Family of Fort Hood soldier who went missing wants 'Warrior Alert' law

FORT HOOD - The family of a Fort Hood soldier who was missing for more than three weeks before he was found dead on post wants a version of the Amber Alert law, called a "Warrior Alert," when soldiers go missing.

Pvt. Dakota Stump's mother, Patrice Wise, started an online petition on Nov. 14 called "Dakota's Law."

Its aim is to "change Standard Operating Procedures on how Law Enforcement and Military handle situations when our Veterans and Active Duty Members go missing."

"I have no ulterior motive except to stop another soldier or family from having to go through what I'm probably going to have to go through for the rest of my life," Wise said.

Stump went missing Oct. 10. Soldiers conducting land-navigation training found his body 24 days later next to his flipped over vehicle near building 43028 on Fort Hood.

Law enforcement officials believe that Stump's car veered off the road into the parallel wooded area and then rolled over multiple times.
Stump's family maintains that law enforcement and the military assumed he was AWOL.

The petition lays out seven bullet points the family wants included in the law.

1. Open lines of communication and Free Flow of Information with Next of Kin/Point of Contact.

2. No time limit or restriction of Jurisdiction to file Missing Persons Report.

3. All video surveillance that is available from any and all areas, regardless of location will be made available to investigators immediately, and will be made priority by said investigators to review.

4. Tracking bank account activity and pinging of and/or remotely turning on the cell phone to ping it immediately after the Missing Persons report is filed with no required warrant or paperwork.

5. Regardless of reason for individual being missing Law Enforcement and Military Officials should make every possible effort to locate individual ASAP.

6. Specialized Search and Rescue units (with specialized training and clearance) will be dispatched at or before 0800 the day after the Missing Persons Report is filed and will be afforded every privilege and access to search every area that may be pertinent to the investigation regardless of location.

7. A special Alert aptly named -A Warrior Alert- will be initiated upon the filing of the Missing Persons Report. The parameters will be similar to that of the Amber alert.

The petition is targeted at Vice President-elect Mike Pence's chief of staff. Pence is currently the Indiana governor, where Stump's family lives.

As of Nov. 22, the petition had more than 2,000 signatures.

Channel 6 reached out to Fort Hood about the petition and was told "it would be inappropriate for us to comment on a request for proposed legislation."