Two missing boys from Texas were found safe on Wednesday as the whereabouts of their kidnapper remains unknown, hours after authorities released an Amber Alert for the children.
Angel Ribera, 5, and Aiydann Ribera, 4, were last seen on Tuesday around 9 p.m. in Yorktown. The Amber Alert for the children was issued on Wednesday around 4 a.m.
The Dewitt County Sheriff’s Office announced the children were found at 8:55 a.m. in a Facebook post.
The children were believed to have been abducted and 24-year-old Julian Ribera was named as a suspect in their disappearance. It is unclear if the children were found with Julian Ribera along with his whereabouts.
Dewitt County Sheriff’s Office
Newsweek reached out to the Dewitt County Sheriff’s Office for more information.
Law enforcement officials believed the children were in “grave or immediate danger.”
The sheriff’s office work with several agencies to locate the children and bring them home safely. The boys were being reunited with their mother.
What’s an Amber Alert?
The AMBER Alert system is used nationwide to help notify the public about missing children.
“Every child featured in an AMBER Alert has been reported missing to law enforcement. The goal of an AMBER Alert is to instantly galvanize the community to assist in the search for and safe recovery of a missing child,” Alan S. Nanavaty, Executive Director of Special Programs for the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, said in a previous interview with Newsweek.
As of last year, 1,200 children were found through the AMBER Alert system and 180 children were rescued because of the emergency alerts.
Issued alerts are broadcast through radio, TV, road signs, cellphones and other data-enabled devices.
In 2022, Texas had the most AMBER Alerts issued in the U.S. with 31 alerts issued.
Recent Active Amber Alerts
A Wisconsin toddler is still missing more than three months after an Amber Alert was issued for the child.
Elijah Vue was last seen on February 20 in Two Rivers while staying with his mother’s boyfriend, 39-year-old Jesse Vang. When Vang woke up from a three-hour nap around 11 a.m., the 3-year-old child was gone.
“He was last seen wearing gray sweat pants, long sleeve dark colored shirt and red and green dinosaur slip on shoes,” the Amber Alert said.
Vang and 31-year-old Katrina Baur, Vue’s mother, are being held at the Manitowoc County Jail for child neglect.
A search effort is also ongoing for Tennessee 15-year-old Sebastian Rogers. He vanished from his mother and stepfather’s home in Sumner County, Tennessee on February 26.
Rogers is described as having “a medical condition that may impair his ability to return safely without assistance.”
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.