Police chief: Finding missing kids safe ‘another reason to be thankful’ this Thanksgiving
*This story will be updated
By Brandi Makuski
About 24 hours after two Plover children went missing, the village’s police department canceled the Amber Alert some six hours after it was first issued.
The Wisconsin Crime Alert Network issued the alert for seven-year-old Alexander Muajkoob Xiong and his brother, Stefan Yenghoua Xiong, 9, at about 3:50 a.m. on Nov. 21. The boys had reportedly been taken from the Plover area by their father, Yiemen Xiong.
All three were found at about 9:30 a.m. on the morning of Nov. 21 in Muscatine, Iowa, according to Plover Police Chief Ryan Fox. All three were uninjured, he said.
PPD was notified by the boys’ school on Monday that neither child had shown up for their classes, Fox said, but couldn’t provide enough information for officers to send out an Amber Alert.
Most Plover officers were working on the case throughout the night, Fox said, adding that a family member of the boys, who also acted as an interpreter, was able to provide police with enough details for an alert. A staff member from Portage Co. Child Protection Services also reported the children as missing, he said.
“It was basically an all-hands-on-deck situation,” Fox said on Tuesday morning.
The search for the boys involved numerous agencies outside of Plover, including the Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation, the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, the Illinois State Police, the Muscatine Police Department (Iowa), the Rock Island Police Department (Illinois), the Clinton Police Department (Iowa), Wausau Police Department, Dane County Sheriff’s Office, Portage County Sheriff’s Office, and the Portage County Child Protective Services.
“It just shows the amazing teamwork we have with other agencies, even those outside of Wisconsin,” Fox said. “To have found [the kids] safe…it’s another reason to be thankful.”
Fox said it was “too soon” to say what happens next for the suspect, Yiemen Xiong, adding it was “still a very active investigation” and that he did not yet have any additional information to share.
