KC area Amber Alert canceled, child found safe

(1:08 p.m. update) Authorities cancel the amber alert after the child was found safe.

GLADSTONE, Mo. – The Missouri State Highway Patrol issues an amber alert for 2-year-old Samyia D. Barr after police say she was abducted by her father De’Shawn Barr-Cotton. According to the alert, Barr-Cotton assaulted the mother and brandished a fire arm.

They were last seen at 9:08 a.m. heading southbound near the area of 7036 N Olive St., Gladstone, Missouri. Barr-Cotton drives a Silver Chevrolet Malibu with tinted windows.

De’Shawn Barr-Cotton is described as a 25-year-old black male weighing 145 lbs. He’s 5’4 with black hair and brown eyes. He was last seen wearing a black Nike hoodie with a Nike emblem on the front, dirty fitted blue jeans and black and white low top sneakers. He wears his air in shoulder length dreadlocks.

Samyia Barr is black female with black hair and brown eyes. She was last wearing a multi colored long-sleeve shirt and blue jeans. He hair is worn in braids with black and white hair ties.

If you have any information pertaining to the alert, authorities ask you call 911 or the Gladstone Police.

Why authorities say there wasn’t an Amber Alert for two missing boys

BENTON COUNTY, Mo. – A family is now planning a funeral for two young boys and their father after deputies found their bodies on Monday.

Four-year-old Kaiden Peak, 3-year-old Mason Peak and their father, Darrell Peak, were found dead near where they were last seen on Thursday. The Missouri State Highway Patrol says this case doesn’t meet all the criteria for an Amber Alert.

Authorities said Darrell Peak took his two sons from near the family home on Thursday, but when the family filed a missing person’s report on Friday, deputies said there wasn’t any reason to believe he would hurt his sons in any way which meant no Amber Alert.

Greene County detectives worked around the clock since the report was made attempting to locate Darrell Peak and his children. Dozens of leads were generated, and despite the family’s belief that he would not harm his children, detectives decided to pursue criminal charges for the arrest of Darrell Peak, hoping that this would generate additional tips and leads.

On Monday, deputies found the two boys and their father dead inside a building not too far from where they were last spotted near U.S. Highway 65 near Route T north of Warsaw.

“Individual law enforcement agencies don’t have the authority to just issue an amber alert. We’ve approached the highway patrol on a few occasions with the information in an attempt to get an amber alert put out. but it has not met the criteria. The highway patrol wants to preserve that criteria because we want to protect the seriousness of amber alerts. We don’t want to issue amber alerts so much that the public becomes numb to it,” said Deputy Jason Winston with the Greene County Sheriff’s Office.

The Justice Department set the following criteria to issue an Amber Alert:

  • Law enforcement confirms that an abduction has occurred
  • The child is 17 years old or younger
  • The child is at risk of serious injury or death
  • There’s enough descriptive information about the child, the captor, or the captor’s vehicle to issue an alert

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