Texas Amber Alert

[lady cop]

i had to go search for this, it's not yet on the national amber alert website.



Search continues today for 3-year-old boy

A witness last saw the southwest Houston toddler Friday morning with a man who wasn't his father



By ANNE MARIE KILDAY

Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

The search for a 3-year-old boy missing since Friday morning was expected to continue this morning at 5:30 a.m. Houston Police issued an Amber Alert after Texas EquuSearch joined the investigation Friday.

Kendrick Jackson, of 1251 Wilcrest, disappeared from his parents' home in the Canfield Falls apartment complex in southwest Houston about 9:30 a.m. Friday.



Kendrick's father, Rodrick Johnson went upstairs briefly after he checked on the boy and saw that he was sitting up in bed Friday morning.

When Johnson came back downstairs, the boy was missing and the front door to the apartment was open. Keyanna Jackson, the boy's mother, was not at home when Kendrick disappeared.

The boy, who is roughly 3 feet tall and weighs about 35 pounds, was last seen wearing a white T-shirt and pajama bottoms with a football, basketball and baseball print on a white background. The Houston Police Department issued an Amber Alert for the missing child at 6 p.m. Friday, said spokesman Lt. Robert Manzo.

EquuSearch planned today to use its aerial drone, which is equipped with a camera in the aircraft's nose. The drone helped locate the body of Raul Mendoza in Buffalo Bayou recently, a spokeswoman said. The EquuSearch command center has been set up today at the apartment, 1251 Wilcrest #65.

The department waited until 6 p.m. Friday to issue the alert because there are certain criteria that must be met before such alerts are sent to law enforcement agencies and the public, Manzo said.

"We have to have certain information — we can't just say a child is missing," Manzo said. "We need information that there may have been some foul play, and we need information such as a vehicle description, or a description of a person the child may be with."

Manzo said the decision to issue an Amber Alert after hours of searching by officers in the HPD Homicide Division.

Manzo said he did not know which of those criteria caused HPD to issue the Amber Alert.

Barbara Gibson media coordinator for Texas EquuSearch said that there was a witness at the apartment complex.

"The witness said she saw the boy this morning. She saw the little boy with a man who was not his father," Gibson said.

Texas EquuSearch was requested at about 2 p.m. Friday, Gibson said. Tim Miller, director of the Dickinson-based search organization, is calling for volunteers and coordinating the use of night-time search equipment to continue the hunt for the boy, Gibson said.

Anyone with information is being asked to contact HPD Homicide at 713-308-3600 , or Texas EquuSearch at 281-309-9500 with any tips or leads.

Attached files

[venus]

its a scary world, when your child isnt safe in their own home..

[lady cop]

sadly, it doesn't usually end happily. i do not trust 'eyewitnesses'. they are often mistaken. i'm not buying the father's story. 95% of the time it's not stranger abduction/murder.

[venus]

I have a horrible feeling mrsk that it won't..

but we can but hope and maybe he will be one of hte lucky ones who come back

[Peg]

This story screams to check out the family with a fine toothed comb. Has the child wondered away before? If so, why were more precautions not taken? A stranger just happened to be in the right place at the right time to abduct the child? Check out the eyewitness. Unfortunately, for this child, it'll probably be to late. I hope and pray he is found safe, but the odds are against it. :-1

[Peg]

Jackson said she thinks a stranger abducted her son.

She said the boy's father, Roderick Terrell Fountain, 31, whom the child had been visiting at his westside apartment since April 4, "would never" do anything to harm Kendrick.

"That's his daddy," she said. " ... I wouldn't have had him there if I didn't trust him."

The father called Houston police Friday morning and told them Kendrick disappeared from the apartment in the 1200 block of Wilcrest about 9:30 a.m., said Houston police Sgt. Nate McDuell.

Fountain told police he went upstairs to put clothes in the dryer and when he returned downstairs the child was gone and the door was ajar, he said.

Kendrick, who turned 3 on March 16, is described as 3 feet tall, about 30 pounds. He was wearing a white T-shirt and pajama bottoms. An Amber Alert was issued Friday.

Jackson said she was cleaning her apartment in the 17000 block of Cali when the child's father called shortly after 11 a.m. and told her "Kendrick is gone."

"He was talking to the police the same time he was talking to me," she said.

Jackson said she immediately went to Fountain's apartment to help look for Kendrick.

Meanwhile, a woman who lives nearby told a Houston Chronicle reporter that she is certain she saw the boy that morning.

Suzanna Zimmerman, a resident of the apartment complex adjacent to Fountain's, said that about 9:30 a.m. on Friday she was driving on Wilcrest, very close to the unit where the child lives, and saw him at a bus stop holding hands with a black man in his 30s or 40s of average build.




http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/3781451.html

[teramiabullfrog]

and once again, the EMERGENCY BROADCAST FAX system (part of the NALC/USPS CHILD ALERT PROGRAM) should be issued so a photo/id notice of this missing child is displayed in every Post Office lobby, workroom floor area, and other postal facility, as instructed in the annual funded federal program. Until people start phoning the NCMEC (1-800-843-5678) and demanding the federal program be managed at the level of efficiency it is intended, this program will continue to be under-utilized and not function at it's full potential. Actually, according to the 1/19/96 Presidential Memorandum that led to the creation of the NALC/USPS CHILD ALERT PROGRAM, missing child notices are to be displayed in every federal owned or controlled building (therefore, every Federal Courthouse, Custom House, National Park Visitor Center, National Forest Visitor Center, and National Monument Visitor Center should have missing children notices on display "within 24 hours of the reported disappearance". am i right or am i wrong? give me some feed-back. am i right or am i wrong? give me some feed-back.

[lady cop]

April 10, 2006

Home of toddler's father searched

Police remove several items as hunt continues for missing 3-year-old



By MIKE GLENN

Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

Houston police removed several items from the home of a missing toddler's father Sunday as the search for 3-year-old Kendrick Jackson continued into the third day.

The items taken from the apartment of Roderick Terrell Fountain at 1251 Wilcrest were inside brown paper bags, but an officer at the scene said they included a mop.

Officers also brought the boy's mother, Keyanna Jackson, 21, in for another round of questioning and confirmed that some family members had been given a polygraph test.

"Both parents have voluntarily submitted to questioning," Houston Police Sgt. Nate McDuell said. "They, of all people, are most interested in bringing the child home. It wouldn't be unusual that they would be questioned extensively."

McDuell said polygraph tests have been administered to several people "in order to help us determine the direction that we should take."

However, he wouldn't divulge the results of the tests.

Friends and family members joined about 30 volunteers from Texas EquuSearch and the Laura Recovery Center to scour the area for any sign of the missing child.

"We just want Kendrick back. It's been three days, and we want to see him back home," said Tameca Miskell, who has known the boy his entire life. "We don't want to cry anymore."

Miskell last saw the child on Tuesday and said Kendrick's mother and father were both caring parents.

"That little boy is her whole world," Miskell said. "I know she's devastated."

EquuSearch spokeswoman Cindy Wisdom said her group will resume the search on Tuesday or Wednesday. She said the search will continue after police have sorted out many leads.

Kendrick was reported missing Friday while visiting his father at the west Houston apartment.

Fountain told officers the boy disappeared while he was doing a load of laundry. When he returned downstairs, Kendrick was gone and the door was ajar.

Keyanna Jackson told officers she believes a stranger abducted her son. A woman who lives near Kendrick's father reported seeing a boy matching his description at a bus stop holding hands with a black man of average build in his 30s or 40s.

Officers say they are checking out that information along with a number of other potential leads.

"At this time, it's still a missing person" case, McDuell said. "We want to investigate all avenues to try and determine what has happened to the child."

[lady cop]

Missing toddler's father arrested

He is accused of filing a false report about son



By MIKE GLENN

Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

In a sweeping turn of events, police arrested the father who reported his young son missing last week after authorities determined the man wasn't being completely truthful about the events leading up to the 3-year-old's disappearance.

Roderick Fountain, 31, who officially became a suspect Monday, remained in custody after detectives accused him of filing a false report about the disappearance Friday of his son Kendrick from his northwest Houston apartment in the 1200 block of Wilcrest. Authorities also shifted their search from the complex to a long stretch of waterways and wooded areas along the East Freeway near Baytown.



"This (arrest) is based on several instances of Mr. Fountain lying to investigators, misleading investigators and urging others to also mislead investigators,"Houston police Lt. Murray Smith said.

Texas EquuSearch officials on Monday asked for volunteers, especially those with boats and all-terrain vehicles, to help with the new search effort in east Harris County.

"This is a very, very large search effort and difficult to manage," Smith said. "We're asking residents and business owners that live in the area to look at their property to see if there's any sign of Kendrick."

The boy's mother, Keyanna Marie Jackson, was stunned after learning of Fountain's arrest. She doesn't believe, however, that Fountain harmed their son.

"They are only doing that because he (Fountain) was the last person to see him," Jackson said. "He was a good father."

Police wouldn't say whether Fountain denied involvement in the case but said he has offered differing accounts of what happened.

He "has given us four different different stories (and) several falsehoods have been uncovered in every story," said Smith, with HPD's homicide division.

Detectives began to look at Fountain as a possible suspect after they couldn't verify the man's whereabouts early Friday — the day he reported his son missing.

In one version of events, Fountain told police his son may have been with him at the time in a Lexus or a blue pickup.

Police said they now just want to know the truth.

"I don't know what happened to (Kendrick.) We don't know if he has been given to anybody," Smith said. "We're not sure and we've cautioned the family that we're not sure."

Police questioned several family members. None except for Fountain, however, has been identified as a suspect, police said.

Kendrick's aunt said she would be devastated if it turns out the child's father is responsible for the disappearance.

"The question is, who can you trust?" Naquea Jackson Walker said.

[The Red One]

"They are only doing that because he (Fountain) was the last person to see him," Jackson said. "He was a good father."



Why did the mother divorce the father? Was he abusive to her? Overly protective? What and why? He may have been a good father, but we know many "good father's" that end up hurting their kids just to get even with the ex. There is no limit to what people will do to get even.