A new emergency alert has been added to the state’s system following the slaying of a 7-year-old girl in Wise County last year.
Gov. Greg Abbott signed House Bill 3556 into law Tuesday, which creates the Athena Alert. The alert, named in honor of Athena Strand, creates a regional alert for missing children that don’t meet the criteria for an Amber Alert, which requires law enforcement to believe a child has been abducted.
Maitlyn Gandy, Strand’s mother, thanked Abbott and Texas lawmakers for expediting the legislation, the Varghese Summersett law firm, which represents Gandy, said in a news release.
“It has been six months since Athena was killed and every day has been an indescribable struggle,” Gandy said in a written statement. “It gives me comfort to know that Athena’s legacy will live on and help save the lives of other Texas children.”
The legislation, filed by Rep. Lynn Stucky, aims to close the gap between when a child goes missing and when an Amber Alert is issued.
Gandy testified before the Texas House’s Committee on Homeland Security and Public Safety in April, telling lawmakers she begged for an Amber Alert when her daughter went missing.
“I asked and I continued to ask and unfortunately, I kept getting met with the same response: that she and her case did not meet the criteria for an Amber Alert,” Gandy told the committee.
Wise County authorities said 31-year-old Tanner Horner, a FedEx contract driver, delivered a package to Athena’s father’s home on Nov. 30 about the time she went missing. According to an affidavit, Horner told investigators that he accidentally hit Athena while reversing his vehicle, but she was not seriously injured.
He told authorities he panicked and put her in the van before strangling her, fearing the girl would tell her father, the affidavit says. Her body was recovered two days later.
Attorney Benson Varghese told the House committee that Wise County Sheriff Lane Akin could not initially say that Athena had been abducted.
“It was an unknown in that moment,” Varghese said. “The current state of the Amber Alert law in Texas requires for the head of local law enforcement to be able to say the child was either taken or kidnapped.”
An Amber Alert for Athena was issued the day after she went missing, when her disappearance met the criteria for the alert.
The Athena Alert does not replace the Amber Alert. If a local law enforcement agency knows a child is missing but doesn’t yet meet the criteria for an Amber Alert and its chief believes the alert system should be activated, then the Athena Alert is issued.
The Athena Alert is also a regional one. It activates within a 100-mile radius of where the child is believed to have gone missing or was last seen. In addition, it activates in all counties that border that location’s county.
“In her darkest hour, as she mourned the loss of Athena, Maitlyn Gandy turned her grief into action — formulating legislation that has now become law and will help prevent other parents from experiencing her pain,” Varghese said in a statement.
Stucky, who represents Wise County, thanked Abbott in a tweet for signing the bill into law.
The new alert, which is effective immediately, adds to eight others in the state’s emergency alert system.
