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- We start with breaking news, - An Amber Alert.
There is an Amber Alert.
- An Amber Alert. - Two 15 year old boys.
- An Amber Alert has been issued...
- Look mama, I made this for you.
- Dear Mom, this is for you.
I love you a lot. Love Amber.
- Well, my daughter worries a lot,
but I told her everything will be okay.
- This was every parent's nightmare.
- At that particular time, everybody is a suspect.
We're both innocent.
I mean, there's no reason for us to harm our child.
- This individual may have committed this crime before.
Who is in our circle?
Who's around Amber all the time?
- I immediately thought, oh, my gosh,
she was targeted.
- We interrupt this program to bring you
the following News 8 Special Report.
- We feel that this tentatively is going to be
the body of Amber Hagerman.
- The suspect was familiar with not only the abduction site
but the disposal site as well.
- We followed thousands of leads.
What's your name again?
- Not just hundreds, but thousands.
- I believe there are people out there
who know what happened.
- It would mean a lot to be able to give
Donna and Ricky the answer to who killed Amber.
- This is an activation of the Amber Alert system.
- Every time I hear a Amber Alert,
I say to myself, it's time to go to work, Sis.
Do your thing.
- Everybody knows the Amber Alert.
I want the world to know who Amber was.
**
- I believe this will be my last interview.
I'm tired of being sad.
I'm broken because my daughter's not here.
Normally I don't have a lot of this out.
I normally keep it in plastic totes,
just to keep it safe
and not to get torn up or anything.
Everybody knows the Amber Alert and what it's used for.
I want the world to know who Amber was.
She was my dream. She was my everything.
This dress here is, uh, Amber's dress
that she wore on her ninth birthday.
And I just couldn't seem to give it away.
Special memories, and happy memories for Amber.
* Happy birthday to you *
No, no, never, ever.
I just assumed that he would get caught real quick
and it would be done and over with
but it didn't happen that way, so...
- We started shooting video with
Donna, Amber, and Ricky in August of 1995.
There are probably between 200 and 300 tapes
and hundreds of hours of video.
I don't know that I have a good answer as to why
I've held on to 'em for 25 years.
I think that when you look back on your life
there are a few life-changing moments.
I already knew that this was one of them.
The fact that we had her alive
and people could see her,
usually that doesn't happen in a tragedy like this.
Then we become an important aspect of that story
in deciding whether we were going to release
some of the footage that we had
which was exclusive footage.
Come on.
Richard, please don't.
- At the time I was a single mom with two children,
and I was on welfare.
They asked me if I wanted to be in the documentary
and the documentary is about how women get off welfare.
Let mommy see, Amber.
Oh, you're going to have to color that.
That's pretty. Look.
Happy Halloween. When is Halloween?
Do y'all know when Halloween is?
- What's that? - Um, October 31st...
- Well, they found me at a women's shelter.
- A lot of us who were working moms
felt like that we weren't doing enough stories
about what families were facing
and how to make things better.
We wanted to have someone who fit the national profile,
which was a single mom with two children.
And it was really hard to find somebody
who was willing to do that,
and willing to share their lives.
And I was just about to give up
when I got a call from one-one of my contacts
who said, I think I have somebody for you.
- I had to think about it for a little bit.
But maybe I could help other moms
in the same situation I was in
and get them on their feet like I was getting--
trying to get on my feet.
When I was 18, I found out I was pregnant.
I was terrified and scared.
I waited 'til she was born, and then I seen
her pretty little face, and that's Amber.
I thought Amber was a really pretty name,
and it just fit her pretty little face.
- I just did a lot of walking in the neighborhood,
with my friends, my girlfriends,
and he was out in the yard,
and we just started talking,
and next thing I knew, we were together.
'Course he was a lot older than me.
He was like 34.
I basically grew up with him.
Then four years later, I got pregnant with Ricky.
It was wonderful. It was awesome.
Amber said, this is my baby, Mommy.
I said, okay, it could be your baby.
So she just kind of put her baby brother under her wing,
and that's where he stayed.
I was living with her father
until Amber was about seven.
Ricky was about two, three.
That's when he really started drinking a lot.
Her father was physically abusive to me.
He never abused my children.
He was just really mean when he was drinking.
He used to go out and hang out
with his friend, Mike Thompson,
and they would party and drink together.
And then he'll come home or--
And then he'll drink more, and get drunk more.
So the neighbors would always call the police
because of the noise.
And the police would always come.
And the police-- the last time the police said,
if we come back here again,
we will take your children from you.
And that's all I had to hear.
- You want some fruit, Richard?
You want some fruit?
- I knew my kids need to be safe.
I just took personal things and just left
and never went back.
And we stayed in my car for like two days
in the parking lot.
I couldn't go to my parents because he would find us there,
and so we just kind of hid out in my car for two days.
And then we went to the women's shelter
and stayed there for about six weeks.
And they helped me get an a-apartment
and get on welfare
and help me get back on my feet.
We were still scared.
And every little sound or every little door knock
we would jump to the ceiling
because we didn't know if he found out
where we stayed at or whatever.
And it took almost a good year before
we could actually live life again
and be happy again.
- They're having a skating party for school
and that's gonna be $3 apiece.
I can't do that.
So they're a little upset about that, you know,
but I tell them we'll save money
and next time you can go.
- You always have such a positive attitude
no matter how much money you've got in your pocket.
You always tell me you're not worried,
- it'll be okay. - Yeah.
How do you do that?
- It's depressing sometimes but I try not to show it,
especially in front of my kids.
I don't want them to worry.
I was going to school.
I was volunteering at the food stamp office,
and-and my kids were going to school
and they were happy.
- That's actually asking a lot for somebody
to be that open with us
and to share all the hurdles,
the ups and downs and frustrations
and the trials and tribulations that they go to
for people to have a better understanding
of what being in that situation is like.
And so it was a journey that I couldn't have predicted.
I couldn't have known what would happen.
- My daughter worries a lot.
She thinks we are going to run out of money,
don't have no money for this or that.
But I told her everything will be okay.
We'll never starve.
We'll always eat.
- Richard tried so many times for me
to come back and move back in with him.
And I said, no, I cannot.
Because I know what's going to happen.
If I do that, you'll just go right back
to the way you were.
Slowly I let Richard come back into the kids' lives.
Because that-that is their father
and like it or not, that's--
I had to for my kids.
Amber was still a little leery of him.
She was still a little scared that maybe
he will get drunk again.
But eventually that kind of faded away as well.
And they were okay together.
* Happy birthday to you *
* Happy birthday *
- On her ninth birthday, she had all her friends,
and had birthday cake and ice cream.
Make a wish and blow it out, baby.
All right, whoo!
Oh, boy!
- She was just bright-eyed and wide-eyed,
and mouth open like, yay.
- Oh! - Look, sheets for your bed.
- Donna's motivation was that she wanted
to make things better for her kids.
She was very open with us,
and we were part of their family for months.
And you felt like they were just part of mine, too.
- The party's over! - The party's over?
[chuckling]
She's a funny little girl.
She's takes after her grandpa with that.
Um, she always wants to be silly.
Very smart, fun-loving little girl.
- Saturday is our family day,
so we decided we wanted to go to Castle Park
and we played there for a couple hours
and then they wanted to come back here
to granny and pawpaw's house.
It was really nice, warm winter days
that were gorgeous days.
Sun shining and everybody was out and about.
They decided they wanted to ride their bicycles
and I told them it'd be fine
and so once we got here, they run up to the driveway
and said hi to their pawpaw.
And they got on their bicycles
and went towards Claudia Street.
- Me being the little brother, I'm gonna follow her
wherever she goes.
We would always ride our bikes around the neighborhood,
and we did it very often,
so I memorized the neighborhood.
- And I hollered at them and said,
well, y'all stay together and y'all come right back.
And Amber turns around and she looks at me,
okay Mommy, we will.
And that was my last time seeing her
**
- That day we went to visit our grandparents
and, uh, every time we go over there
we-we ride our bikes.
We would always ride around the block
and come back around to Highland,
but that day we took a left
where we weren't supposed to go.
We went to a, uh, abandoned parking lot
that had a little, uh, ramp that we can ride down.
We were not allowed to go to that parking lot
without someone with us.
But you know, kids, we don't always listen, so...
Something came over me.
I got afraid to get in trouble.
So, uh, I was telling my sister, Amber,
let's-let's go back home. Let's go back home.
She was like, "I'll be right behind you,
"just go ahead."
So, I took off.
And by the time I got home,
I noticed she wasn't behind me.
And my grandfather was outside in the garage working.
He asked me where my sister was
and so I told him, "Oh, she's over there at the ramps."
He, uh, grabbed me and put me in the truck
and we went to go look for her.
We just found her bike laying there.
And, uh...
that's where it kinda gets a little hazy.
- There was a witness to this,
his name was Jimmie Kevil. He was 78 years old.
He lived there on Ruth Street.
He described the suspect as a non-African American male,
less than six feet tall
with medium build
and clearly of sufficient strength
that he was able to pick Amber up off of the bicycle.
Amber's feet never hit the ground.
Kevil also said that he just drove
at what appeared to be
a normal speed across the parking lot.
The patrol officer pulled into the parking lot
because that's where Jimmie Kevil said
that the offense took place.
But as it turns out Jimmy Whitson was there.
He's come up there to get his granddaughter, Amber.
And there's nothing there but Amber's bicycle.
So, you've got what Jimmie Kevil told 911
and you've got what Jimmy Whitson
told the patrol officer.
The patrol officer realizes that we've got a problem here.
- I'll never forget it, telling my mom.
Mom...
My mom coming out the door
expecting all of us to-to be together
and my grandpa telling my mom that...
that her baby girl is gone,
and...
and then she lost it.
- So I immediately started running
and screaming her name,
going towards where she was last seen at.
I was just screaming and crying
and screaming and crying her name, "Amber! Amber!
"Where are you?" You know?
And a few minutes later,
the neighbors were coming outside,
wanting to know what was going on.
I immediately called Amber's father
at his best friend, Mike Thompson's home.
I'm at home on a Saturday.
It was my day off and the telephone rang
and it was dispatch.
There was a possible child abduction
on East Abram Street in Arlington.
My mind just goes into overdrive.
Is there a family member
that's come and picked up the child?
Is there a custody issue?
Is it someone that's known to the child,
that has come and-and taken them?
That used to be a grocery store,
and the trucks would pull in and back in.
They'd deliver into the grocery store,
and then of course the ramp was for the workers
to go up and down.
Mr. Kevil lived in this residence right here.
He was in the backyard doing some yard work
and then he heard a young girl scream.
He noticed the pickup truck stopped
right there in that area,
the driver get out of the truck
and grab the girl off her bicycle.
He exited out the north side of the parking lot
and then turned to the west.
The interesting thing about going back to the west
is it's back toward town and it's more congested.
The speculation was that there was a specific place
back to the west.
If he was from out of town,
I think he would have gone to the east
and accessed off of 360 to I-30 or I-20.
- I got a call from my husband,
and he said, "Donna's looking for you.
"She says she needs your help."
So I called her at Jimmy and Glenda's house,
the grandparents' house.
And I said, Donna, what's going on?
She goes, Amber's been taken.
And my heart just sunk.
I said, Okay, I will be right there.
- My main focus was to find my baby.
I wanted to go look for her. I wanted to go.
But my parents are saying, "No, you have to stay here.
"You need to be here if she comes home."
Not too long after that,
Richard showed up at my mother's house.
- There's a lot of things moving
in the first 15 minutes of the investigation.
At the abduction site, one of the things you do
is you take stock and look around
to see what all is there,
and also specifically what isn't there.
Where that truck was sitting,
if there was any dirt that would hold a tire impression,
if the guy had smoked a cigarette,
or anything. There was none of that.
- We looked around the area,
and we noticed that there was a laundromat there
and that there were people coming and going
from the laundromat.
- On the west side of the laundromat,
which is where she was abducted from,
there are no windows,
so no one in the laundromat could see anything
that was going on.
Jimmie Kevil by far, where he was standing,
had the best vantage point.
There's no sense in everybody sitting around
that parking lot because she's not there.
- Once the call went out over the radio
that we had a child that had been abducted,
I started going all over the area,
looking for the suspect vehicle,
which was a black single cab pickup truck.
I did pull over a few black pickup trucks
in hopes that I would be able to find the suspect
and find Amber.
- In Texas, pickup trucks are everywhere.
Black pickup trucks,
you don't really realize how many of them there are
until you start looking for them.
They're everywhere.
It helps narrow things down but not much.
When you look at that area of town,
as he goes west on Abram Street,
there's a number of places where he can
get off either into a residential neighborhood
on the south side,
or one of these light industrial areas
on the north side.
- The Browning-Abram area of Arlington, Texas,
it's an area of town where people have owned their homes
sometimes for 30, 40, 50 years,
and so you have a very established group of people
that are living there.
I would not describe it as a high crime area
or a high-risk area necessarily.
- This type of abduction in Arlington
is almost unheard of.
The problem it creates for law enforcement
is you've got to be able to get it off the ground
in a rapid but deliberate manner.
There's not much room for error here.
So I got there,
and I started going under the tape,
and of course the police were like,
"What are you doing?" They had to go ask Donna.
She goes, "No, I want her to come in."
And they were all looking at each other,
"Why is this reporter just walking into the house
"like she knows these people?"
But I did. Uh, I knew them.
I'd been living their lives with them.
We just kept documenting what was happening
and being with the family
and really showing their side of the story.
- On that day, once all the police were involved,
everyone asking me, "Did you see anything?
"Did you see anybody?
"It's very important that, you know,
"if you did see anybody, anything just tell me,
"so we can do something about it."
And I didn't have an answer.
I didn't see anybody.
- If we had only been able to get that word out immediately
then maybe somebody on that street
where he turned would have seen him immediately.
- Amber was abducted at about 3:20 in the afternoon.
Somewhere around 4:30, the police department
contacted the various media outlets
and was trying to get them there.
But what I truly wish
is that there would have been a method
that we could have got more information out faster.
- I remember I was in shorts and a T-shirt.
On January 13, even for Texas, that's not common.
It was unseasonably warm.
And I remember being at home and got a call.
They said we had a witness saw a girl get abducted.
I said, "I'm on my way."
I drove down the streets
of this little residential neighborhood
and I could already see all these TV vans
just lined up and I remember thinking,
"Oh, my God, this is what they mean
"when they say 'media circus.'"
- Statistics show that in 74% of the cases
where an abducted child is murdered,
they're killed within the first three hours.
So time is of the essence
and getting that information out
to the public is just critical.
This was the '90s.
The fastest way that you were going to get out information
would be the 6 o'clock news.
And so, of course, there was a lag time.
It doesn't sound like
someone that the little girl knew,
or someone that she was going with voluntarily.
- We set up a command post out by the residence
at her grandparents' house.
The media was responding, huge response.
I mean, every station as far as they could get
had Live trucks there.
One of the things we were doing
is we're trying to keep track
of who was coming to the house,
who was coming to the door,
who knew Donna, Richard and their family,
and what their relationship was.
- The police were asking me, you know,
who is in my-- in our circle,
you know, who's around us,
who's around Amber all the time?
Who's around Ricky all the time?
And so, that's when we thought about Pam,
and I was telling them about Pam Curry
and the documentary.
- This is my 1st grade group picture
and these are my friends and Ms. Riley.
- Look, what's that thing that goes on it?
- We had footage of this little girl alive
not some grainy picture that we were gonna slap up.
And back then, that's what you did
in a tragic news story like this.
That's all the family had to rely on
is to throw up a still picture.
We put together a clip reel
of some of the best identifiable footage
that I had from shooting the documentary.
- It was heart-wrenching, the video was.
I mean it was her blowing out the candles
of her birthday cake.
It was her mom putting her to bed.
It was her playing Ring Around the Rosie
out in the yard with her friends
at her birthday party.
It was her going to school.
I mean, it made her such a person.
I read, um, 89 books.
89?
- I immediately thought, "Oh, my gosh, this is it.
"Someone saw that on TV and that she was targeted.
"You know, they'd seen her on TV."
And they said, "None of it's aired.
"Not one bit of it has aired."
- On the day that Amber was kidnapped,
we had finished the welfare documentary,
and it was gonna be airing the next week.
- Fairy stories. - Fairy tales.
Fairy tales.
- I mean this just touched everyone's heart
and I thought this is the absolute best break
we could possibly get.
Because everyone's going to remember this now.
I won't say it threw us,
but it was something that was highly unusual.
We had never been on a case where somebody had already had
a television crew following them around
taking footage of it.
And we used that footage not only to try
and give people an idea of what Amber looked like,
but also the idea of who Amber was.
- Having the footage of Amber
really showed the community
the person they needed to track down
if they see the black pickup truck
and here's what she looks like
and her mannerisms.
- That made a tremendous impact
on the community.
- Eventually there were just cameras everywhere.
Everywhere I turned there was a camera in my face.
Don't hurt my baby. Please.
She's just an innocent child.
Please. Please bring her home safe.
Please.
- If anybody out there's seen anything,
call the police, tell them, let them know.
- I was on every camera I could find
begging, "Please, let my little girl go."
You know, she's smart.
She could find her way home, just let her go.
I didn't eat, I couldn't sleep,
I couldn't do anything but watch the TV,
beg for him to let her come back home.
- Just waiting for her to come in the door
any minute now, which is hard.
- It was just a lot of sitting and waiting
and just gut-wrenching.
It was a helplessness, a hopeful still.
But she couldn't do anything but just be there.
What started out as a welfare documentary
that was really focused on Donna and Amber and Ricky,
turned into a real true-crime documentary.
- We started getting tips and leads on Amber's abduction
almost immediately.
As soon as it hit the news,
people started calling in with leads.
What's your name again?
- We never anticipated the number of leads
and calls from the general public
that we were going to get.
- And then they were also talking to anybody
who they considered to be, you know,
involved with the family,
which included me and my photographers.
- The people from the television affiliate,
they had quite a bit of footage of her, and of course,
one of the things you've got to do
in any investigation is find out who they are
because at that particular time everybody is a suspect.
- It was still a little intimidating
that you had to go through that.
But you wanted to do what you could to help.
- We identified who they were
and interviewed several of them.
There was no question in our mind
that whoever took her had nothing to do
with that television crew.
I am hopeful.
I pray all the time that the little girl won't be hurt.
That's all we got to live on right now is prayer.
- I have a five-year-old and a 20-month-old
and I just-- I can't imagine it.
- I think she's probably really, really scared.
I'm just sitting tight.
I don't know what to do.
You know, I want to help and I want to go get her
but I can't get her.
You know, I don't know where she's at.
- It was like, I think, you know,
two or three weeks prior to
but we didn't get along at that time
so we did mostly just phone conversations.
- I met Richard that night when Amber was kidnapped.
It was a little bit of a tense situation
because he didn't know what I was doing.
He was a little leery of that, as I'm sure anybody would be
but we just kept doing what we'd been doing
for so many months.
- No, no. It-it wasn't abusive.
You know, I may have yelled.
I may have yelled in the past,
but my dad yelled at me and he yelled a-at my mom.
That's two people trying to work something out.
- One of the things that is critical
in the opening phases of the investigation
is to try and establish the family dynamics.
Amber's gone but we don't know who took her.
- Richard and I, at the time, we were battling
and we were not getting along.
And he was angry with me for leaving him.
- Nowadays standards, an argument is-is violence.
And that's not-- to me, that's not true.
An argument's an argument.
- All of these investigative things
come into play.
It's not a very kind world to live in.
The dad's out of the picture, where was he?
Who does he know?
You have to just suspect anything
**
We're both innocent.
I mean, there's no reason for us to harm our child.
We want our child back. We want our child found.
- Friends and family continue to post notices
and seek clues in the search for Amber.
- We're more upset because there's nothing we can do.
Nobody knows anything. That's the thing.
We can't do anything. You don't know where to look.
- Day three, we did not have an individual identified.
Of course, in any investigation like this
you start at the core and work out.
- Less than one percent of child abduction cases
in the United States, are stranger abductions,
children who are taken by someone that they do not know.
The majority of the cases in this country
are family abductions.
- We're trying to identify Richard's movements
for January the 13th.
He told us that-- in the afternoon
that he went down to the mini warehouse,
going to one of the stalls.
- And we got him on surveillance video
not a care in the world,
no idea that anything amiss had happened
but we went down to the mini warehouse
and searched it anyway
and of course there was nothing there.
- So without a doubt, we were able to
eliminate Richard as a suspect,
because of him being on video at another location,
and he physically could not have been at the location
to abduct his daughter.
- For a split second, I did think
Richard might have had something to do with it.
Once Richard got there, when I seen him face-to-face
and how much shock he was in that Amber was taken
and how confused he was, how can this happen,
and I knew right then and there
that he had nothing to do with it.
- I will say this for him, that when he was interviewed
he bared his soul.
I mean he just, anything we asked he told us
because he didn't want us wasting time on that.
And the best way to get away from that
is to tell us anything and everything we need to know.
- Amber, baby, if you're seeing me,
if you hear Daddy, we love you,
Mommy loves you. Miss you,
we need you-- need you to come home.
- I remember thinking that that must have been
so hard for her.
Given that theirs had not been, from what she told me,
an amicable parting.
And so I think she just kept focused on
what needed to be done.
And she didn't really let any of that get in her way.
I did love him at one point
and he is the father of my two children.
I think he knew in his mind that he--
he should be there
and he should help support me a-and Ricky.
- It's very typical for law enforcement
to immediately interview the family
after a child abduction case.
And then quickly eliminate them and then work on other people
that may have had some sort of interaction
with the child.
- Even though you have every indication,
at least initially that this was a stranger abduction,
it doesn't mean that you can just walk away
from other potential leads.
- One of the other things that we look at
is the friends of the family.
In this case there was a man named Mike Thompson.
- There were people that immediately
voiced suspicion about him
when they heard what had happened
that there might be some involvement there.
- We're going to take Mr. Thompson with us for a while
and we're going to talk to him some more.
- Mike Thompson was frequently part--
part of kind of the family outings
and things like that.
He kind of held himself out to be a family spokesperson
if needed.
- You're here and you're not hearing anything.
It's frustrating and for Donna it's more frustrating
than to the rest of us.
- Especially in high profile crime,
if we've got someone who is trying to
actively insert themselves into the investigation,
one of the first things I want to know is, why?
One of the things that we learned
in interviewing Mike Thompson
is that he also drove a black truck.
- I've got a black truck so, you know,
they automatically they have to look.
I welcome the-the opportunity to, uh, you know,
do whatever is necessary
to show 'em that they're looking
**
- We've got certainly a group of potential suspects
we've identified and people that we're checking on,
but whether one of those is an actual suspect
or not it's too early to say.
- When Amber was abducted, there were a lot of people
coming in and going
and I was just kind of looking at people.
You know, do you know where my baby is?
I wanted answers. I wanted my baby back home.
- Police are still talking with family and friends,
most recently Mike Thompson.
Amber's father stays with Thompson,
who also drives a black pickup truck.
- Now, how do you know Richard and Donna?
- I mean, we've just always been,
not just a working relationship, but you know,
our friendship develops and, uh, you're there for each other.
- When you heard the description was a black truck,
did-did you suddenly have the reaction of,
"Oh, why did it have to be a black truck?"
- I mean, everybody's focusing on it now,
but you know, I got people, oh, there's a black truck
and I'm going, the funny part about it,
when I first got here on the scene,
the first thing Saturday afternoon,
there's cops all over here.
And I'm never once questioned.
I'm never once asked about my black truck,
never, until sometime late Sunday.
- Mike Thompson drove a delivery truck
and delivered auto parts.
And every time he made a delivery,
there was a time stamp.
And on January the 13th,
he was 30 minutes, 45 minutes away.
The other part about it was,
Mike Thompson was friends with Richard.
If he wanted to get Amber in the car with him,
all he had to do would've been just pull up and ask her.
- Had it been someone that she knew,
why do the blitz attack?
There was no attempt at all to engage Amber in conversation
according to Jimmie Kevil.
That's another reason why we believe that
it was a stranger,
someone that was unknown to Amber.
This type of abduction is rare.
And of course, on one hand that's good because, you know,
it means the community's a little safer.
On the other hand, the case incensed the community.
- This took over pretty much every aspect
of the city and community.
It was all about Amber.
It wasn't just her neighborhood.
It was the entire city just covered in pink bows.
You saw them all over trees and street signs.
It was all anyone could talk about.
- The community really cared about my little girl
and what happened to her.
The waiting's really killing me.
It's hard to wait.
But I know I have to keep strong for my little girl.
- I just hope she's okay and she can come back real soon.
We-we all miss her a lot.
- How could they not see something?
Look how busy this street is!
- You see the fear in their eyes and as a detective,
as an investigator, as a police officer,
it's very frustrating
because you want to be able to take that fear way.
You want to be able to solve that crime.
- We knew that a task force needed to be formed
that could control the leads and tips
as far as making sure that each one was looked at.
But again, not doubling the effort.
- We were a freestanding task force.
We had 15 detectives that they had dedicated to us.
I needed people who were very good
at interview and interrogation,
who had a very strong attention to detail.
They didn't let little things slip by them.
And I needed people that did not know
the meaning of the word quit.
- While we were still looking for Amber,
these teams of detectives and FBI agents
were going out contacting registered sex offenders.
- This unit that has come to town
has a tremendous amount of expertise
in child abduction cases and that is why they're here.
- We assume that because she was 9 years old
and it was a female
that there's a sexual component to this,
and it's what drove the investigation.
- We started looking at sex offenders
who had offended against girls in the age range of seven to 12
and then you expand out from there.
- We actually mapped this out on a grid to make sure that
we had contacted every resident, if possible.
When we interviewed people, we'd find out,
did they live there with a family?
Is it a single male that lives there alone
that could potentially be a suspect?
- We have every reason to believe that
this individual may have committed this crime before.
- You have a high risk grab right there
in the middle of that parking lot, you know,
in my mind I just kind of felt like
maybe he had done this before.
And, of course, it was also a concern
that he might do it again in the future.
- We're just trying not to give up hope
and trying to be strong for Amber.
Arlington Police...
- Would she be willing to talk to me?
- You don't have the-the luxury of dismissing anything.
Every lead had to be looked at, no matter how far-fetched
or improbable that it was.
- I remember helicopters overhead,
and I remember officers with dogs
going through the park.
Every time they got one of those tips
and they went out, you were like,
"Okay, is this it?
Are they finally going to find her?"
- I think they're working as hard as they can
and I think they're doing all they can to get Amber home.
Give them peace.
Give them hope that it will end in a happy reunion.
I didn't know what to do.
All I knew I wanted to do is get my little girl home.
I worried about her the whole time.
You know, is she going to get fed?
Is she being taken care of? Is she warm?
Is she cold?
- The days go on, the hours go on,
and you don't have to know much about child abduction statistics
to know that every second works against you.
Not just every minute or every hour,
but every second works against you.
The chances of finding a child alive
diminish dramatically as time goes on.
**
- Wednesday evening, this spring-like thunderstorm
came through and dropped the temperature.
I mean for as warm as it was, it turned off
just bitterly cold out of the north.
But as the front moved through, which it does
typically in Texas when cold air meets warm air,
we have bad, bad storms.
- I received a phone call at about 11:30 at night
at my residence.
Dispatch informed me that a body had been found
in Arlington.
I was the first investigative person
that was on the scene.
Patrol was there, and crime scene was there.
- We don't know that much at this point
and we want to be very, very cautious about
the information that we're putting out.
- I walked down to the creek bed and I noticed
a young white female's body that was floating,
but was caught up in the brush.
- The police are saying it's too hard to tell,
you know, who it is.
- My husband said it was a female.
She's buck-naked. She's face down.
He said it was a female.
- Why has the lead investigator on the Amber Hagerman case
been called here?
- Well, I mean, he's one of our lead homicide investigators
and, you know, we're certainly,
we're certainly sensitive to the fact that
we've located a body that needs to be identified.
I mean, I don't want to alarm anyone at this point,
but we're certainly sensitive to the fact that--
that it could be Amber
and we're just not in a position to say yet.
- Has the family been notified in any way?
- Uh, we have people en route over to the--
to the residence now to notify them
that we have located a-a body.
- My name is Derrelynn Perryman,
and I was the Victim Assistance Coordinator
for the Arlington Police Department
during the Amber case.
I go into the house and touch base with the family.
I had been given instructions that we weren't going to be able
to positively identify the child that was found
until they completed the crime scene investigation.
- I had been with the family all day
and I got in bed
and I had hardly touched the sheets
before the phone rang.
And I picked up the phone
and it was my assistant news director.
And he said, Pam, they found a body.
So I immediately headed back to the house,
and went straight in with my photographer.
- We were all really watching the news,
and they kept talking about this little body they found.
- So Edie Kocher and her husband
who found the body, Stuart Kocher,
are at least themselves convinced that
what he saw was the body of a young girl.
Police are not so convinced.
- So we sat in their living room and they had the news on
all night long.
- It was over and over and over,
a child's body has been found.
It's probably Amber. It's probably Amber.
And so, you can imagine how agonizing
that was to just sit there and listen to that.
[indistinct TV chatter]
- News 8 Now, the spirit of Texas.
- We interrupt this program to bring you
the following News 8 Special Report.
- Arlington Police Department came to the house this evening
to tell the family that a body had been found.
Amber's father also is here at the house with the family.
- I was watching this on the news
in my parents' home with my parents.
And that was hard.
- ...family friend who has been here
throughout the whole ordeal,
as well as Amber's mother, who is looking quite distraught.
- It was an excruciating night.
And no, I wasn't her family.
I felt like I understood,
and I was having some of those same emotions.
I didn't want it to be her. Nobody did.
- ...saw a little girl riding her bike
and then a black pickup pulled up next to her
and yanked her off that bike.
- I was in contact with Mike Simonds,
and he said it was probably Amber,
but we needed to be sure, and we didn't want to tell them
until we had confirmed that it was actually her.
So, I talked with the family. I explained that to them.
At this point I'm told
you've got a couple hours to rest
if you can even just close your eyes
for a couple of minutes. It's gonna help a little bit.
- I was there for several hours and then my pager went off
and I went out to the car.
I did have a cell phone, and Mike Simonds said,
Yes, you know, we've identified it's her.
Um, they identified some birthmarks.
And then he said, "And you have five minutes
to tell the family before we announce it to the media.
[distant screaming]
- There was a-a scream and a cry
that I will never forget.
[sobbing softly]
- That was really, really hard.
You know, just my mom and my dad crying
and my dad never cries.
- From all visual that we can see,
from the description that we've got
and from the photographs that we've seen,
we feel that this tentatively is going to be
the body of Amber Hagerman.
- We are in the process of notifying the family as such.
We are stressing to them and I want to stress to all of you,
that a positive identification will be made
by the Medical Examiner's Office...
- Just the agony of knowing that yes, that was her
and she was gone.
You just can't even describe it.
[sobbing]
- You know, very little to go on
**
- We decided pretty early on that we're gonna have to
not air the welfare documentary,
which was due to air on Thursday.
And actually, that was the day we found out she was found.
- When they confirmed it was Amber's body,
and, you know, it's everybody's screaming
and crying and news media is everywhere.
The police had put the yellow tape
around my parents' front yard.
It was horrible that day.
And still I'm in denial. No, this is not my baby.
I want to see my baby from my own eyes.
I wanted to touch my baby. I wanted to talk to my baby.
And I did not-- no I did not believe it.
Immediately, of course,
Donna wanted to go and be with Amber,
and as a mom,
I could certainly identify with that.
If I hadn't been able to put my hands on my child
for several days because they were missing,
that would be the first thing I would want to do too.
The Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office
doesn't allow people to visit.
We contacted the medical examiner's office,
and of course,
they-they did the autopsy priority
because we knew that it was just urgent.
You know, she really, really needed to be with Amber.
Now we have a homicide.
First order of business is you shift into high gear
thinking, "Okay, what have we got?"
It started off Saturday.
Now we're over here on Thursday.
We found Amber dead in this creek three miles away.
Why?
- So right now, we're pulling into
the apartment complex and we're going towards the creek
that runs north and south along the west side
of the apartment complex.
The first time that I came out here,
it made me realize that the suspect must have known
that this apartment complex and the creek were here.
It just doesn't seem likely that a suspect
would just randomly drive into this complex
and then just happen upon a creek
to leave her body in.
- The night that Amber's body was found,
there were thousands and thousands of gallons of water
that washed over her body.
Based on the condition of her body,
we think that she was put in very close to
if not exactly where her body was found.
There were not injuries or anything like that
that would be indicative of her traveling a long way
in the water, hitting rocks, hitting branches,
and all the things that you would expect to see
if she had been put in the water
a long ways from where she was found.
- It was a large apartment complex
and there was a main gate.
To the west of that main gate, there was another entrance.
It, too, had a gate.
At the time of Amber's abduction and her recovery,
that gate was broken.
So there was unfettered access into and out of
the apartment complex through that gate.
There was a video camera at the main entrance.
On the night that Amber's body was recovered,
the wind and the rain, it was shaking the camera
and it took visibility down to where we couldn't see very well.
- You can see vehicles coming and going,
and you do see a dark truck that enters the complex,
but the video just wasn't clear enough
to be able to determine whether or not
that was the suspect vehicle.
- There was nothing on that video
that we could use to identify a suspect.
One of our beliefs was that the suspect was familiar with
not only the abduction site but the disposal site as well.
And that's another one of the reasons
why we believed that he was probably a local resident.
- Only portion that was submerged
was from her shoulders up. And maybe-maybe an arm.
And so I ran back to the house,
and, uh, went through the front door,
a-and yelled at my wife Edie, I found her.
I found Amber.
- Stuart Kocher was the witness
that found Amber's body that night.
His statement was that after the storm
had passed through the area
that he took his dog out for a walk.
His dog went down to the creek bed area
and began barking.
Then he saw Amber's body.
- And because there'd been so much coverage
of Amber being missing and everybody trying to find her,
his immediate thought was, That's probably her.
- You ask all sorts of questions like
"Did you talk to anybody while you were going out
to go on this walk? What'd you do before that?"
If he was involved in it, then obviously,
you're worried about what happened
from the abduction time to the discovery of the body.
There wasn't anything in his story
that was inconsistent.
He was finally eliminated by a polygraph.
- We're just going to question people
to see what they saw and what they observed.
- We began a canvas, multiple FBI agents,
and we had multiple Arlington PD detectives there.
- We want to know who the maintenance people are.
Who is doing the landscaping at the apartments?
What independent contractors they have.
We went door to door.
Before it was over with we were at
every single apartment in that complex.
- We didn't find any additional witnesses.
No one admitted to seeing anyone parking
and carrying anything down through the playground
into the culvert area either that night
or any of the days leading up to that.
- I didn't believe that that was Amber.
I said that's not my baby. My baby's not dead.
You know, I want to go see my daughter.
Take me to my little girl. I want to hold my little girl.
I want to see for myself, with my own eyes,
that this is my little girl.
And they kept telling me, no I can't
'cause they had to do the autopsy
and that she was so disfigured so they had to
cover her wounds up so I wouldn't see that.
And they said I didn't want to see her the way she was.
And I told them, you know, I don't care.
I want to see my little girl.
I want to hold my little girl.
So I didn't get to see her or hold her,
until the next day.
And they took me to the funeral home
and I got to kiss her and hold her hand
and told her that everything's okay,
you know, Mommy's here.
So they told me I could hold her hands
and touch her little face and that was it.
But I so wanted to, you know,
pick her up and hold her and...
[crying]
Yeah.
- Amber had a very severe laceration
to her throat from one side to the other.
Um, it was a-- a very severe cut,
very violent cut.
- You've got all this damage
to her throat and neck area
but not necessarily a tremendous amount of damage
elsewhere on the body.
- One of the things that we saw right away
was that there was no indication
of a sexual assault to Amber's body.
Just because there's not evidence of a sexual assault
doesn't mean that there was not a sexual component to it.
- You can't escape at least the theory
that the act of killing Amber was what provided
a sexual release for the suspect.
- There were some very, very early signs
of decomposition that were identified
that would be more consistent with the idea
of her being killed Tuesday going into Wednesday.
- There was no signs of torture.
There was no signs of restraint.
No defensive wounds that we could see.
The question now becomes, all right,
where was she being kept alive,
who did this, how did he hang on to her?
[church bells ringing]
- We wonder what kind of monster
could commit such a horrible deed.
- Well over 2,000 people showed up to her funeral.
- It was standing room only.
There were so many people there.
Because this had just touched a community
like you can only imagine.
- And it's just so overwhelming.
And, and as a mom you're trying to grieve
for your little girl.
**
- Really the last thing I remember
is just the funeral.
Not really when they found her body.
Just-- I just remember the funeral.
At 5 years old I didn't know what death was.
I was telling her, Wake up, Sissy, wake up.
It's time to get up.
- To me, I just wanted to take my baby and just run.
You know, I got my kids.
You know, it-- that little part of me
wanted to do that.
I attended the funeral.
It was to go to observe the participants
and see if anything looked unusual,
if anyone acted inappropriately,
if someone just looked out of place.
- Sometimes a suspect will want to go to the funeral
just to see what's going on.
Of course the issue with Amber's funeral
is there were lots of people there.
This wasn't a family affair.
We put surveillance inside
and at the graveside during the services,
and then we also had people surveilling
the outer perimeter around the area
to see if someone was on the outskirts,
possibly observing from a distance.
- We felt like we had to do anything and everything
that could possibly provide new information
and lead to the suspect that killed Amber.
**
- My parents were, with every newscast,
asking for help, putting out information
to bring justice to their daughter.
- It makes me mad because I don't know.
I want to know. I want to know now.
- Donna had been on camera with us for a while
but there was a change in her demeanor
as the days wore on.
- I'm just slowly, surely losing all my hope
that they're gonna find him.
- We were hopeful early on of course
that there were more witnesses
and that people would come forward.
And we've just been tremendously frustrated
by that fact that this, this abduction
occurred in broad daylight on a very busy street
on a Saturday afternoon and no one saw anything.
- We would hold two briefings daily for the press
to keep the information flowing.
And there were many times
I didn't haven't anything new to say
but I went in there and did it anyway.
- Okay, describe the truck to me.
- We certainly felt like we had to keep this,
this case, of all cases, in the public eye.
We followed thousands of leads.
Not just hundreds but thousands.
- We've got a couple of tips that, uh,
on vehicular traffic and some people
that were seen in the area.
- There were calls coming in on a regular basis
of people that thought they'd seen her,
thought they'd seen the suspect.
- Now those leads ranged from everything
from I saw a black pickup
to specific suspects that were named right away.
- There was a woman that came forward
and said that she had seen the entire abduction.
- The witness went so far as to describe the Ford Splash
as well as a partial license plate number
that she thought she remembered.
And she saw Amber
in the passenger seat of this truck,
and Amber was banging on the back window
**
- We really hadn't had any good leads
and a woman came forward though at that point
and said she had a partial license tag.
- Because she gave a much more specific description
of the pickup truck,
we developed a whole investigative strategy
that was kind of based around what she said.
- Everybody on the task force is excited.
We finally got the detail that will lead us to the suspect.
- At that point in time, we had been working
with the Ford Motor Company,
and they came up with a list of potential trucks
with a partial plate that had been sold
in this geographic area that matched
that general description of that truck.
- Detectives end up finding a potential suspect,
and he actually lives in Arlington
within the range
of where the suspect would have gone.
- My hopes were really up high
and finally we're going to get justice for Amber
and we can close this chapter
and it's all going to be done with.
- Now we think we've finally got the break that we need.
The man cooperated
and let detectives search his house
and there was nothing whatsoever to indicate
that he was a suspect in it.
After this happened, the detectives went back
to contact the witness
and basically go over the whole story
again with her.
And they started putting two and two together,
and it just wasn't adding up.
The information that she was providing us
really wasn't matching
what we had been able to corroborate.
We interviewed her again,
and then she finally admits to us
that she didn't know anything
and she just made it up.
She made the story up
because she felt so bad for Donna
and the lack of a break in the case
that she just wanted to do anything
that she could to help her.
And I know how that sounds, but for some reason,
this lady thought that this would be helpful to Donna
and make Donna more hopeful
that a suspect was gonna be found.
- She thought that giving us that type of information
might spur us on some sort of renewed energy
into the investigation.
But instead what she did was she cost us time
and she cost us man-hours.
And quite frankly, she pissed me off.
We had a lot of people
that would come up with false information
just to bring Amber's case back up.
It was very frustrating, not just for me,
for the police as well.
- Prosecuting her for making a false statement
wasn't going to help us any.
I wanted to keep everybody focused on Amber.
- We felt very early on
that it was a stranger abduction.
You know, every sign pointed to that.
We'd beg for someone to come forward that knew anything.
Just another tool in the toolbox
trying to use it to get some help.
Everything that happened along the way
was just a step-by-step situation
where we were just frustrated at every turn.
And it-it was tough. It was very tough.
- A couple of weeks after I buried Amber,
I just assumed, you know, You're the police.
You're going to solve this.
You're going to be able to come and tell me
who murdered-- who butchered my little girl.
And there was just no evidence.
- How do you feel about the fact
that they haven't found somebody?
- I'm frustrated. Angry.
You know, why can't they find this man?
How hard can this be, you know?
'Course I was frustrated, angry,
'cause they couldn't find my little girl.
And, now I'm frustrated and angry
'cause they can't find him that did this to her.
- Donna became convinced that whoever took Amber
had done something like this or similar to this before.
And it just angered her that they were still out there
and that they could have done it again.
- From the moment that Amber was abducted
and the anguish Donna was going through,
over the course of time,
she turned that into a drive,
a sense to make a difference
and to give the police greater tools.
Not every family that has an abducted child
will then turn their energy into advocacy.
Donna was going to fight for Amber
and she was going to make sure
that this would not happen to any other child.
- City council meetings were all about Amber.
You would have hundreds of people
going up there wanting to talk.
School board meetings, the same thing.
- There are 77 million parents out there
who want their children to be safe.
All we have to do is organize.
All we have to do is work together.
All we have to do is send a message.
- Donna, her life is open to the public,
period, at this point, because of what happened.
The important thing
as we followed this path
that really had been set out for us
was that we tell what it was really like
to live through something like this.
It's usually very personal
but Donna was willing to share that with everybody.
- This is Donna Whitson.
- When Amber was abducted,
I was still going to medical school
so I took a leave of absence.
I had to finish for her.
And I did.
- You see her going from devastating grief
of losing that child and dealing with that reality
to the other end of the spectrum
and was able to continue on for Amber.
Why is it taking so long?
It shouldn't take that long, you know?
Why can't you find this black truck?
Why can't you find this monster?
- The whole room was just packed full
of all this stuff about Amber's case.
And it was like, wow, this is overwhelming.
- When Amber was taken a lot of people said
if we could have just gotten the word out
there would probably be a better chance
that she could have been found.
- It is the desperate search for this little 9 year old
and time is of the essence.
And so, tell everybody in the community this has happened,
give them information, the photographs, the video,
here's the suspect vehicle
and then really engage to get everybody to help search.
- I think that was in a lot of peoples' minds
is, Can we do this? How can we do this,
and how can we put that into action?
Diana Simone was one of those people who could see that
that was a good possibility.
I am Diana Simone,
and I am resident of Fort Worth, Texas.
I rarely, if ever, watched the news.
But the TV was on, and as I passed by it,
I noticed what appeared to be somebody's home video was on.
There's such a different emotional reaction
when you see a child opening presents
and riding a bike and waving and smiling
than you do just a flat picture.
This child becomes very real to you.
Then to hear this horrifying situation had taken place,
you just immediately think
what her mother must be feeling.
In Amber's case, she was taken around 4:00.
It was 6:00 or 6:30 when I saw it.
So two and half hours had already passed
before the public became aware of what was going on.
I called the radio station and I said,
"I'm calling about the Amber Hagerman case."
And she said, "Do you have any information?"
And I said, "No, I don't, but I do have an idea."
- So often when children were being taken
it was by a suspect in a vehicle,
put the child in a vehicle, they drive off.
So wouldn't it be great if there was a way
to let everybody know about it,
so that they could be your eyes and ears on the street
looking for that suspect vehicle.
Looking for that suspect. Looking for that child.
Arlington Police and this group of radio station managers
ended up getting together, and formulating this plan
for this emergency broadcast alert
that they would put out.
And it would have a loud, obnoxious sound.
It was gonna go out on the radio stations
and would alert people that there'd been a child abduction,
give them information like where did it happen,
what does the suspect look like,
what is the suspect driving.
- It's so simple, it's brilliant,
because the whole idea is to be able
to get out to the public information that they can use
to provide us with actionable intelligence.
A description of suspect.
Description of vehicle. License plate.
Something that they could work with.
- It's a real partnership. It's a partnership
between law enforcement and broadcasters
to work together when time is critical
on a serious child abduction case.
- Today we're unveiling the Amber Plan.
[applause]
- I encourage all radio stations to participate in this
because it is a great idea
and it will get information out that we need
to get a little girl or a little boy home.
- Some staggering percentage of people
had their radio on when they were in the car.
And so we thought if we could get it across
all the radio stations in Dallas-Fort Worth,
just think how many eyes we'd have out looking for the kids.
And so it just worked like a charm
as far as getting people to say, Yes.
And then Rae-Leigh Bradbury comes along.
- We got a call that there was a missing baby
by the name of Rae-Leigh.
- We were living in Arlington throughout my whole pregnancy.
I knew everybody.
I loved everybody.
And I had this little lady, she's as cute as could be.
Her name was Sandra Fallis.
I thought of her as a friend.
And I trusted her.
So that's why I felt like that it was a good choice
that I let her become my babysitter.
- I drop her off that morning in a little onesie nighty.
And then her diaper bag full.
And then just do a normal 8-hour workday.
- And then when evening came time
and the babysitter was supposed to show up with her,
she-- they didn't show up.
- I didn't think she was kidnapped.
That's not a word that I would even associate.
No local hospitals had heard of any wrecks
or anything like that.
And then finally I just decided to call 9-1-1.
I'm like, "My babysitter hasn't brought my baby home."
Basically a policeman came up
and he was like taking the report and stuff.
- And we started talking about,
"Well is this, is this the time we should do this?"
We felt like, Okay, you know, something's got to happen.
We've got to get this baby back.
I remember calling the police chief,
I'm getting ready to do this.
- They were like, "We're going to use this thing
called the Amber Alert."
- This is an activation of the Amber Alert system
at the request of the Arlington Police Department.
Arlington Police say a child,
a 2-month-old white female baby has been kidnapped.
The baby's name is Rae-Leigh Ann Bradbury.
Police believe the victim was abducted by her babysitter,
Sandra Joyce Fallis, a white female,
42 years of age, 5'3", 135 pounds,
with black hair, brown eyes and driving a turquoise
1993 Ford Ranger Splash pickup truck.
- It literally was like 30 minutes.
**
- Guy driving down the highway next to her,
looking in the vehicle,
"I see the baby sitting on the front seat!
"In her car seat."
- So we got a patrol officer out there.
Pulled her over, got the baby.
- I was in the car driving home and I was elated.
I was absolutely elated.
I mean there were just, there are no words, you know.
Because you're just like, "Oh, my God, it's working.
"It's absolutely working."
- When I was finally able to hold her,
it was a relief.
It was just an overwhelming relief.
I didn't want to let her go.
I was not going to let her go.
- It couldn't have happened any better.
So yeah, a happy ending
to a thing rooted in a terrible tragedy.
- That was awesome. Me and my mom,
we just kinda looked up in heaven and said,
"You did it, girl."
I've said how much
Amber Hagerman has meant to me.
And it's true to this day,
I wouldn't be here without her.
I used to call her my guardian angel.
I used to pray to her, just like little prayers
like, "Thank you for this day",
like, "Thanks for watching over me."
- Every time I hear a Amber Alert,
I say to myself, "It's time to go to work, Sis.
"Do your thing."
I just wish that
Amber had something in place at the time.
It's bittersweet.
What if we had a Amber Alert when Amber was missing?
Could it have saved her life?
- Once other areas across the country
heard about the program, they said,
"We're going to set one up in our town."
- Within weeks of us activating Amber,
I was receiving calls
and other people were receiving calls from around Texas
and from around the United States on,
"Okay, how do you do this?"
I would walk them through the process
that we went through in developing
the relationships with their radio stations,
and actually putting it in place
and getting it up and running.
We have a critical time
that we have to get this information out
to galvanize the community,
to get their ears and eyes looking everywhere
for the child, for the vehicle.
It was exciting to see the programs popping up
around the country,
and it was in 2000
that the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
said, "You know what, we should take this national."
- And then to just see it just explode.
It just becomes this phenomenon and it works.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
the President of the United States.
- President Bush signed on
and said, you know, "I support this."
And he designated a National Amber Alert Coordinator
at the Department of Justice.
- Amber Hagerman, whose mom is with us today,
a good Texan I might add...
[applause]
Was 9 years old
when she was taken away from her parents.
We are acting today in her memory
and in the memory of so many other girls and boys
who lost their lives and innocence
in acts of cruelty.
And now it is my honor
to sign the Protect Act of 2003.
- That was sort of the crowning moment,
and I get chills,
because everybody's work had paid off.
[applause]
- It was nerve-wracking, but I was still really proud
because the President is talking about my little girl.
And I was able to talk to him
about my little girl and what happened to her.
Donna really evolved.
She turned her grief and anger
into advocacy.
She's been a champion of the Amber Alert program
the entire time
and she knows that,
you know, this is her daughter's legacy.
- Tragedy struck this community
January 13, 1996.
Our resolve to solve this case
has not wavered.
- Anytime there's an anniversary of her abduction and murder,
and there's a press conference or a memorial,
we have a bunch of community members
come out in support of the family.
- This case is personal to me
because I've been involved in some aspect
since the day that Amber was abducted.
In 2010, I became the lead detective.
And I had the case from then until 2018
when I promoted to Sergeant.
At that time Detective Grant Gildon
took over as the lead detective.
- Actually, I was a sophomore in high school
when, when this case happened.
And I remember hearing of the Amber Alert
and that it was named after a young girl
that was kidnapped and murdered.
It wasn't until I was applying
with the Arlington Police Department
that I became aware that
the case originated in Arlington, Texas.
I saw just how passionate they were
about trying to solve Amber's case.
Then it, it really struck me that
that was something I wanted to help contribute to.
The figure we gave of 5,500.
That's the number of leads the Amber Hagerman Task Force
investigated between February of '96
and June of '97.
Current to date, we've investigated over 7,000.
- The 25th year anniversary is just another year with,
with no answers, no justice, and we want that to change.
We want justice. That's our goal.
That's-that's what we need. Our family needs closure.
- One of the major, um, issues with a case
that is a long-term case like this
is that, you know, people forget about it.
But Amber's killer is out there somewhere.
**
- After 25 years, of course it gets frustrating at times
because we want to solve the case
and we want answers for Amber's family.
But as homicide detectives
we never let that frustration get to us
to the point of quitting.
- Recently, there was some new technology
that I became aware of
that we thought was relevant to some of the evidence
that we've maintained in this case.
We've started to discuss the possibility
of testing some of the evidence we have
that we hope can produce DNA in this case.
With Amber,
there is just not much trace evidence at all.
- The main question when determining
what evidence to test
and what kind of testing to do
is thinking about the quantity of the evidence
and whether or not you're going to use up
or consume all of the potential DNA
while doing the testing.
- Is it worth the risk of destroying all the evidence
in the testing process?
Or is it something we should wait a few months to test
because of the advancements in the technology
that are taking place very rapidly?
- The motivating factor for me is thinking of Amber's mother
and also Amber's brother and- and how he has grown up
and just wanting answers from that day.
I believe that the person who kidnapped
and murdered Amber Hagerman is still alive.
If we continue to work this case,
we will be able to bring them to justice.
I also believe there are people out there
who know the details about what happened.
That's why continue to take every lead
and investigate it as thoroughly as possible
in hopes that one of these leads
will eventually lead us to the killer.
Hold me up, Daddy.
Here we go.
Aw, don't cry.
Aw.
Hi baby, hello.
- This is my daughter little Gracie Rene Hagerman.
So we gave her Amber's middle name, Rene.
She was actually born on the same day as Amber,
November 25th, and in the same hour.
My son is happy.
I want to cry every time I see my son
because he is so happy.
He is in a good place now.
Makes my heart good to see him happy.
So life is okay now.
- Oh, my gosh. How are you doing?
- It's so good to see you.
- It's good to see you, too.
There was a little bit of nervousness
about how she would feel and I would feel
after so long a time.
But when I saw her it was one of those situations
where you felt like no time had passed away at all.
It's such an honor to have been a part
of what happened and where we are today.
And I know that Donna wants to continue
to look at that every time a child is saved,
that that makes a difference to her.
And it makes a difference to me, too.
- The main reason why I'm doing this documentary today
is to kind of let people know
what kind of little girl Amber was.
She's always helping other little children
and, and taking care of children.
And she always took care of her little brother.
So this is just another way for her to do that.
She's still doing what she loved.
She was not just a victim. She was my daughter.
She was somebody. She is somebody still today.
**