Amber Alert issued for missing 5-year-old Watkins girl

Alayna Jeanne Ertl is described as having shoulder length sandy blonde hair. She is approximately three feet tall.

Authorities said Alayna was possibly taken by a family friend, 26-year-old Zachary Anderson. She was last seen at 2 a.m. Saturday when she was put to bed at her home in Meeker County in central Minnesota.

He is described as a white man, 5 foot 11 inches tall. He might be wearing a black T-shirt saying Riverside Softball. “He’s 5’11” and weighs 190 pounds with a short scruffy beard.

The Meeker County Sheriff’s Office said Anderson is likely driving a 2002 white GMC Sierra with license plate 107-KMT.

Ertl’s father’s cell phone was inside the truck when it was stolen.

Officials say he was staying overnight at the girl’s home.

The cell phone in the vehicle was last pinged in Todd County at 9 a.m. Six hours later, her mother discovered both Alayna and Anderson gone.

Anyone seeing Anderson or Ertle should not approach them and immediately call the Meeker County Sheriff’s Office at 320-693-5400.