Duplicate, Delayed Maine Amber Alert Messages Under Investigation

An Amber Alert about a Saco mother and her three-year-old daughter initially sent Thursday night was still being received by many on their phone two days after they were safely located.

Maine State Police issued the alert around 10:30 p.m. via its social media platforms, emails, and texts sent to those signed up for the Maine Citizen Alert System.

Followers of the Rochester, NH Scanner Alert Facebook page, which was first to post about the delayed messages, commented that they received the alert on Friday and Saturday.

"I was wondering about that. I have 2 phones..my old phone received the Amber alert last night.. my new phone Received it today (Friday) around 3 pm," one person commented.

"I got it last night at 11 pm and then my bf and I got it again this afternoon (Friday) even tho they were found," another person commented.

Carrier/Tower Issue?

While Maine State Police authorized the Amber Alert being sent, it is sent by Maine's Emergency Management Agency.

“The Maine Bureau of Emergency Communications is aware that multiple people received a duplicate or delayed Amber Alert. The Bureau followed up with the software company and everything was cleared in their system, so they believe it is a carrier/tower issue," Maine State Police spokeswoman Shannon Moss told Seacoast Current.  "The Bureau will need to do additional follow-up next week along with the Maine Emergency Management Agency to get to the bottom of the issue."

MEMA spokeswoman Vanessa Corson told Seacoast Current its inquiry was sent to the specialist who handles Amber Alerts for the agency.

Amber Alert messages are also sent via the Wireless Emergency Alert system, which sends out Presidential Alerts, Imminent Threat Alerts, and weather alerts. The system can be used to send out a message to all users or to all phones within a specific geographic area. Their role in the Maine message issue, if any, is not known.

This is the same system that sent a nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System in October.

Contact reporter Dan Alexander at Dan.Alexander@townsquaremedia.com or via X (Twitter) @DanAlexanderNH