Amber Alert Called Off Because Girl Never Existed

Police in Missouri say an Amber Alert that set off a frantic search for a 5-year-old girl on Monday never should have been issued—because the girl didn't exist.. St. Louis County police say the reported abduction of a girl named Aleise Dawson was a hoax and two women tied to the case are expected to face charges, ABC News reports. Authorities were initially told a guardian had left the child in a running car in the St. Louis suburb of Affton, ducked into a residence, and returned to find both the vehicle and child gone. Officers found the car a few blocks away and treated the incident as a kidnapping, prompting the statewide alert.

By Monday afternoon, police said the person who made the report had taken it back "after an intense investigation." St. Louis County police Lt. Col. Gerald Lohr says investigators were suspicious from the start, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. He says the woman who claimed to be the guardian of her dead sister's child had no photos of the child and there were no toys or children's clothing in her home. Lohr says the woman and her roommate apparently made up the story in the hope that police would devote more resources to the search for the stolen vehicle.

• The women gave a detailed description of the nonexistent girl, which police shared in the alert, saying, "Reminding everyone, Aleise is a black female with four ponytails and was last seen wearing a pink 'Flower Power' t-shirt and blue shorts. She is described as 2 feet 6 inches tall and approximately 60 pounds."

Police plan to seek charges of filing a police report against the two women. Lohr says police dropped what they were doing and spent hours searching for the girl, knocking on doors and using a helicopter and dogs. He says fake reports like this are "disturbing" and leave people who have had a child abducted "re-traumatized."

• " While we are extremely grateful that there is no child in danger, we want to be very clear—we will use all available resources to ensure our community members, especially the most vulnerable among us, are safe," the St. Louis County Police Department said in a statement. "Detectives are seeking charges against the two women involved in this hoax."