Ohio AMBER Alert: Nonprofit helps family search for missing 5-month-old boy

By WHIO Staff

DAYTON — Its been over 48 hours since a 5-month-old boy was taken away from his parents.
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Kason Thomas and his suspected kidnapper Nalah Jackson, have yet to be located.

​“Detectives checked hotels and motels throughout the 75 and 70 corridors in Vandalia, Middletown, and Dayton,” Smith Weir, Columbus division of police deputy chief said during a press conference Wednesday.

Michelle McCown-Luster is with the Dock Ellis Foundation which helps look for missing minorities across the country

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​“Sharing posts on social media, making phone calls, we have a 24-hour tip line, answering the tip line, and I’ve been actually driving around searching myself,” she said.

She said she met Kason’s family on Little York Road Wednesday afternoon to help them search the area before the family ended up leaving to search somewhere else.

“Our arms pour out to the mother and father, most definitely. I know how they feel. I watched the pain on my own mother and father’s face but finding that baby is the number one goal,” McCown-Luster said.

​The work is personal. She said her sister has been missing for more than 20 years.

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Columbus police issued a “Be on the Lookout” alert for five neighboring states — Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania.

“Come out, support the family, look at all your surroundings ... just keep your eyes open,” McCown-Luster said.

Investigators have previously said that Jackson has ties to the Miami Valley.

Detectives have followed up on possible leads in Dayton, Riverside, Vandalia, Englewood, New Lebanon, and Middletown without success.

Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to contact Columbus Police Sexual Assault Detective Martin #2235 at 614-645-4701 or central Ohio Crime Stoppers at 614-461-TIPS(8477). You may remain anonymous.