The eight hours it took Prince George’s County police to issue a regionwide alert for a boy’s abduction could have cost the 4-year-old his life, child advocates told The Examiner.

Jose Benjamin Mejia was snatched from his Fort Washington home around 11 p.m. Wednesday, his mother was tied up, and his father, who was tending to his gas station business, received a call from Mejia’s captors demanding money.