The nation recognized the Amber Alert system Sunday, as part of an awareness day dedicated to the system.
Currently, every state in the United States has an Amber alert plan in place as well as several countries around the world.
The alert system notifies the public about abducted children. It’s named for 9-year old Amber Hagerman.
On Jan 13, 1996, Hagerman was kidnapped from an Arlington parking lot as she rode her bicycle near her grandparent’s home.
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Four days later Hagerman’s body was found four miles away from where she was kidnapped.
Shortly after Hagerman’s death, police and media outlets in north Texas created the first Amber alert system, called “Amber Plan”.
The local plan later served as a model for others states to establish their own plans.
As of today, 602 children have been recovered following abduction because of the alert system.
"I think everybody that was associated with the original plan is very proud," Dee Anderson, Tarrant County Sheriff and a key person to establishing the system said. "But none of us lose sight that it became what it is because we lost a precious child."
Hagerman’s kidnapping and murder still remain unsolved.
