New criteria will allow Iowa officials to issue AMBER Alerts more easily

In the wake of several high-profile abductions, Iowa officials announced small but important changes to the state's AMBER Alert protocol Wednesday.

The Iowa AMBER Alert Criteria Group took out the word "and" from the criteria for issuing an alert. Police now need "descriptive information about the child, abductor or suspect's vehicle" to issue an alert.

That descriptive information is one of four criteria needed for an AMBER Alert. Police also need to confirm a child was abducted, the person is under age 18 and have evidence the child is in physical danger.

The group also urged law enforcement to use a broad interpretation of the rules to issue more alerts, and to issue them more quickly.

The change follows two high-profile abductions in Iowa in which no Amber Alert was issued.

This past May, Michael Klunder abducted Kathlynn Shepard in central Iowa. In that case, the Department of Public Safety was preparing to issue an AMBER Alert when police found Klunder had killed himself in his home. Shepard's body was found a few weeks later in the Des Moines River.

The other high-profile case was the abduction of Lyric Cook and Elizabeth Collins in July of 2012. In that case, police were not sure the two cousins had been abducted. Police searched and drained Meyers Lake in Evansdale, believing the two girls may have been in the lake. Hunters found the girls' bodies in December in a park in Bremer County, about 20 miles away from Meyers Lake.

Heather Collins, Elizabeth Collins' mother, said she asked several times after the girls disappeared for authorities to issue an Amber Alert, but was told they could not because they did not have any suspect information.

“We're ecstatic that it went through,” Collins said of the change. “It's sad that it took something like this to happen for it to go through, but we're happy that it did.”

Earlier this month, the Benton County Sheriff's Office issued the most recent AMBER Alert in Iowa. Investigators say Sean Shannon took his daughter without her mother's consent. The girl was found safe in Cedar Rapids a few hours later.

That was the 19th AMBER Alert issued since 2003, according to the Iowa AMBER Alert website. Of those cases, 10 year-old Jetseta Gage is the only child not recovered safely. The Cedar Rapids girl was kidnapped and killed by Roger Bentley in March of 2005.

Des Moines Register reporters Joel Aschbrenner and Emily Schettler contributed to this story.

Read their article on the AMBER Alert changes here.