An AMBER Alert was issued late Saturday for two young children believed taken from their Saratoga Springs home by Dane Stephen Richman, 46, after he failed to appear for a custody exchange and a custody deposition with his attorney.
The alert named Wesley Dane Richman, 10 months old, and Will Thomas Richman, one year old. By Sunday morning, the notification had been sent to mobile devices as authorities warned the children may have been abducted and could face serious harm or death.
Officials said the boys had been missing since around noon on May 16. They described the suspect as a white man with brown hair and green eyes, 6 feet 2 inches tall and 195 pounds, and said he may be driving a newer model black Toyota Camry with Utah plate number A561HL and possibly a temporary tag.
The case moved quickly over two days. On Friday, Dane Stephen Richman did not show up for a custody deposition with his attorney. On Saturday, he also failed to drop the children off at a custody exchange. Hours later, the AMBER Alert went out just after 11:30 p.m., a timing that reflected how fast investigators were trying to trace the children after the missed handoff.
Officials said Richman had been seriously depressed, was selling possessions, was facing financial stress and had abandoned his home. That picture of instability was central to the alert, which was issued under Utah’s AMBER Alert criteria because law enforcement believed a child may have been abducted and was in imminent danger of serious harm or death.
The unanswered question now is whether investigators can locate the Camry and the two boys before the gap between the missed exchange and the missing-person timeline becomes something worse. For the family at the center of the search, the alert turned a custody dispute into an urgent race against the clock.
