Amber Hagerman's Mother On Botched Amber Alert: 'I Thought, There Has To Be Something Wrong With This'
ARLINGTON, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) - Every time Donna Williams sees an Amber Alert, she prays for the happy ending her own family will never see.
"I still have a hole in my heart. Wish I could hear her voice right now," she said.
The still unsolved kidnapping and murder of daughter, Amber Hagerman, inspired the Amber Alert's creation.
Every reunion the alert has helped achieve gives Williams' loss some meaning.
"I'm super, super proud of the Amber Alert," she said.
When Williams saw an alert on her phone Sunday night for 4-year-old she noticed something odd.
"I thought, well, there has to be something wrong with this," she said.
It had no information on the missing child Dallas Police were seeking – no name, no age, no description.
Dallas Police say the Texas Department of Public Safety crafted the alert.
Dallas Police Department Blames DPS For Botched Amber Alert Sunday
"We contacted DPS, and they quickly added the information on their Facebook page, as well as other social media sites," read a Dallas Police statement.
A week earlier Fort Worth Police also stumbled in issuing an Amber Alert, in part because, the department revealed, it depended on a fax machine officers couldn't get to work.
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Former Tarrant County Sheriff Dee Anderson who helped design the alert blames both episodes on a lack of training.
"Law enforcement should continually train and update personnel who might be involved in child abductions on all aspects of the Amber Alert," he wrote.
What troubles Williams most are those she says intentionally misuse the alert.
This weekend's missing child, it turns out, was never missing at all.
Dallas Police are now considering charges against him for making a false report, likely in an effort to get officers to search for his stolen car.
"I think it's really really horrible. Because you're misusing something that's a great tool for our missing children out here in the world," said Williams.
She doesn't take the alert for granted.
She worries what will happen if others do.
"I'm just terrified it will go away," she said.
