Two children reported missing to the Knox Police Department were found safe in Porter County after detectives spent much of the day and overnight hours tracking their whereabouts, according to police. The recovery capped a search that pulled in law enforcement from across Northwest Indiana and stretched well beyond the small Starke County city where it began.
Knox Police Department detectives investigated the children's whereabouts for much of the day and throughout the night, as reported by WSBT. The department worked alongside the Starke County Sheriff's Office, Porter County law enforcement, and police departments in Kouts, Hebron, and Gary, with additional support from Lake County agencies. That kind of cross-jurisdictional push reflects how searches originating in Knox, population around 3,480 as of 2024, often depend on partners in far larger neighboring counties — Porter County alone had an estimated 176,000 residents in 2025, according to USAFacts.
The search also drew in resources closer to home. Knox Police worked with the Knox Community School Corporation's IT department, teachers, and staff members, while citizens volunteered their time searching areas where the children could have been, per the station's report. The school corporation maintains its own campus police department alongside its IT staff specifically to support safety and emergency response planning, according to the Knox Community School Corporation handbook.
Police Push Back on Social Media Criticism
As the search stretched on, Knox Police Department officials addressed comments suggesting officers were not actively searching for the children, the same account notes. Chief Chad Dulin defended the department against that criticism in a statement, emphasizing that actively investigating and safely locating missing individuals takes priority over releasing public updates, according to a post on Local Police, Fire and EMS Scanner Feed. Missing-person investigations of this kind typically include interviews, residence checks, reviews of information, phone calls, coordination with schools, communication with other agencies, lead tracking, and coordination of investigative resources, per WSBT's reporting — work that frequently happens out of public view even as online frustration builds over a lack of real-time updates.
Why an AMBER Alert Wasn't Issued
The case did not trigger a statewide AMBER Alert, a gap that can confuse residents expecting an immediate broadcast whenever a child goes missing. Under Indiana State Police policy, an AMBER Alert is issued only when a child is under 18, is confirmed or strongly believed to have been abducted, and is in imminent danger of serious bodily harm or death, and when there is enough descriptive information for a useful broadcast and the law enforcement agency with jurisdiction recommends an alert, according to IN.gov. Indiana lawmakers expanded a separate alert option this year: House Bill 1303, passed in February 2026, broadened Silver Alert criteria built on existing state law allowing alerts for missing endangered children with cognitive or physical disabilities that prevent them from returning home unassisted, per the Indiana General Assembly. Behind both alert systems sits the Indiana State Police's Clearinghouse for Information on Missing Children and Missing Endangered Adults, a 24/7 repository that coordinates missing juvenile reports between local police, school corporations, and state databases.
A Pattern of Regional Cooperation
This was not the first time Starke County agencies have leaned on neighbors and federal partners during a high-stakes juvenile search. In February 2026, local deputies, federal task forces, and neighboring departments safely recovered a missing boy during an operation in North Judson, according to GIANT FM. The outcome in Porter County also fits into the broader national picture: more than 29,000 missing children were reported to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in 2024, according to NCMEC.
