat bulletins about kidnapped children the same way they treat messages about severe weather. The Amber Alert system was born and has spread across the country.

Wisconsin’s Amber Alert Plan was started by the Wisconsin Department of Justice (DOJ) during 2003. When an Amber Alert is activated, Wisconsin radio and television stations cut into programming to broadcast information about an abducted child using the Emergency Alert System. Highway message board signs also convey information about confirmed child abductions. 

Since the inception of our Amber Alert System, Wisconsin has had 18 successful Amber Alert activations, resulting in the safe recovery of 23 children.