Murder of Hailey Owens

Hailey Owens (August 18, 2003 – February 18, 2014) was a 10-year-old American girl from Springfield, Missouri, who was abducted, sexually assaulted and murdered by 45-year-old Craig Wood on February 18, 2014. The killing caught attention nationally. Thousands of people attended a candlelight vigil for Hailey on February 23, 2014. A neighborhood park was later dedicated to her called Hailey's Playground. Her family and friends also advocated for improvements to the state's AMBER Alert system, ultimately leading to the 2019 passage of HAILEY'S Law, which empowers law enforcement officers to issue alerts quicker and to include a URL with each AMBER alert.