A California woman who was the subject of a regional missing person search in under criminal investigation, confirmed West Wendover Police sergeant David Wiskerchen Wednesday.
Monesha “Jemia” Carter was found safe and in good condition a little after midnight Tuesday morning about six hours after she was reported missing by her frantic 14-year old son.
According to Wiskerchen Carter was found at the America’s Best Value Motel, the same motel where she had originally rented a room.
“From what I was told she was found in another room at the motel,” Wiskerchen said. “There was no one else in the room when she was found by a member of the staff. And that room had been closed off for renovation.”
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After being discovered Carter was reunited with her son and other family members, who had driven from California to Elko to collect the boy when his mother was discovered.
Police said the California woman was traveling with her 14-year-old son and had stopped in the city for the night.
“I don’t know if they were headed east or back to California when they stopped here,” Wiskerchen added.
According to police reports Carter told her son she was going to get something out of the car but never returned.
Less than an hour after Carter was first reported missing West Wendover PD flooded the internet with a photo of the missing woman as well as her description.
While Wiskerchen did not elaborate on the criminal investigation he did confirm that the woman was screened for alcohol and/or drugs but did not reveal the results of the tests.
Charging her with any crime may however prove difficult. According to Wiskerchen the woman and her son have since returned to California along with family members.
The speed in the public search contrasts with the previous missing person case of Micaela costanzo.
Costanzo was reported missing by her mother at about 5:15 pm Thursday, March 3 when she failed to return from track practice. She was found dead three days later in a shallow grave five miles west of town.
Police went on alert and increased patrols and one enterprising officer using facebook formed an ad hoc search party that eventually numbered around 80 volunteers Thursday night.
However West Wendover Police Chief Ron Supp did not issue an Amber Alert and his department did not issue a press release regarding the missing girl until well into the day after she was reported missing.
“I don’t think it would have made any difference,” said West Wendover High School Principal Terry Carsrud. “Thursday night the school was full of volunteers looking for her anyway.
An AMBER Alert or a Child Abduction Emergency (SAME code: CAE) is a child abduction alert bulletin issued upon the suspected abduction of a child, since 1996.
AMBER Alerts are distributed via commercial radio stations, satellite radio, television stations, and cable TV by the Emergency Alert System and NOAA Weather Radio (where they are termed “Child Abduction Emergency” or “Amber Alerts”). The alerts are also issued via e-mail, electronic traffic-condition signs, the LED billboards along with the LED/LCD signs of billboard companies such as Clear Channel Outdoor, CBS Outdoor and Lamar, or through wireless device SMS text messages.
Instead of a 100 pairs of eyes there could have been over a 1,000 had a mass alert been issued but according to her accused killer Kody Patten’s original statements to police a million searchers may not have saved the girl in time.