The mother and family of Dakota Stump, the Indiana-born United States Army soldier who went missing for three weeks before he was discovered dead on post earlier this month wants a new law to put in place a far-reaching alert for when a military member goes missing.
It would closely-mimic the AMBER Alert law, which sends out a distress signal through various channels (radio, television, internet and text among others) when a child is feared to abducted. It’s an acronym that stands for “America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response” but was actually named after Amber Hagerman, a nine-year-old girl who was kidnapped and murdered in Texas in 1996.
Stump’s mom, Patricia Wise, called the proposal “Dakota’s Law” in the online petition (which can be viewed here) while others are coining it, simply, “WARRIOR Alert.”
“I have no ulterior motive except to stop another soldier or family from having to go through what I’m probably going to have to through for the rest of my life,” she said.
According to wise and Stump’s family, the military assumed the soldier had gone AWOL, and due to this dubious communication, proper search and rescue hadn’t been carried out.
Authorities say Stump’s car ran off the road and into the woods on the installation’s grounds before flipping over a number of times.
Here are the seven main points laid out in the petition (via KHOU):
1. Open lines of communication and Free Flow of Information with Next of Kin/Point of Contact.
2. No time limit or restriction of Jurisdiction to file Missing Persons Report.
3. All video surveillance that is available from any and all areas, regardless of location will be made available to investigators immediately, and will be made priority by said investigators to review.
4. Tracking bank account activity and pinging of and/or remotely turning on the cell phone to ping it immediately after the Missing Persons report is filed with no required warrant or paperwork.
5. Regardless of reason for individual being missing Law Enforcement and Military Officials should make every possible effort to locate individual ASAP.
6. Specialized Search and Rescue units (with specialized training and clearance) will be dispatched at or before 0800 the day after the Missing Persons Report is filed and will be afforded every privilege and access to search every area that may be pertinent to the investigation regardless of location.
7. A special Alert aptly named -A Warrior Alert- will be initiated upon the filing of the Missing Persons Report. The parameters will be similar to that of the Amber alert.
These concerns are addressed to Mike Pence and his staff. Pence is the current governor of Indiana, Stump’s home state.
The petition has more than 2,000 signatures and counting.