State, Local Agencies Collaborate on Amber Alert,Safely Locate Five-Year-Old within Hours

Matt Boster

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Posted by: Matt Boster
Date: Mar 20 2015 8:39 AM

Montgomery – The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA), Union Springs Police Department and several regional and federal law enforcement partner agencies are pleased to announce the Amber Alert issued earlier today, March 19, concerning a 5-year-old who was taken from Union Springs Elementary School was canceled within hours as the child was located – and was safe – in South Carolina. 

“We and our partners in Bullock County and across the Southeast gave this case 110 percent until the child was found,” Secretary of Law Enforcement Spencer Collier said. “It truly was a team effort involving Alabama State Troopers, the State Bureau of Investigations, Alabama Fusion Center and Union Springs Police Department, U.S. Marshals Service, FBI and Fusion Centers in Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina working through our Alabama Fusion Center to ensure young Aaliyah Linton was recovered safely.”

At approximately 9 a.m. today, Union Springs PD contacted the SBI’s Alabama Center for Missing and Exploited Children Unit to request assistance in the possible abduction of the child by two unknown females. Witnesses described two females, who entered the school, picked up Aaliyah and took her to a waiting vehicle driven by an unknown male.  At the time, witnesses could only describe the vehicle as a maroon van with North Carolina license plates.

The Alabama Fusion Center then began gathering intelligence based on the information provided in the initial stages of the investigation, and the Amber Alert activation process began with assistance from the Alabama Broadcasters Association.Intelligence Analysts, with help from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, coordinated a mass distribution of information to Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina. This networking led South Carolina State Law Enforcement Department Division Agents and South Carolina Highway Patrol Troopers to the suspect vehicle.

The child was located two states away within approximately four hours of her abduction. Her father, Alton Linton; grandmother, Melissa Brown; and aunt, Malaysia Linton, were taken into police custody and will be charged with Interference with Custody by Union Springs PD. 

Collier said, “This type of consolidated effort should be celebrated.  Aaliyah was recovered safely because of the professional and determined actions of all involved in this investigation.”

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