Barrie police are thanking the public for their concern and help after an Amber Alert was issued for a missing three-year-old girl, who was later located safe in Toronto.
However, more details about what happened aren't likely to be released due to the sensitive nature of the situation.
The call for public assistance went out late Tuesday night on social media, followed by an Amber Alert being issued just after 12 a.m., Wednesday. By 8 a.m., the little girl was located safe in Toronto with arrangements being made to get her back to Barrie.
Barrie police communications coordinator Peter Leon said the outpouring of concern reminded him of “how great this city and its people are.”
“We had people offering to do ground searches and anything else they could to help," Leon said. "The folks of Barrie have been there before in these situations. They were there for this one and we know they will be there again when their community needs them."
There are many unanswered questions, but what exactly happened may never come to light.
Police have said the situation stemmed from a call for police assistance with “a community-based agency where two children were to be at a residence but only one was.”
The three-year-old girl was last seen at an east-end Barrie home around 5:30 p.m., Tuesday. Investigators worked to get information as to where she might be, while trying to determine the level of danger she may be in wherever she was. The Amber Alert went out at 12:06 a.m., Wednesday, and was cancelled just after 8 a.m. when the girl was located safely.
So what happened between around 10 p.m. and midnight when the alert went out?
“Eventually, investigators got to a point where the level of concern was high and with the lack of information that they had on the potential whereabouts of this young child, they felt there was a need to get the word out there,” Leon said. “We needed to find the child and we were not getting the answers to the questions that we were hoping to get.”
While issuing an Amber Alert comes with certain criteria that needs to be met before it is activated, Leon said the tool was needed due to the position investigators were in.
“Not knowing where she was, not knowing where there was even a potential starting point to even try to search, we needed a sense of direction,” Leon said. “The Amber Alert can provide that with many people across the province looking.”
As to what led to finding the girl, Leon said he couldn’t comment because “it does form part of our investigation.”
“One of the biggest things we should acknowledge is when you do have situations like this, you try to reach out to different members of the family to find out if the child is maybe with them," he said.
"In this case, that involved police in other jurisdictions going to homes and doing a door-knock in the middle of the night for us. That happened in points north and south of Barrie," Leon added.
Whether any charges would be laid in connection to the incident, Leon also said he could not comment on specifics.
“I’m not sure we’ll be able to even update it, to be honest, just because of the nature of the initial call that we were there to provide the assistance on,” he said.
While the community had heightened concern of the girl's safety, Leon said there was never a public safety threat. He called it a “very isolated incident and we were able to confirm there was not an abduction that had taken place.”
“When most think of an abduction, sadly, they think of the Hollywood version of events and that certainly didn't happen,” he said. “An abduction could also be a situation where there is a custody dispute and the child hasn’t been returned at a set time and there are concerns with spousal partners. That was also not the case here.
“I hope the public understands the complex nature of this and is sympathetic to us not being able to discuss it much further.”
