A failed budget amendment from York County Sen. Danny Diggs aimed to secure $200,000 to develop the Virginia Guardian app.
The app would give family members, law enforcement and the public a place to track vital information about missing loved ones and serve as a hub for alerts such as Amber, CODI, Silver and Ashanti notifications. It would also provide a platform for law enforcement updates and community engagement.
York County Commonwealth’s Attorney Krystyn Reid, who drafted the bill with Sen. Diggs, stressed how seconds matter when it comes to missing persons cases. She has seen cases where information didn’t move fast or far enough.
“That’s not something we can accept,” Reid said. “This is about tightening the system, protecting families and making sure when something happens, the response is immediate and unified.”
Reid also partnered with the United Way of the Virginia Peninsula to pursue state funding for the project.
Charvalla West, president and CEO of the United Way of the Virginia Peninsula, told WHRO in an email that even though the amendment failed in the General Assembly, the organization remains steadfast in preventing these emergencies and supporting families before crises occur.
“We will continue to mobilize our community around prevention and readiness, and to advocate for the resources and technologies needed to deliver timely, accurate alerts to citizens across the region,” West wrote.
Kenneth Jarels, president and founder of the AWARE Foundation, a national missing persons organization based in Roanoke, said the app could help fill gaps in current alert systems and serve as a model for the commonwealth if approved.
“I think Virginia could be in the forefront for something even bigger, where other states will see what we’re doing and say, ‘Hey, that looks pretty good. Maybe this is something we should think about here,” Jarels said.
Tara Hourihan is one Virginian who would have benefited from a system like the Guardian app. On April 8, 2011, her husband, Robert Lee Hourihan, went missing. She said he left their home in Palmyra that morning, driving to his job in Richmond. But she later discovered her husband stopped at E.W. Thomas Grocery Store to meet an acquaintance and then vanished.
On May 28, 2011, law enforcement found his white 2004 Chevrolet Cavalier in a Target parking lot in La Plata, Maryland. No one has seen or heard from him since.
“It just feels like a part of your heart gets ripped out of your chest,” Hourihan said.
She has had to raise their 6-year-old daughter on her own and said the last 15 years have been “hell,” especially without answers, closure or justice.
According to Virginia State Police, there were 8,753 missing person cases reported in 2024, with 54 people still unaccounted for. In 2025, there were fewer reported cases — 7,849 — of which 95 remain unresolved.
Matthew Demlein, a spokesperson for Virginia State Police, could not comment on the guardian app legislation but said the more information released to the public, the better the chances of finding missing loved ones.
“It helps to get more eyes out there and can help find people faster,” Demlein said.
For Hourihan, anything that can be done should be done to help families going through what she experienced. The Guardian app could be part of the solution.
“We’re desperate, and to live with this day in and day out is just unbearable,” she said.