AUGUSTA — Local and state police are looking for Fatima L. Gissentaner and her boyfriend in connection with Tuesday’s incident involving a 3-year-old girl whose disappearance prompted police to issue an Amber Alert for only the second time since the program started in Maine in 2002.
Gissentaner, 26, and her boyfriend, who has been identified only as “Dollar,” are considered people of interest in the investigation. No charges have been filed, Augusta Deputy Police Chief Jared Mills said.
“We have information as to their whereabouts and are obviously following up on a bunch of leads,” Mills said at a news conference Wednesday afternoon at the Augusta Police station. “At this point we are still looking to determine what their intentions were.”
Mills said that if felony charges were filed, a warrant would be issued for the pair’s arrest. He didn’t specify what charges they could be facing.
Lenore “Lenny” Wilson was reported missing Tuesday morning after her mother suffered a medical emergency. Mills said he could not identify the type of emergency. The 3-year-old girl was believed to be with Gissentaner, who was at the apartment, for most of the day.
Mills said police expected Gissentaner, who is from New York and goes by the nickname “China,” to bring Lenore to the police station within 30 minutes. When that didn’t happen, police began considering the possibility that Lenore had been abducted.
“We’re investigating this at face value, because at one point yesterday, it was our understanding that the child was in the custody of Fatima,” Mills said. “We had a conversation with (Fatima) and she promised to bring her back, and she didn’t, so we’re investigating why that transaction didn’t happen.”
Lenore was taken to the police station Tuesday night by a man acquainted with Gissentaner, her boyfriend and Lenore’s mother. Mills said the man learned that Lenore was missing when he received the Amber Alert on his cellphone.
“This individual knew the people involved, and when he became in contact with the child at some point yesterday, he immediately brought the child to the police department,” said Mills, who wouldn’t identify the man because he didn’t commit a crime. “We’re very thankful for what he did.”
Lenore is doing well, Mills said, and the Maine Department of Health and Human Services will determine who will care for her. He would not say where Lenore is staying.
Mills declined to say whether Gissentaner has a criminal record. A check of court records in Kennebec County did not bring up any criminal record.
Mills gave no information about the condition of Lenore’s mother, whom he declined to identify. Mills said Lenore’s father lives in Augusta but declined to provide any other information about him.
Police have several guidelines they can use when deciding whether to issue an Amber Alert, including whether law enforcement has reasonable belief that a child has been abducted and whether it’s determined that the child is in imminent danger. Mills said there were conflicting witness statements about Lenore’s well-being.
“Some of the information provided was that the child was safe, and some of the information said that the child was in danger,” he said. “We erred on the side of caution in this case and took some of the information at face value that the child was in imminent danger and asked to activate the alert.”
Once Augusta police decided to issue the alert, Mills said, it was about 15 minutes before it appeared on his cellphone. It was activated by the state police and sent out around 3:25 p.m.
The Augusta Police Department experienced some glitches when it took calls from the public. Mills said more than 400 tips came in, and shortly after the alert went out, the system got overwhelmed and there weren’t enough people to answer the incoming calls. Mills, however, said the majority of the calls weren’t tips with information, but people wondering what the alert on their cellphones was about.
“I learned a bunch of things I can do better going forward,” Mills said. “If this ever happened again, we’d be more prepared to receive so many phone calls.”
The Amber Alert system was created after 9-year-old Amber Hagerman was kidnapped while riding her bicycle in Arlington, Texas, and then murdered in January 1996.
Tuesday’s was only the second Amber Alert ever issued in Maine. The first was in November 2009, when 2-year-old Hailey Traynham was kidnapped by her father and eventually found safe in New Hampshire. The only state that has issued fewer Amber Alerts is Hawaii, according to a spokeswoman for the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.
Through speaking to witnesses and people involved, police have determined most of Lenore’s whereabouts throughout the day Tuesday. Mills said Lenore went a few places, but never left the state. She was discovered “on the outskirts of Augusta” before being brought to the police station.
Mills did not put a time frame on when he expects the investigation to conclude. He did say that he will release more information when a determination on formal charges is made.
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