There is a concern among law enforcement about "crying wolf" with an Amber Alert. In past child abductions, some broadcasters have been highly critical of activating an Amber Alert.

"The public demands that we don't use the Amber Alert freely," Murphy said. "If they issued it every time a child is missing, it won't have the same effect."

In hindsight, some in law enforcement wish the alert had gone out sooner but concede that other possibilities (such as a runaway) had to be eliminated first. It is unknown if it would have saved Moo.

Meanwhile, the Utah Attorney General's Office will look at expanding the reach of the Amber Alert.

"In this case, they had the flier printed in Burmese. That's something we haven't considered before," Murphy said. "We've talked somewhat about reaching out to the Spanish community. We need to do a better job in reaching out and contacting those (ethnic) communities."

The CART team's first-ever activation is being considered a success.

The team is made up of federal and state law enforcement officers with expertise in fields ranging from forensics and Internet crimes to probation agents who track sex offenders.

"Everything that you would possibly need that has expertise in locating a missing child is compiled in this one team," Farnsworth said Wednesday. "If we have all of the personnel that has the experiences we need, we're not wasting time and we can immediately start on our investigation and assisting the law enforcement that is requesting us."

Farnsworth said she would wait until the team went through a debriefing before saying what could be improved, but initially said they could use more clerical help.

Some of the hundreds of volunteers who turned out to search for Moo were critical of how long it took to get through a Justice Department-required background check before they could get out to look for the little girl. Addressing problems coordinating volunteer searchers, Snyder admitted it "wasn't a perfect thing," but once everything was in place and got rolling, it went "pretty well," he said.

Volunteers are a welcome part of the search for a missing child, Farnsworth said, but law enforcement needs to take precautions to make sure they are safe and aren't interfering with a criminal investigation.

"As I was driving around, I would watch people with their families. They were going door-to-door," she said. "That frees up law enforcement from having to get out the word. I'm sure in some sense, it probably comforts the family to see so many people care."

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Contributing: Pat Reavy
E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com