COLLIERVILLE, Tenn. — A Collierville alert system brought out hundreds of concerned people Tuesday night after they received word of a missing 6-year-old girl. Thankfully the child was found, safe and unharmed.
The support was overwhelming.
News of missing 6-year-old Nakaylah Doddridge brought out concerned citizens in droves. Some saw the news on social media; others were notified by Alert Collierville.
Johnson Park was full of volunteers after they got the alert on their home phones and on their cellphones.
“It basically will call and text anyone that’s on the 911 database in Collierville,” said Mark Heuberger with the town of Collierville.
Heuberger said Alert Collierville was initially purchased three years ago as a reverse 911 system to notify the community of potentially dangerous weather, but the town realized it can be used other ways, too.
“It automatically has all of the landlines in Collierville built into it.”
If you want to get text alerts, you can sign up through the city’s website. Sally Wanzer got the alert on her landline.
“I couldn’t get out, but it allowed me to sit and pray for the finding of this little girl,” Wanzer said.
WREG talked to little Nakaylah’s relieved and grateful mother Wednesday.
She said contrary to what we were initially told by officials, she was never playing in Johnson Park with her daughter. Nakaylah was actually playing just feet from her home, which is close to some woods in the park.
She said Nakaylah ended up going home with another child she knew, without notifying her mother.
Nakaylah’s mother said this was a scary lesson, and she’s overwhelmed by the support of total strangers.
The town of Collierville said they learned from this, too.
“It was a very good real, live scenario for us all to go through,” Heuberger said. “We learned something from it.”