- ....get back to that
breaking news.
- 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 k*lled 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
sh**ting 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 a*usive 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 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 m*rder*d,
they're k*lled 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
sh**ting 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 a*usive.
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 k*lling 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 d*sfigured
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 as*ault
to Amber's body.
Just because there's not
evidence of a sexual as*ault
doesn't mean that there was
not a sexual component to it.
- You can't escape
at least the theory
that the act of k*lling 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 k*lled Tuesday
going into Wednesday.
- There was
no signs of t*rture.
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 k*lled 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 m*rder*d--
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 m*rder,
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 m*rder*d.
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 k*ller
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 m*rder*d 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 k*ller.
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.
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