RCMP INITIATE AMBER ALERT
Search on for special needs girl abducted with car in North Battleford
A crime of opportunity led to an Amber Alert being issued for Emma O’keeffe, a six-year-old girl with special needs who was kidnapped in North Battleford while sitting in the back seat of her family’s vehicle.
O’keeffe went missing on Sunday around 5 p.m., according to RCMP Cpl. Rob King at a latenight press conference. O’keeffe’s mother had briefly left the vehicle to enter a store in a strip mall at 11204 Railway Avenue in the southwest of North Battleford, adjacent to Highway 16, leaving the car unlocked and running. In that brief moment, someone stole the vehicle with the child buckled in her car seat.
“Any six year old that was taken against their will is definitely at risk,” King said, adding that O’keeffe has autism and epilepsy, which puts her “at higher risk.
“She does not speak ... and does not walk ... It is not believed she could free herself from a car seat.”
Emma’s mother, Alison O’keeffe, wrote a Facebook post urging people to “keep looking, search your properties, yards and outbuildings, even by foot.
“She would not know to seek help and will not respond to her name being called.
“She won’t even know to walk along the side of the road. We need all the help we can get with her special needs, it makes it even more difficult. Please please get her home.”
O’keeffe is Caucasian, 3-foot-6 and 44 pounds, with brown jawlength hair. She was last seen wearing a navy-blue, long-sleeved T-shirt, black jeans, pink socks, no shoes and a diaper.
Police did not have an immediate suspect but made clear that it was not a case of parental abduction.
“This is a stranger that stole a car with a child in the back seat,” he said.
The vehicle is a dark grey 2010 Mercedes-benz GL350 Bluetec SUV with Saskatchewan licence plate number 897 HMX.
The vehicle also has keyless entry and will become immobilized once stopped. The vehicle had a half tank of gas when it was stolen so the driver would be able to travel several hundred kilometres, including potentially into either Alberta or Manitoba. RCMP were looking at expanding the Amber Alert to surrounding provinces.
King said investigators have spoken to the vehicle’s manufacturer but can’t confirm whether or not the vehicle has a GPS or other tracking system.
All available resources, including the North Battleford RCMP major crime unit, were involved in the investigation, King said. King had one message for whoever stole the vehicle with Emma inside.
“Bring her back, quite simply,” he said. “Do whatever you can to get her back.”
Anyone with information that could help police locate O’keeffe is asked to call 1-877-SOAMBER or 1-877-762-6237.
The last Amber Alert issued in Saskatchewan was on July 4, 2017, when an eight-year-old girl was from a Prince Albert playground. Jared Charles later pleaded guilty to multiple charges surrounding the abduction.