(LEX 18) — When a child goes missing, time is critical. But in Kentucky, not every case gets an Amber Alert due to strict requirements that leave many at-risk children without public notification.
Dovie Kirkland, who started a petition for change, understands this gap firsthand. The issue became clear to her during the disappearance of 13-year-old Wynter Wagoner.
"There's a lot of kids, and not just kids, but a lot of people, a lot of missing people that don't qualify for an Amber Alert because it's very specific criteria," Kirkland said.
Those strict requirements mean many children at risk never receive an alert to the public. Amber Alerts require specific information that isn't always available when a child first goes missing.
"My understanding is the Amber Alert requires like a vehicle description or a description of a particular person that a child is with, and you know, and in her case, we didn't have that information," Kirkland said.
Although Wynter was eventually found, Kirkland says the experience revealed a much larger problem.
"It really opened my eyes to see how many kids there are out there and, you know, since then, you know, thankfully, you know, we got lucky and, you know, she was found, but then you see it don't always happen that way," Kirkland said.
According to the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, more than 700 children were reported missing from state custody in 2025.
Kirkland is pushing for a new alert system named after Wynter Wagoner. A Wynter Alert would be designed to quickly notify the public of a missing, at-risk child, even if the case doesn't meet Amber Alert criteria.
"The faster you can get them out there, the hope is the faster that somebody recognizes them and get them home," Kirkland said.
But Kirkland says alerts are only part of the solution.
"The alert is going to help, you know, but after a child's already gone, but ideally we want to prevent it," Kirkland said.
She's also calling for updated education on grooming and online predators – threats she says didn't exist when many parents were growing up.
"The world that we live in now is different and, you know, the danger is different and these predators have access to, you know, to our kids," Kirkland said.
She has started an online petition, hoping for change: Petition · Create Wynter’s Law in Kentucky to protect missing at-risk children - United States · Ch…
"My hope is that, you know, that more people will see it, more people will sign it and urge lawmakers to sponsor and support it to try to make the change," Kirkland said.
