Amber Alert canceled after Monroe County family found safe

A Monroe County AMBER Alert ended Saturday night after investigators said a mother and her two children were found safe, closing a fast-moving search that spread across Western New York, Central New York and the Southern Tier.

The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office said 54-year-old Mouna Omar Saleh Ali, 9-year-old Hafiz Mouna Ali Ali and 7-year-old Julie Abdulla Saleh were recovered after the alert was canceled around 10:15 p.m. Saturday. Investigators identified the suspected abductor as 26-year-old Amar Abdullah Qasim Saleh, the children’s brother and Mouna’s son.

The abduction was reported around 3 p.m. Saturday from a home in the Perinton and Fairport area near Crossover Road. Other local coverage said the family was last seen about 3:19 p.m. near that road, a narrow window that showed how quickly law enforcement moved from the initial report to a statewide warning. Police said the suspect may have been driving a 2026 white or light-silver vehicle, possibly a Toyota Camry or Honda Accord.

Authorities said the incident was isolated and there was no indication of a threat to the public. Even so, the alert traveled through the systems designed for the most serious child-abduction cases, reaching residents by radio, television, highway signs, cellphones and other data-enabled channels. That broad distribution is the core of the AMBER Alert model, which was launched in 1996 as a voluntary partnership between law enforcement, broadcasters and others meant to pull the public into the search immediately.

The cancellation matters as much as the alert itself. When officers stand down an AMBER Alert, they are telling the public the urgent search has reached its intended end point: the victims are accounted for and the immediate danger has passed. In this case, that message came the same night the alert was issued, after a search that moved rapidly across county and regional lines.

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children said AMBER Alerts had helped recover 1,312 children as of Dec. 31, 2025, including at least 252 recoveries tied to Wireless Emergency Alerts. In Monroe County, the same system that pushed a warning to millions also delivered the final update that the family had been found safe.