Tip helps Buffalo PD find missing child

BUFFALO, Texas (KBTX) – The Buffalo Police Department is reminding everyone to pay attention to Amber Alerts after one recently helped locate a missing two-year-old boy.

On Thursday, Sylvia Lopez abducted her own son in Rains County. Child Protective Services, which has a court-ordered conservatorship of the child due to the alleged neglect from both parents, asked the Rains County Sheriff’s Department for help finding him.

A statewide Amber Alert was issued the following day. Within minutes of it, a tip came into the Buffalo Police Department claiming the mother and child were at a residence just outside of Buffalo.

“In this case, the Amber alert worked like it was supposed to,” Buffalo Police Chief Jason Sullivan said. “Too often you get the Amber Alert on your phone you don’t really look at it or you just bypass it while in this case, we got a phone call to our office.”

Sullivan said tips are crucial when trying to locate someone who was abducted or has gone missing.

“It’s very rare that we get the information as fast as we did this time. It usually takes days maybe weeks before somebody sees the information, so again I would just encourage you to take a look,” Sullivan said.

Over the last decade, there have been about 400 missing person entries in the Brazos Valley, 300 of those children. Amber Alert Network Brazos Valley said that number has fluctuated much in 2023, but the alert system is an essential tool in finding them.

“This is a partnership between law enforcement our media partners and the public.,” AANBV Executive Director Chuck Fleeger said. “That’s where the real power is, is to equip the public to give them actionable information. Generally speaking that word spreads very quickly and so people will report what they know.”

Even if it’s a parent or family member is the one taking their own child, the Amber Alert Network Brazos Valley said it’s still important to report any information.

“Generally speaking when it is a family member a lot of times there are circumstances where parental access or parental rights have been removed from a person and generally speaking that’s for a reason, so if that is the case we certainly want to find that child,” Fleeger said.

Whenever someone does go missing Sullivan said it’s important to report it immediately.

“That way in our case our agency can start working on it immediately. The faster we get the information the better our investigation is going to be. I think it’s important in our case the community trust the police department that if they make a report, give them information we do follow up on it and give them information as fast as we can,” Sullivan said.

Rains County Sheriff’s Department said the child is in CPS custody.