DENVER — A 9-year-old girl who went missing Saturday, prompting an Amber Alert, has been found safe, according to Basalt Police.
A Basalt Police spokesperson said the girl was found with her mother's sister in Maryland, and the girl's father flew out there to pick her up. The whereabouts of the mother, 39-year-old Carly Lipnick of Basalt, are unknown.
Police said Saturday that the girl was possibly traveling with Lipnick, who doesn't have custody of the child.
The alert was requested by the Basalt Police Department. The spokesperson said they had reason to think the girl could be in danger based on information provided by a therapist who works with Lipnick.
The girl's father, who lives in Aspen, contacted Basalt police on Friday after Lipnick didn't answer his phone calls, the police spokesperson said.
Basalt police pinged Lipnick's cellphone in the Denver metro area and found that she had checked out of a hotel around noon Friday.
Lipnick's vehicle was last spotted by a highway camera going eastbound on Interstate 70 in Kansas, at mile marker 324, near the city of Manhattan.
The Amber Alert was issued in Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arizona, Utah and Wyoming, the spokesperson said.
9NEWS is no longer identifying the girl because she is a minor.
Amber Alerts
"Amber" stands for America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response. The alert was created after the January 1996 kidnapping and murder of 9-year-old Amber Hagerman.
Certain criteria must be met before an Amber Alert is issued:
- The abducted child must be 17 years old or younger.
- The abducted child must be in immediate danger of serious bodily harm or death.
- There must be enough descriptive information available to believe a broadcast will assist or aid in the recovery.
- A local law enforcement agency or Amber designee from another state must request the activation.
The Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is responsible for issuing Amber Alerts.
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