LOUDON COUNTY, Tenn — Fewer than 20 minutes after the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation issued an Amber Alert, Loudon County dispatchers got a call that helped the sheriff's office confirm missing teen Alexis Smiley's location.
The 911 caller told dispatchers where he was and that he had eyes on Alexis Smiley and the truck described in the Amber Alert.
Phil Keith, the former Chief of Police in Knoxville and the former head of the Amber Alert training program with the Department of Justice said this is the intention of the program. It is meant to organize people across the state to stay aware of missing children, increasing the chances that they are found quickly.
"It increases the number of eyes in the community substantially," Keith said. "When it works together, it's kind of like a perfect storm."
The Loudon County Sheriff's Office said they found 13-year-old Alexis Smiley safe at 8:44 a.m. Friday morning, less than an hour after the Amber Alert went out.
The Sheriff's Office said, "a 911 call from a citizen helped alert Loudon County officials to the whereabouts" of Smiley and her alleged kidnapper.
The sheriff's office said they arrested William Nicholson and charged him with kidnapping.