A Missing Foster Child Was Finally Found. Grave Questions About the Child Welfare System Remain.
On Friday, a harrowing three-week search for a missing foster child came to a close: A five-year-old boy was flown back to Mt. Vernon, Washington, after he was allegedly kidnapped by his foster mother in late November and taken to Vietnam. The foster mother, Amanda Dinges, had recently learned that the boy, who goes by ND in court documents, would likely move back in with his mother in the weeks to come.
The boy arrived in Seattle on Friday morning, accompanied by FBI agents and victims’ advocates, and has reunited with his mother. Law enforcement is now turning to the arrest and extradition of Amanda and her mother, Amber Dinges, who are believed to still be in Vietnam.
Despite the relief of the saga’s outcome, the alleged kidnapping has shed light on problems that are far more systemic: red flags that child protective services missed in the lead-up to the kidnapping; an unwavering faith in the foster parent; and a subdued initial response by police and media when it became clear the boy was missing.
The Washington Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) appears to have missed a series of warnings, leading to a ten-day gap between when ND was last seen at school and when the police were informed of his disappearance. The Mt. Vernon Police Department started looking for the boy on November 28th, but never put out an AMBER alert, saying there was no “danger of imminent death or serious bodily injury,” and “there have been no previous issues” with Dinges. The department didn’t publish photos of the Dingeses until a full week after they began their investigation, by which point, court records suggest, the Dingeses had already fled the country. With the exception of TV station King 5, local media was slow to cover the kidnapping; the Seattle Times has yet to write about the case.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2022/12/foster-care-missing-child-found-washington-state-vietnam/
This case is emblematic of problems in the system all over the US, not just Washington state.
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