AMBER Alert issued for abducted infant in NE Montana

UPDATE: CHILD FOUND SAFE

(UPDATE, 8:37 a.m.) The Montana Department of Justice said in an email at 8:33 a.m. that the abducted child is one-year old Malachai Talley. He is a black and Native American child, about two feet tall and 25 pounds. He has brown eyes and curly dark brown hair.

Malachai was last seen wearing a white or grey onesie. He was forcefully taken from his home in Poplar by Dejarreh Talley, a 22 year old black man. Dejarreh was traveling with three unknown white males. The alert states that Dejarreh kicked in the door to the residence and forcefully took the child.

After taking the child, the four men got into a small silver or white SUV. The four males may be intoxicated, and Dejarreh is armed with a baseball bat, according to the alert. We have not yet been able to confirm whether or not Dejarreh is the child's father.

(1st Report, 8:19 a.m.) The Montana Department of Justice has issued an AMBER Alert for an abducted infant in Poplar in northeastern Montana.

The alert states that the a silver or white SUV with three white males and one black male abducted the infant. According to the alert, the vehicle may have North Dakota license plates; there is no word on which direction the SUV was last seen heading.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Roosevelt County Sheriff's Office and/or Fort Peck Tribal Police at 406-653-6240, or call 911.

The alert was issued and sent to most wireless devices in the region at 8:07 a.m. on Tuesday, June 30. No other details have been released at this point; we will update you if we get more information.

Whenever a child is reported missing in Montana, law enforcement agencies work quickly to determine the circumstances, and whether or not to issue an AMBER Alert, or a Missing/Endangered Person Advisory (MEPA). The AMBER Alert program started in Texas in 1996 after 9-year old Amber Hagerman was abducted and murdered. In response to community concern, broadcasters in the area teamed up with law enforcement agencies to establish a program capable of quickly distributing information about child abductions to the general public.

In memory of Amber, the program was called the AMBER Plan – America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response. In Montana, officials also have the option of issuing a Missing/Endangered Person Advisory.

Here is the difference between the two:

AMBER ALERT To initiate an AMBER Alert, call 9-1-1 and provide your local law enforcement agency with all the information you can about a suspected child abduction. To activate the program, all of the following criteria must be met:

• There is reasonable belief by law enforcement that a child has been abducted or has disappeared under suspicious circumstances.
• The missing child is age 17 years or younger, or has a proven mental or physical disability.
• The law enforcement agency believes the child is in imminent danger of serious bodily injury or death.
• There is enough descriptive information about the victim and abduction for law enforcement to issue an AMBER Alert to assist in the recovery of the child.
• The child’s name and other critical data elements, including the Child Abduction flag, have been entered into the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) computer.

The AMBER Alert system is not used to track runaways, missing children or children involved in custody disputes. The program is restricted to child abduction cases that could be life threatening.

MISSING/ENDANGERED PERSON ADVISORYA MEPA Advisory is initiated solely by Montana law enforcement agencies using the following criteria:

1. Do the circumstances fail to meet the criteria for an AMBER Alert?
2. Is the person missing under unexplained, involuntary or suspicious circumstances?
3. Is the person believed to be in danger because of age, health, mental or physical disability, or environmental or weather conditions; to be in the company of a potentially dangerous person; or is there some other factor that may put the person in peril?
4. Is there information that could assist the public in the safe recovery of the missing person? The initial advisory will include any available information, like name, age, physical description, date of birth and where the person was last seen. It might also include information about whether the person has a health condition or physical or mental disability.