BLOXOM, Va. (WAVY) — A 17-year-old Eastern Shore girl at the center of Amber Alert sent out Wednesday night was found in Charlotte, authorities say.
Yuli Sanun Godines was found by Charlotte Metro Police around 1:24 a.m. Thursday morning with Yantza Agular, the woman suspected of abducting her. However no charges have been filed at this time.
Virginia State Police and the Virginia Missing Children Clearinghouse issued the Amber Alert on behalf of police in the Town of Bloxom just after 9 p.m. Wednesday. They said they believed the alleged abduction took place at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, after Godines was last seen at her cousin’s house located on Shoremain Drive in Bloxom.
Police said they were looking for Agular, a Hispanic female, who was thought to be in a white 2018 Jeep Renegade with the North Carolina plate JFC-5143, possibly heading south to North Carolina.
While the information about the Amber Alert went out to media at 9:02 p.m. Wednesday, the Amber Alert sent out through the Wireless Emergency Alerts system to cell phones didn’t go out until about 2 hours later.
Authorities told 10 On Your Side on Thursday that this was an issue they haven’t experienced before, and water and state lines impacted how it went out. The Eastern Shore is surrounded by water on three sides, and the alert had to be also be sent to Maryland, which is just above Bloxom, and North Carolina, where Godines was eventually found.
Virginia State Police say they worked with the National Center For Missing and Exploited Children and FEMA, the entity that actually sends the alert, on Wednesday night to fix the issue and get the message out as quickly as possible.
“So, that was a lesson for us, so we’re spending today to update that and working on our protocols for the system…. now that we know this can have an adverse impact on the immediate notification,” said Virginia State Police Public Relations Director, Corinne Geller.
With that, you may have gotten an additional Amber Alert for Godines on Thursday morning.
Geller told us, “State Police has been in touch with NCMEC and IPAWS (FEMA). They both confirm they notified the carriers hours ago that the Alert had been cancelled, so all we can assume is that it’s something to do with the cell carriers and their technology/programming.”
For more information, contact the Accomack County Sheriff’s Office at 757/787-1131, or visit vsp.virginia.gov/active-alerts
By default, Government Alerts are turned on for your device. When you receive a government alert, you hear a sound similar to an alarm. If you want to turn off the alerts, instructions vary by device.
The types of Wireless Emergency Alerts sent to WEA-enabled mobile devices include:
National Alerts are a special class of alerts only sent during a national emergency.
Imminent Threat Alerts include natural or human-made disasters, extreme weather, active shooters, and other threatening emergencies that are current or emerging.
Public Safety Alerts contain information about a threat that may not be imminent or after an imminent threat has occurred. Public safety alerts are less severe than imminent threat alerts.
America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response (AMBER) Alerts are urgent bulletins issued in child-abduction cases. Rapid and effective public alerts often play a crucial role in returning a missing child safely. An AMBER Alert instantly enables the entire community to assist in the search for and safe recovery of the child.
Opt-in Test Messages assess the capability of state and local officials to send their WEAs. The message will state that this is a TEST.