My phone just made a strange sound, that I've only heard once before. It's an Amber Alert, and we had one in January.

That time, a kid got kidnapped in The Dalles, which is about 80 miles from here, straight down I-84. So that one was reasonable.

This one was Alturas, CA, which Google Earth says is 300 miles from me as the crow flies, and not connected by any major highway. By road it's more like 450 miles. They must have sent that one to the entire west coast. I wonder if San Diego and Seattle received it? Denver?

UPDATE: It's a good system; I don't disagree with it. In January they found the guy within about two hours and they got the kid back safe. I hope that's the case this time, too.

But they seem to have cast their net rather widely this time. Alturas is at least a 14 hour drive from here.

UPDATE: OK, it wasn't quite so wide a net.

Oregon State Police received word this afternoon that a homicide suspect from the San Diego area accused of kidnapping his victims' two children might have entered Southern Oregon.

A witness called OSP at around 2 p.m. after allegedly spotting a blue 2013 Nissan Versa believed to be driven by James Lee DiMaggio, 40, who is the primary suspect in the murder of Christina Anderson, 44, of Lakeside, Calif.

OSP Lt. Gregg Hastings said troopers and sheriff's deputies from Southern Oregon rushed to several highways and roads at the Oregon/California border after DiMaggio's car was supposedly spotted along Highway 395 near Alturas, Calif. The car was seen heading north toward Oregon, Hastings said.

"There is a possibility that it could have entered Nevada, too," Hastings said. "We are taking this very seriously because there are two kidnapped children involved."

The children are identified as Hannah Anderson, 16, and Ethan Anderson, 8.

Hastings is asking drivers in Southern Oregon to keep an eye out for a vehicle matching the description of DiMaggio's Nissan.

The suspect's car has California license plates 6WCU986.

Anderson's body was found Sunday in the ruins of a burnt house in east San Diego County, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The two children could have been kidnapped the previous evening,officials said.

An AMBER Alert was sent via text message to cellphones throughout the country. The case represented the first time such an alert was disseminated through cellphone messages, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Southern California police believe DiMaggio might be heading to Canada to evade capture.

If anyone sees the suspect vehicle in Oregon, please call 911 or Oregon State Police at 1-866-5AMBER5.

UPDATE: US 395 is the route you'd use if you wanted to head for Canada and didn't want to use I-5. It goes north through Eastern Oregon, on the east side of the Cascades.

The good news (for everyone except the kidnappers) is that if the Oregon State Police got the alert early enough, there are places they can set up to intercept everything on that highway. Our friendly murderer won't get past 'em.

UPDATE: So it was Oregon and Washington, which seems reasonable. And I saw a news report that said it was possible that the boy had also been murdered. Let's hope not.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Daily Life at 04:41 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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