An Amber Alert was cancelled on Friday afternoon, hours after it was issued for a 14-month-old boy allegedly abducted in western Alberta by his father, who RCMP said is known to police and considered armed and dangerous.
“I don’t have details with respect to whether there was a standoff or negotiation but I can tell you again that we were able to locate and they are both safe,” Staff Sgt. Chris Murphy told reporters late Friday afternoon.
“The investigation is still ongoing. At this point in time, I don’t want to make any assumptions of what he was thinking but I can tell you the investigation will be very comprehensive.”
RCMP cancelled the Amber Alert shortly before 5 p.m. Soon after, police said both the father and his son were found unharmed but that the father was in police custody. They did not say if he was being charged.
“At the end of the day, it was a very long day for everybody involved, including the mother, and we are just very happy that we had the result that we did,” Murphy said.
In an update earlier Friday afternoon, RCMP said the suspect vehicle had returned to the home but the boy and his father were still missing. At the time, police could not confirm whether the two were inside. They would not say whether officers were stationed at the home, how or when the truck was returned to the house. RCMP would not say whether officers were in contact with the alleged abductor.
When asked how the truck returned to the house or what happened when it was found, Murphy did not provide specific details.
“There was numerous investigative steps that occurred right from the moment that we received this complaint, throughout the course of the day, including when the truck was located,” he said.
“I won’t go into the specifics of what those were, but I can tell you that there was numerous investigators from a number of different detachments… so as any information was received, or information was collected, it was immediately actioned and we were able to proceed accordingly.”
RCMP issued the alert at 3:40 a.m., saying the boy was abducted at around 2:30 a.m. in the hamlet of Brule, which is about 20 kilometres west of Hinton on the north bank of the Athabasca River, near Jasper National Park.
Investigators had been looking for 41-year-old Cody Armstrong.
RCMP confirmed the father had a rifle in his possession when he left.
“The Amber Alert was issued because of a concern for the safety of [the boy],” RCMP Cpl. Deanna Fontaine said at the time.
“We believe that he is in danger.”
RCMP said the boy, his mother and father were all in a home together before the abduction happened.
“While there, an altercation took place and Cody left the home with [the boy] and was in possession of a long-barrelled rifle.”
Fontaine said the mother then called police.
RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Laurel Scott also described the parents’ relationship as “fractured.”
She said Cody Armstrong is known to police, however, court records show his only convictions in Alberta — for assault and exceeding the blood/alcohol limit — date back to 2005.
Police had said the father and son were last seen leaving a home in Brule in a pickup truck which was later spotted back at the home.
‘I can’t believe that he would be a danger to anybody’: Brule community president says of Cody Armstrong
Ken Groat is the community president of Brule and has known Cody for years. Groat said Cody grew up in Brule and has held a number of different jobs, including working in the oil patch and at the local mine.
Anyone who knows Cody would be shocked by what’s happening, he said.
“He’s got a lot of good friends in town here that can’t believe it,” Groat said Friday afternoon.
“You never know the circumstances of what happened and I can’t believe that he would be a danger to anybody… I can’t see it. He just doesn’t rub me that way. But you never can tell. A lot of things could be going through his mind that nobody is aware of.
“The Cody I know, you could phone him up and reason with him, but I don’t know his state right now or what’s going on. Everybody goes through issues and obviously something’s really bothering him. You just hope and pray that nothing comes of it, because there’s lots of people involved and little kids. He’s a good father figure though, I’m pretty sure of that.”
Scott said every RCMP detachment in Alberta was aware of the situation and was making the alert a priority. Officers from surrounding detachments flooded the remote area in the Alberta foothills.
Late Friday afternoon, RCMP said they were still getting tips from the public and that Brule was not the sole focus for police as they investigated.
“We’re concerned right at the outset for the safety of this child. Timing can work against us, so we really need to get this little boy returned very quickly,” Scott said at the time.
Brule is a hamlet of about 30 people, according to the 2016 census.
According to the province, police will activate an Amber Alert if all four criteria below have been met:
- A child or an adult with a proven mental or physical disability has been abducted
- The child or adult is in danger of serious harm or death
- There’s enough descriptive information to enable the public to identify the child or adult abductor, or mode of transportation
- There’s a reasonable expectation the abductee could be returned, or the abductor could be apprehended
— With files from Global News’ Caley Ramsay, Phil Heidenreich and Nicole Siemens, and The Canadian Press
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