As Governor Greg Abbott declares today Amber Alert Awareness Day in Texas, a local official remembers a success story where he said an alert aided the process.
“A child was abducted here back years ago in Lubbock,” Department of Public Safety’s Sergeant John Gonzalez said. “The information got out and the vehicle was located later. The child was left in the parking lot and because we had that information that that vehicle had been seen at this parking lot the child was recovered.”
Sergeant Gonzalez described the abduction case of two year old Zoii Berrillo-Dunn on April 7, 2015. He said she was taken when the suspect stole her mother’s vehicle with her in the back seat.
“The information was out,” Sergeant Gonzalez said about the amber alert for Zoii. “Then we got information, ‘hey I think that vehicle that you all are looking for is over here.’ By the time we got there, the vehicle is gone but the baby was there.”
Sergeant Gonzalez said Zoii was returned to her family that day and the suspect was found and apprehended. However, he gave thanks to the amber alert for the success of this story.
“All this good information that we need to get out there and they see that,” Sergeant Gonzalez said. “So the general public is made more aware of it in a short amount of time and they start looking because they put themselves in those shoes that this could be my child missing.”
He added that their local office has continued to see success stories in similar missing children cases from the community’s help.
“It’s come such a long way,” Sergeant Gonzalez said. “Knowing what Amber Alert does, we have the silver alert, the blue alert as well, that our under the amber alert that sort of came to be because of the amber alert.”
For anyone with information on a case, DPS said to first dial 911 with information, or Crime Line anonymously at 741-1000.