3-year-old Ethan Foley Still Missing, Kidnapped by Biological Mother, Noel Raleigh (UPDATE: Found Safe)
It has been more than a month since 3 year old Ethan Foley went missing. He was kidnapped by his biological mother, Noel Raleigh and his aunt Stephanie Martinez. Sharon Foley-Pryor is Ethan Foley’s paternal grandmother and his sole legal guardian. The missing persons case was initially handled rather poorly.
Time is critical in any missing person’s case — especially when you’re searching for a kidnapped child. But in the case of 3-year-old Ethan Foley, there was no Amber Alert issued and it took a month for police to finally alert the media. Now, we find out why police waited and why Ethan’s grandmother fears too much time has passed. Sharon Foley-Pryor, Ethan’s grandmother said, “I’m frightened for him… so frightened for him.” (KLAS-TV)
Ethan’s grand mother fears for his safety as his mother lead a rather wild and dangerous life using drugs. AMBER ALERTS are usually a beneficial tool in helping locate missing children; however, in this case it failed miserably. It supposedly did not meet the criteria. One needs to seriously ask themselves why there would be restrictions on a tool used to find children. It hardly makes sense.
That same night — Sharon Foley-Pryor says, with her legal guardianship documents in hand, she and her attorney pleaded with Metro to issue a statewide Amber Alert for Ethan — but she was told the case didn’t meet the criteria. “They said because she didn’t say that she was going to hurt him, that it couldn’t be an Amber Alert,” said Foley. Metro Missing Persons detective, Sandy Southwell, confirms there must be an imminent threat of danger to enact an Amber Alert. Metro says parental abductions are also the most complex kidnapping cases they deal with.
If you have any helpful information, call Metro’s Missing Persons Unit at 828-LOST.
UPDATE I: Missing Las Vegas Boy Found in Virginia
A three-year-old Las Vegas boy missing for a month is back in the Valley.
Ethan’s Foley’s grandmother, Sharon Foley Pryor, told Eyewitness News Friday afternoon he was located in Virginia. She is flew there to get him over the weekend.
She now hopes to work on changing the criteria for Amber Alerts so they can be issued in cases of child abductions in which it is not immediately known if there is a threat to the child. (KLAS-TV)