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Amber Alert cancelled after Florida girl Naomi Rose Herring is found safe: 'She had wandered into a campground'

Naomi Rose Herring's mother last saw her asleep in one of the motel rooms along with another child in the care of an adult male

MADISON COUNTY, FLORIDA: The Florida Department of Law Enforcement has announced that a five-year-old girl who was reported missing from her Madison hotel room on Monday was later found alone and unharmed in a nearby cabin. Naomi Rose Herring was reported missing from her room ar around 2 a.m. at the Deerwood Inn & Madison Campground, prompting authorities to issue a statewide Amber Alert.

Staff at a nearby campground found Naomi alone in a vacant cabin that afternoon, FDLE spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger told the Tallahassee Democrat in an email.
"Deputies believe that she left the motel room in an effort to find her mother, got lost, and wandered onto the campground," Plessinger said. "She appears healthy."

According to a release on the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's Amber Alert website, officials stated that "Naomi Rose Herring is considered endangered". At around 2 am, Madison County deputies responded to the Deerwood Inn on St. Augustine Road, near the Interstate 10 interchange after a report of a missing child. "Upon arrival, deputies were informed (Naomi) was last seen asleep in one of the motel rooms at approximately 12:30 a.m. along with another child in the care of an adult male," Madison County Sheriff Ben Stewart said in the release. The girl's mother returned to the room at around 1.40 am and found the door closed but unlocked. "Upon entering the room, the remaining occupants were sleeping but Naomi was not inside," the Sheriff's Office said. 

Deputies and other law enforcement officials, assisted by canine tracking teams from the Florida Department of Corrections, are currently working together to comb the area. The search is also aided by helicopters from the Leon County Sheriff's Office.

"The investigation into the disappearance of Naomi along with search efforts remain very active," Stewart said.

FDLE shared details about Naomi's description.
 
"An Amber Alert has been issued for Naomi Herring, last seen in the area of the 100 block of Southwest Old Saint Augustine Road in Madison, FL," the FDLE flier read. "She was last seen wearing a black and yellow bumble-bee dress and blue shorts with a fruit print. She is possibly not wearing shoes. Naomi has long hair."

According to the release, Naomi is 3 feet tall, weighs about 35 pounds, has brown eyes and hair.

Anyone with related information is urged to dial 911 or contact the Madison County Sheriff's Office at 850-973-4001.

This comes just hours after the father of a three-year-old whose disappearance had sparked an Amber Alert after he reported her missing was charged after police found her dead in Kansas City.

An Amber alert had been issued for Olivia Jansen after her father, Howard Jansen III, had walked into the Kansas City, Kansas Police Department on Friday, July 10, and filed a missing person report, according to the Kansas City Star.

When questioned, Jansen, 29, told investigators that the last time he saw his daughter was at 11 pm on Thursday, July 9, when he went to sleep at his home on the 4400 Block of Gibbs Road. He said when he woke up the next morning at 5:30 am, she was gone.

Jansen said he found the door to his house was open and reported her missing three hours later because he could not find her. KCPD spokesman Tom Tomasic said they heard "several stories throughout the day" and that "none of them made sense."

As authorities continued to search the vicinity of two homes that they suspected held clues to the three-year-old's disappearance, they received a tip that a young girl's body had been found not far from 34th and Steele Road.

When they reached the scene, they positively identified the body as belonging to Olivia. It had been located in an area close to Interstate 635 where police had searched for most of the day. They did not reveal a cause of death.

Jansen was subsequently arrested on suspicion of child abuse of unknown circumstance and first-degree murder and was being held without bond, according to Wyandotte County Jail booking logs. 

Both Jansen and his girlfriend Jacqulyn A. Kirkpatrick have since been formally charged with first-degree murder, aggravated endangerment of a child, and criminal desecration in connection with the death of 3-year-old Olivia Jansen. The desecration charge reportedly stems from “unlawfully and knowingly obtain[ing] unauthorized control of a dead body.”