The Lee County Sheriff's Office says "criteria for an Amber Alert" was not met when a Lehigh Acres child was abducted Tuesday night.
According to police reports, the suspect left the home with the child around 6:00 Tuesday night. When they did not return the family filed a missing person's report.
But it was only after getting more information from family members did police finally catch up with Cole around 4:00 am Wednesday morning. They found his vehicle at the corner of Cranford Avenue and Lafayette Street, the victim was still inside and had been sexually assaulted.
Cole was arrested a couple blocks away.
"Even if they issue an Amber Alert at 4:00 in the morning, who's around to take notice of it," said Walter Zalisko, a retired New Jersey Police Chief.
Zalisko says even without an Amber Alert, police had a clear enough description of Cole's vehicle and knew from witnesses he was still in the area.
It's a situation he says could have been avoided if the family gave investigators more details about who the child was with.
"Here we have a situation where the child was missing before midnight, and it wasn't reported until 4:00 am," said Zalisko.
Cole is in the Lee County Jail on kidnapping and sexual assault charges.
