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A nationwide Amber Alert has been called off. Two-year-old Isaiah Perez has been found, wandering the streets of Providence, Rhode Island. The missing toddler appears to be fine, at least health-wise. But the double homicide police found back at his home outside Providence shows this little guy's ordeal is far from over.
Isaiah's mother is one of two women found dead in a home in Johnston, Rhode Island over the weekend. The cops responded to a domestic disturbance call only to find two children in the house along with the bodies of two adult women. Isaiah was missing, and finding him became priority number one.
The discovery of the little guy on the streets by a police officer should be good news, right?
Well yes, technically.
The 2-year-old is OK, even though cops really don't know where he was for the 16 hours he was missing or how he got from Johnston to Providence. He wasn't with Malcolm Crowell and Daniel Rodriguez, the two men arrested by cops on suspicion of killing Isaiah's mom and the other as-yet-unidentified woman.
He's OK.
Hooray. It's always good news when an Amber Alert ends with a healthy kid. That's the whole point of having them -- to rescue kids before it's too late.
And yet, even as I breathed a sigh of relief, I found myself feeling guilty. Two women are dead. Three children were hurt in some way -- even if it's "just" emotionally.
Yes, the Amber Alert is over. Yes, we can stop looking little boys up and down in the supermarket, wondering if they're the missing child. Our part is done.
But the fight isn't over.
Cops haven't yet released the relationship of Crowell and Rodriguez to the deceased or to the kids, explained the story behind the double homicide, but we know something bad went down. And these kids -- including Isaiah -- will have to deal with the aftermath for the rest of their lives.
The end of Amber Alerts may allow us all to breathe a sigh of relief and get back to our regularly scheduled lives, but this case is a reminder that things are far from over for the little kids involved.
Do you stop paying attention after an Amber Alert is called off, or do you continue to follow the case?
Image via police
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