SALT LAKE CITY — Thirty years ago, 9-year-old Amber Hagerman was abducted while riding her bike in Texas. It’s the case that prompted media and law enforcement to work together to create a system that broadcasts alerts for missing children: the Amber Alert.
In Utah, the alert was called the Rachael Runyan Alert, established in April of 2002, named after a 3-year-old girl who was abducted in Sunset, Utah, in 1982.
The alert was first activated and used in Utah on June 5, 2002, when Elizabeth Smart was abducted from her bedroom in her family’s Salt Lake City home. In March of 2003, she was rescued by police officers in Sandy. Her case strengthened support for the alert system and brought worldwide attention to it.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reports that as of Dec. 18, 2025, there are 1,292 children who have been recovered because of the Amber Alert.
Mandy Biesinger, a field supervisor for the Utah Bureau of Criminal Identification, said since it was established, Utah has issued 77 Amber alerts.
“Amber Hagerman case is the catalyst that was why we needed an alert like this,” she said. “And you can see that success difference. Her case is a cold case still unsolved. The Texas police department strongly believe if they had an Amber Alert when she went missing, that case would have had a different turnout.”
She said there are certain criteria for an Amber Alert:
- Police believe a child/children have been abducted
- Police believe the victims face imminent danger of serious bodily harm or death
- The child or children are 17 years old or younger
- There is information that could assist the public in the safe recovery of the victim or apprehension of the suspect
Biesinger said the public receives the alert in a couple of different ways, which have evolved with technology since 2002. She said it’s important for people to pay attention to those alerts because time is critical in these cases. In cases like Smart’s, the alert was successful because people were paying attention to the alert and identified the kidnappers.
“If you have your phone and you have your public alerts turned on, your phone's gonna light up and you'll get that message,” Biesinger said. “It makes a really like loud, kind of obnoxious sound that's going to capture your attention. And it's going to have a hyperlink that takes you to the state of Utah's alerts page, and it'll have the information in identifying who the child is — or children, if there's more than one.”
The Center for Missing and Exploited Children has a list of ongoing Amber Alerts. One of them is a girl from Utah named Acacia Bishop, who has been missing since May 25, 2003.
