Missing Ohio 5-year-old: What we know about his suspected kidnapping and foster mother
Ohio issued an Amber Alert Wednesday for 5-year-old Darnell Taylor and statewide and federal law enforcement are continuing the search Thursday.
Darnell Taylor was taken from his home by his foster mother, Pammy Maye, according to the Ohio Amber Alert website. Maye, 48, has been charged with one count of kidnapping and one count of endangering children, according to court filings.
Both charges are felonies. She remains at large and Taylor remains missing as of Thursday morning.
Here's what we know about the missing five-year-old and the woman wanted in the Amber Alert search:
What do police say?
As of Thursday morning, Columbus police had no update regarding the whereabouts of either Maye or Darnell. The boy was last seen around 3 a.m. at his home, Columbus police said at a press conference Wednesday morning. He is believed to be wearing Spider-Man pajamas and white boots.
More: Ohio AMBER Alert suspect told husband foster son was dead, court records say
Columbus police are working with state and federal law enforcement to find the child, The Dispatch previously reported. Darnell's biological family has been notified of his disappearance.
During his initial 911 call Wednesday to Columbus police, the child’s foster father and Maye’s husband said Maye killed the boy, according to an affidavit. He said that his wife told him that the boy was no longer alive, the records say.
At a Wednesday update, police asked community members in the 43207 zip code, which is in the South Alum Creek neighborhood in Columbus' South Side, where Maye and Taylor live, to search their property for anything that may look suspicious or out of place.
Who is Pammy Maye?
Maye, 48, lives on the 900 block of Reeb Avenue on the South Side, according to court documents.
She was last seen wearing a green floral nightgown with pink shoes. She is 4 feet, 9 inches tall and weighs about 115 pounds.
Police said Maye was driving a grey 2015 Jeep Cherokee with Ohio license plate JIGGZII. The vehicle was found unoccupied just before 6 a.m., Wednesday, in Brooklyn, a Cleveland suburb.
Anyone with information about the child or Maye should call 1-877-AMBER-OH (1-877-262-3764) or 911.
'Execute action' Amber Alert: Ohio officials investigating mess-up
An initial Amber Alert sent at around 5:10 a.m. Wednesday included the phrase "execute action," leading some to wonder what action to take.
An Ohio Department of Public Safety spokesperson said Thursday that there were issues with the public Amber Alert in the central Ohio region and the alert was incomplete. The department is in the process of looking into why the system didn't work as intended and included the "execute action" template phrase for cell phones in Columbus.
Full details in the initial alert went out to first responders and media outlets as usual and a second alert in the Cleveland area was successfully pushed out to cell phones.
What is an Amber Alert?
An Amber Alert is a notification system to help find abducted children, first developed in Texas in 1996.
The Amber Alert system began when Dallas-Fort Worth broadcasters teamed with local police to develop an early warning system to help find abducted children. "Amber" is an acronym for America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response.
The Amber system came to Ohio in 2003.
Dispatch reporters Bailey Gallion and Shahid Meighan contributed.
@Colebehr_report
Cbehrens@dispatch.com
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio Amber Alert: What we know about the missing 5-year-old
