An Amber Alert was issued in Missouri on Sunday night after police said a vehicle was stolen with a 1-year-old child still inside, sending investigators scrambling across the St. Louis area to find the toddler.
The child, identified by authorities as Emiliana Gonzalez, according to First Alert 4, or Emiliona Gonzalez, according to KSDK, was inside a car taken from outside a White Castle in downtown St. Louis, KSDK reported. The Missouri State Highway Patrol said the vehicle, a blue Dodge Charger, was stolen in the 800 block of South Broadway at around 10:40 p.m. Sunday. Witnesses told investigators the car was last seen heading eastbound on Walnut Street, according to First Alert 4.
The child was last seen wearing a gray onesie; KSDK reported she also had on black shorts. The Missouri State Highway Patrol described the vehicle as a 2015-2023 model Dodge Charger, though the two outlets differed slightly on the car's markings. First Alert 4 reported the car had two racing stripes on the hood, while KSDK described white racing stripes. Both outlets agreed the vehicle carried Illinois plates, with First Alert 4 specifying an Illinois temporary tag on the car.
Who Investigators Are Looking For
The suspect was identified by the Missouri State Highway Patrol as 43-year-old Joseph Nickell, who goes by the nickname "JoJo." Nickell was described as roughly six feet tall, with dark hair and a mustache, described by KSDK as a light mustache. At the time he was last seen, he was wearing a tan or nude-colored shirt, dark blue jeans and Nike shoes, according to both First Alert 4 and KSDK.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol said Nickell was with the child, Emiliana or Emiliona, when the Charger was taken from the White Castle parking area. The Amber Alert was issued shortly before midnight Sunday, according to KSDK, as law enforcement agencies across the St. Louis region were put on alert for the vehicle and its occupants.
Amber Alerts are reserved for cases in which law enforcement believes a child is in imminent danger, and the designation triggers wide dissemination of alerts through highway signs, broadcast interruptions and wireless emergency notifications sent to cell phones in the affected area. The system is designed to flood a region with identifying details, such as a vehicle description and license plate information, in the critical early hours after an abduction, when a child's location is most likely to still be traceable.
Vehicle Located in St. Charles, Child Still Missing
By the time KSDK filed its report, St. Louis police had confirmed that the stolen Dodge Charger had been located in St. Charles, a city roughly 20 miles northwest of downtown St. Louis. However, KSDK reported that as of that update, the child had not been found, and police had not confirmed whether Nickell was with the vehicle when officers located it. That detail leaves open a central question in the case: whether the suspect and the child separated from the car before it was found, or whether Nickell had already left the area on foot or in another vehicle.
First Alert 4's earlier report did not include any update on the vehicle's location, suggesting that the discovery in St. Charles came after the initial Amber Alert was broadcast and as the search widened beyond the immediate area around South Broadway and Walnut Street in downtown St. Louis.
Neither outlet reported additional information about a relationship, if any, between Nickell and the child's family, nor did either report specify how the vehicle came to be stolen with the child inside, whether the child was left unattended briefly or whether the theft happened while the child's guardian was elsewhere. Those details were not addressed in the available reporting from First Alert 4 or KSDK.
What to Do if You See the Vehicle
Authorities asked anyone with information about the whereabouts of the child, the suspect or the vehicle to call 911 immediately, according to KSDK. Amber Alerts typically urge members of the public not to attempt to approach a suspect vehicle directly but instead to report sightings to police, given the volatility of active abduction cases and the priority placed on the child's safety.
The case underscores how quickly Amber Alerts can evolve in the hours after they are issued. Vehicles connected to alerts are sometimes recovered relatively quickly, as happened with the Charger's discovery in St. Charles, even when the child at the center of the search has not yet been located. Investigators often treat a recovered vehicle as a critical piece of evidence, examining it for clues about where a suspect and child may have gone next, whether on foot, in a different car or with the help of another person.
As of the most recent reporting from KSDK, the Missouri State Highway Patrol and St. Louis police had not announced the child's recovery or Nickell's arrest. The Missouri State Highway Patrol's description of Nickell, the child and the vehicle remained the primary tool investigators were relying on to generate tips from the public. Anyone who spots the described Charger, or has information about Nickell's whereabouts, was urged to contact 911 rather than approach the vehicle themselves, given ongoing safety concerns for the missing 1-year-old.
The discrepancy between the two spellings of the child's first name, Emiliana in First Alert 4's report and Emiliona in KSDK's report, had not been resolved in either outlet's coverage, and it remains unclear which spelling matches official police records as the search continued.
