Amber Alert Remains for 5 Boys Missing from New Mexico Youth Camp (UPDATE: Alert Canceled; All Boys Safe)

Story by the Associated Press; curated by Dave Urbanski

UPDATE, 8:44 p.m. EST: An Amber Alert was canceled Sunday for five teenage boys who authorities reported missing from a rural New Mexico ranch for troubled youth along with others before the weekend, officials said.

The boys, ages 13-17, all were physically accounted for Sunday, New Mexico State Police said.

Original story below.

HILLSBORO, N.M. (AP) — An Amber Alert remains in effect Sunday for five teenage boys reported missing from a rural New Mexico ranch for troubled youth.

New Mexico state police have said four other boys they were searching for are back with their parents.

Authorities say they think the five boys are in danger, while an attorney for the ranch says all are safely with their parents.

A spokesman for the State Children, Youth and Families Department said Sunday that the agency can't take the attorney's word on the teenagers. Henry Varela says authorities won't consider the boys safe until they see them.

(Credit: KRQE-TV)

Authorities were executing a search warrant at the Tierra Blanca High Country Youth Program near Hillsboro last week when they discovered the teens weren't there. Authorities are investigating claims of abuse at the ranch.

Program operators had been ordered to send the kids back to their parents or surrender them to the state after staff members were accused of beating and shackling students.

Ranch attorney Pete Domenici Jr. said in a statement Saturday night that all the teens have been with their parents for some time, and that parents are trying to get their children off of the alert, reports KRQE-TV in Albuquerque.

"I'm hearing statements from state representatives, officials, that they are concerned about the safety of those children," Domenici tells KRQE. "If that is true, why have they not reached out and accommodated these parents to get the information they need and get those children off the Amber list?"

Domenici said the teens' parents have tried to cooperate with state officials and claims the state has not made it easy for them, reports KRQE.

On Friday evening Domenici said all nine boys had been “on a previously scheduled activity away from the ranch for several days. They are safe and have already been picked up by their parents, or their parents are en route to pick them up.”

Domenici accused the state of escalating the situation by failing to agree to an emergency hearing in a lawsuit the ranch filed earlier this week over what the suit contends was an improperly handled investigation; KRQE adds that part of that lawsuit contends parents have been verbally bullied and threatened by state child welfare representatives.

Two weeks ago the Albuquerque Journal reported state authorities were investigating claims that teenage boys were beaten and forced to wear leg shackles and handcuffs for minor violations of rules at the unlicensed program.

The operators of the ranch, Scott and Collette Chandler, deny any children have been harmed. And they filed a lawsuit last week accusing investigators of targeting the ranch for closure following a fatal car crash involving students.

Scott Chandler (Credit: KRQE)

The operators also claimed investigators have been illegally interviewing students and telling parents to pull their children from the program by Friday or face abuse charges. Their lawsuit said at least one family was contacted directly by Gov. Susana Martinez, a claim her office denies.

The Chandlers had traveled to Albuquerque on Thursday with two graduates of their program for a news conference to dispute the abuse allegations.

“I’ve never seen anyone beaten,” said Kevin Finch, now a freshman at Western New Mexico University. “The accusations are downright lies.”

Another graduate, Jon Cowen, said the program “turned my life around 180 degrees.”

Chandler said Tierra Blanca has been operating for nearly 20 years. Its website promises a program for unmanageable kids that offers a balance of love, discipline and structure.

Here's a report from KRQE-TV:

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