Amber Alert ////// Part 1 | Forensic Files

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[Music] outside as the night grows colder police and volunteers coordinate the search
inside Amber's mother Waits I still can't believe it just just waiting for her to come in the
door any minute now but she's gone witson says Amber and her little brother Richard were out
riding their bikes in the neighborhood when a witness saw a man grab Amber off her bike and shove her Kicking and
Screaming into his black pickup truck don't hurt her don't hurt my baby please she's just an innocent child
please please bring her home s please if anybody out there seen anything call the please tell them let
them know I really don't know what I'm thinking now I'm just I just want to touch her and hold her now and to me I
think she's still out riding her bike but I know better I know she's not this is a family channel 8 has been
working with since last fall on a story about welfare reform Channel 8 was there
at Amber's 9th birthday party in November witson says Amber loves school she's a third grade honors student with
perfect attendance a Girl Scout who just sold 165 boxes of cookies oh we're real
close we're buddies we share everything we share hair bows together she's wearing my hair bow right now on her
little hair she's got her hair up with sure everything together we do everything together witson says before
the kidnapping they had a great day just playing at the park eating lunch together and stopping by to visit the
grandparents before the nightmare began just Amber you know if I want you back home I want you here with Mommy I know
you're scared and I'm scared too I'm scared for you and I want you home so I want
you Jimmy kev's backyard looks out on the Wind Dixie parking lot he saw Amber hagerman's abduction Saturday afternoon
keville says Amber was on her bike when a black pickup pulled up next to her and
he run up behind her and grabbed her right under her arms and picked her up he turned around and come right back to
here where his truck was where the door was open and put her in the truck while police and volunteers continue to search
Amber's Family holds on to Hope sit and white look out the window and wish we could see her walking up the
dway there's a lot of people praying family friends and I thank God for them an Arlington police officer remains
on the street where Amber hagerman's family Waits a collection of Flyers used in the search papers the front entry at
Amber's grandmother's house still there's no word earlier investigators questioned
the only witness again and he'd run up behind her and grabbed her around under her arms and picked her up he turned
around and come right back to here where his truck was where the door was open and put her in the truck while police
and volunteers continue to search Amber's Family holds on to Hope sit and wait look out the window
and wish we could see her walking up the dway there's a lot of people praying family friends and I thank God for them
Amber her little brother Richard and mother Donna witson are one of the families being profiled for a family
first special project about welfare Amber is an honor student at CB berry Elementary the school's principal was
among the first visitors Flyers with Amber hagman's picture are going up all over Arlington
friends and neighbors of the Hagerman family say they only wish they could do more 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 Amber's
disappearance has hit home perhaps too close to home for parents in this quiet neighborhood Arlington police officers
are here 24 hours a day it's real scary my kids were down there in that same parking lot riding their bikes Saturday
morning and that could have been my kid Amber her little brother Richard and mother Donna Whitson are one of the
families Channel 8 has been profiling for a family first special on welfare reform Amber is a third grade honor
student and Girl Scout who just sold 165 boxes of cookies witson and Amber's Father Richard Hagerman say there will
be no relief from the terror they now live with until Amber is home I want my baby back so please if you have my baby
please I beg you let me have her back she's my life [Music] let's go back in time Captain to
1986 when proud excited parents welcomed little Amber Renee Hagerman into the world just two days before
Thanksgiving 1986 Amber's mom and dad are Donna witson and Richard Hagerman Amber was a
Girl Scout and a rather social little girl who loved riding her bike Amber had one sibling a little brother named Ricky
and she just loved being a big sister so much so that when little Ricky was very
small still just a little tiny baby Amber told her mother Donna that this is my baby and I'm going to take care of
him Amber was raised in the greater Arlington Texas area many of you may be familiar with Arlington this is a large
Texas town famous for the home of what the locals called the Death Star the is AT&T Stadium where them Cowboys play
where Jerry's Cowboys play football in near the Dallas and Fort Worth area as well this is all kind of one big batch
of cities all kind of resting next to one another Arlington and especially the neighborhood that we will be talking
about and specific area that we will be talking about here today are and were even back in 1996
when our True Crime Story takes place this was a safe area low crime especially low violent crime we will get
back to 1996 soon but first let's go through a little background information regarding the Hagerman family at some
point the parents Donna and Richard's relationship changes and this is because Richard develops a drinking problem that
will lead to accusations of domestic abuse Donna has said that Richard became V towards her on some of the nights when
he would come home drunk Donna eventually leaves Richard taking the kids after neighbors had called the
police on what sounds like Captain many occasions so Donna took off to start over without Richard in fact Richard
would not be much in any way part of the kids lives for about a year's time Donna
didn't feel safe around him of course he needed to make some big changes in his life and his actions before he could see
and be involved with these children again once he started making progress Donna would allow Richard to visit the
kids mostly on weekends when he would show up with pizza and snacks for the two little ones so let's go to
1995 this is when we have Donna she's living with the two kids raising them primarily by herself and it's a struggle
she met Richard when she was young she got pregnant when she was young and I don't have their exact ages here in my
notes Captain but if I recall correctly I believe Richard is about 14 maybe 15 years older than Donna yeah there's a
little bit of an age Gap there so she's got two kids she's on government assistance and she's not taking child
support as per the history with Richard because she doesn't want to be forced into a shared custody situation
but Donna is tough as Nails as tough as they come she's raising the kids she's working and she's going to school all at
the same time to set herself up with a career in nursing to try to better her situation not for her but for her
children before Amber's disappearance Amber's Family was part of a TV production about families struggling to
get off of welfare now because of this there is a lot of video footage of Amber Hagerman
available still to this day now to me Captain that is very much the definition of a Bittersweet moment it's so precious
and saddening all at the same time to see these images and not just images but motion picture of a very happy little
girl playing with friends celebrating a birthday riding bik with her little brother because those moments captured
on video camera are lasting forever and you get to hear her talking laughing just being a kid so while you want to
have those keepsakes to remember her remember the good times it's a double-edged sword because it makes your
heart feel so good but at the same time can also break it all right let's get into the day in question here we're
going to go to Saturday January 13th 1996 remember sometimes dates are important to any crime not just the date
but the day of the week and where that date falls on the calendar for that year and we may see why with this particular
case again this is Saturday January 13th 1996 Saturdays were typically Family Day
for Amber mom and brother Donna witson and her children Amber and Ricky drove to a home
in Arlington Texas to visit Donna's parents Glenda and Jimmy witson this was a typical situation they they visited
this house often so the kids felt very comfortable playing inside the house outside the house and riding their bikes
in the neighborhood exactly now before going to Donna's parents house and like the captain said this would be a typical
stop for them they had some other stops earlier in the day so fun stop number one for the day the family of three
spent some time playing at a local park this is a park where they had played at several times
before then the three went off to have some lunch at a Burger King restaurant this was a family favorite and then next
up was fun spot number three for a little bike riding action so the three went to Donna's parents home again this
is Jimmy and Glenda witson Donna is very close with her parents Amber and Ricky the little grandkids were close with
their grandparents as well Jimmy and Glenda lived in one of those cool old school neighborhoods probably one very
similar and familiar to what many of our listeners can relate to those children of the
90s this is one of those very Suburban neighborhoods standard size Lots probably about 4500 square ft single
family homes a lot of homes built in what looks like probably the 60s late 60s and I love those type of
neighborhoods captain that have folks that some are still original home buyer still there three or four decades later
this is the type of neighborhood where you have streets that only see local traffic right see traffic from people
that live in the neighborhood coming and going it wasn't really a pass through neighborhood it was like you're only
driving down those roads if you you live in that area or you're visiting that area yeah it's just it's a part of a
busy area let's say with businesses and whatnot but it's kind of like tucked off
to the side right where you venture into this neighborhood primarily only for the
purpose because you live there the two children had their bikes stored and at Grandma and Grandpa's house and they
love to ride them while they were at GS and GPA it was a sunny day on that Saturday the temperature was just above
70 de so weather is quite fantastic yeah especially for January now we have Amber
who is 9 years old at the time and her little brother is five the two youngsters asked to ride
their bikes in the neighborhood and like the captain said this was a very common
activity for them the way that this would play out is they were allowed to take these short
unsupervised bike rides but they're very quick right it was go down you pull out
of Grandma and Grandpa's driveway and you make a left or a right but you go down about half a block turn
onto another Street and then turn onto another Street and then you turn right back onto Grandma
and Grandpa Street yeah basically they're going in a circle on very like you said they're going in a circle on
streets that aren't that busy they knew with streets that they could turn down and which streets they they couldn't go
on and I also think it was probably a situation that the that the mother and the grandparents probably weren't just
sitting outside they're probably going in and out of the house because like you said it's a safe neighborhood it's a
safe time they weren't worried that something bad was going to happen and it wasn't their first rodeo you know
they've gone on the spike ride many times and like you said mom and her mother would sit outside watch the kids
go by wave to them when they make their when they pass through again and they would take this little route it's it's
very much a a quick Circle route but if you look at it on a map it it looks more
like a triangle but it's all these quick little short neighborhood streets there's no businesses on these streets
it's all homes that look like their grandparents houses and for my understanding too another common thing
that would take place was Grandpa Jimmy he's a busy guy likes to stay busy and he would often be outside working in the
yard or in the garage working on something so he is for about a third of this bike trip
pretty much within an earshot of these kids and you we've all been there right whether be it with with our short pants
on as kids ourselves or with our big boy pants on as parents where you take the kids out you show them the route you
ride with them the first few times that they are on this route so they know where they're allowed to go you know
that they feel safe and you know that they know the lay of the land and then after they've done this for several
weeks or several times themselves it's time for them to go off on their own and and do the
adventure on their own well I think the family felt more safe too because Amber's 9 years old so she's also
looking after her little brother she's big sister and like we said earlier she even that's her baby she was very
protective of her little brother Ricky with adult permission Amber and Ricky left the home that afternoon and as said
they were allowed to ride their bikes around the block only they were not to go further than that despite that
warning look little kids don't always listen to Mom and Dad that's that's been going on since little kids have existed
so despite that warning Ricky and Amber chose to ride their bikes to a parking lot of an abandoned grocery store now
this is still very close to their grandparents home it's actually less than3 mil miles or two blocks roughly
from the grandparents house yeah not far from the grandparents house but it's very close to the path that they're
allowed to be on the parking lot that they arrive at has a ramp that most certainly received detention from Amber
and probably her brother as well the lot was surrounded by some residential homes
on one side and also included some other businesses in the same parking lot lot so you have a a grocery store that has
since shut down been shut down and empty for some time now I believe it was a wind Dixie but you also have a laundry
mat and an auto tint shop in the same parking lot this is very common in Suburban America on the main streets you
have a strip of businesses and behind those businesses you have these small neighborhoods yeah and I'll try I'll do
my best to try to describe this there was a really great diagram that was put out by the Fort Worth Star Telegram
we'll go ahead and give a little background because it gives one of those at a glance captions which reads Amber
Hagerman was riding her bicycle in the parking lot of a vacant East Arlington grocery store on a Saturday afternoon
when she was abducted by a man this diagram here Captain what it's showing us is the parking lot in Rel relation to
the grandparents' home and so to describe this from south to North we have East Abram Street which
has been described to us as a rather busy street now to the east of Abram Street you have Browning and then north
of that you have Highland Street so off of Highland is where you have residential homes the these are homes
that are part of that neighborhood that Amber's grandparents live in and some of
these houses back up to this parking lot and these businesses that are in this parking lot so you can see how close
this is to their home it's actually very close to the path that they would be normally taking on their bike ride that
is allowed by their mom and grandparents yeah so you have this old wind Dixie that's shut down and you have the
loading docks and those loading docks basically are built in ramps now Amber and her brother weren't going to go up
these ramps and do uh jumps and back flips but they would ride up the ramp and ride down the ramp and I'm sure this
is a area that they would have been allowed to go in if they're on a bike ride with their grandparents or or one
of their parents was there yeah because it looks to me based off of this map captain that they only ventured off
about two blocks away from their normal path so yeah had they been accompanied by an adult and said we really want to
go over here and check this out or see what's going on over here they probably would have been able to do so and would
have been able to do so rather quickly in this parking lot it it's pretty large and you have it an entrance and an exit
both on Abram Street and Browning Street to the West of the grocery store you have a laundry mat now this laundry mat
is active it's it's open it's actually open for business on this very day on this afternoon and there are cars parked
there at the time so we know that people are in this laundry mat and they are washing their clothes and whatnot inside
the facility but one thing that's terrible is this the one side of the building the east side of the building
that faces where we believe Amber was when she was abducted that one side of the building
has no windows then just south of the laundry mat in the same parking lot you have an auto body tent shop where the
back of that building would be facing the approximate area where the little girl would be abducted from yeah which
obviously this is not going to when you build a grocery store you don't put the loading dock for for everybody in the
public to see the loading dock we're going to get an eyewitness from the neighborhood but to hear her brother
describe what happened basically we're we're going on the route we're riding our bikes for a while we're doing what
we normally do and then we decide hey we're going to we're going to fear off the path we're going to go down to the
old abandoned grocery store we're going to go up and down the ramp a few times and this has probably happened hundreds
maybe thousands of times when you're a kid you're somewhere that maybe you shouldn't be or you're gone a little bit
too long and then you then the group decides okay we got to get back so they head back and to hear her brother talk
about well yeah I'm I'm riding back home and I'm just assuming she's behind me and like you said it's less than 3 miles
away so by the time he gets back in in the vicinity of his grandparents house he's now turning around looking going
where's my sister yeah and we'll get into all of the details of what we know about the abduction about the witness
and the particulars but the terrifying thing here that is just so difficult to wrap my head around is that all of this
takes place in just an 8 minute time time period yeah it reminds me of like the mara Murray case she's seen by an
individual that individual goes into his house calls the police by the time the police show up Mar's gone and and just
like I said when you have a situation where you're riding bikes with your sister you head back home and now
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air if you haven't subscribed to us on YouTube Make sure you do so I've been adding some of the old off the Record
episodes the one we did was the title is Ted Bundy Invisible Man John Douglas and
if that doesn't make you want to listen to it I don't know what will cheers to you Colonel cheers to you Captain as
well I'm going to take a few paragraphs here because I think it's very well described from a Reddit poster who goes
by the name of quy motor who did an extensive writeup on this case about four years ago about the Abduction of
Amber Hagerman this write Up's very good and the particulars here again we have such a short window of
time that it it really makes this case very difficult for investigators to work but I I do think that there is a
lot here when you start to sift through it at least potential leads or ideas about where to
take your investigation so quirky motor writes that Ricky little brother Ricky made one loop around the parking lot and
tells his sister Amber that they needed to go home Ricky says he didn't want to get in trouble he knows that they're
somewhere that they should not be and instead of following her brother Amber said that she wanted to stay and ride
around some more reluctantly Ricky heads home by himself now once there Amber's grandparents ask the little boy wears
[ __ ] the family called Amber [ __ ] and Ricky said she was riding her bike still
and they told him you know what go back out and get your sister so Ricky returned to the parking
lot he later says that he found the lot empty meaning he didn't find his sister when he returned there the route from
this parking lot Captain back to the parents' home even at 5 years of age he's probably able to figure out that well if
she left to come home she would have passed me we would have crossed paths I would
have never made it to the parking lot to to tell her to come home well I think there was a loop that they they wrote in
so I think there is a possibility but but as you're coming out of the neighborhood onto that grocery
store like be way before you get to the grocery store he's going to be able to see that his sister's not on the
ramp but like you said the one way back home or the fastest way back home she would have passed him she didn't pass
him and there's probably nothing worse in this poor little kid's brain at the time hey go get your sister I have
to know now go back to the place that we're not supposed to go to and then when I get there she's not
there so maybe there's a little bit of Hope well once I get back to Grandpa's house she'll be there but obviously she
wasn't well he sees the lot empty he doesn't see his sister he turns around starts pedaling as fast as he possibly
could and as he gets close to Grandma and Grandpa's house he starts yelling that Sissy's gone Sissy's gone well
Grandpa Jimmy witson he hears his grandson saying this he grabs the grandson hops in his truck and they
speed off to the parking lot and this is where things go from concerned to terrified because
they they Grandpa and Grandson they find little Amber's bike just lying there on
the ground and why don't you say that he's more he's more of a father figure than he is a grandpa I I say you know
those lines get blurry at times especially with certain families and he's very active he's probably more
active than some grandfathers and they live close by and as you pointed out earlier going to Grandma and Grandpa's
house on a Saturday which was their family day was yeah common place so he's you know he's hanging out with the kids
a lot so peacock did another great True Crime documentary on this case they've been hidden in out of the park lately in
my opinion yeah and they're they they make these documentaries that are the appropriate length I think too
where they're easily consumable easily digestible but they they pack a lot of information and
details into the documentaries I believe this one comes in at about 90 minutes approximately and it's titled Amber the
girl behind the alert and in that documentary you get to see a lot of video footage of Amber's
mom Donna she's pretty much the centerpiece of the documentary but you see Amber's Father Richard and you see a
lot of video footage of the grandparents and my thoughts here Captain when they showed Grandpa
Jimmy he just looked like mystified right like that he showed up to the parking lot and it and just the
like the shock never left his face in his body of I got to the parking lot and all I saw was her bike there it's just
it's just the little girl's pink bike and he had no answers for it there are multiple reports out there it seems like
the majority of the reports state that the at least one police officer was already on the scene in the parking lot
when when the grandfather returned with the little boy but just to be on the safe side we'll go through both here so
some some reports have that police were already there when little Ricky returned
with his grandfather and others have them pulling in just afterward after the Grandpa's truck pulls in to the line
it'd be really hard to put yourself in the in the shoes of the grandfather or of the brother cuz he's in the truck as
well he goes to get his sister she's not there but I don't think he noticed the bike until he notices the bike with the
grandfather but very difficult to try to put yourself in either one of their shoes of this is a
oh [ __ ] moment regardless of who was there first police are on the scene so very quickly because when Ricky first
left the lot a man named Jim keville so he's a 78y old man he's working in his backyard remember we talked about some
of those residential houses from that neighborhood that back up to this parking lot he's out in one of the those
backyards his backyard working when he said that he saw a young girl riding a colorful bicycle up and down the ramp
when suddenly a black or dark blue pickup truck drove up to the little girl he says a man hopped out from the truck
and with one Fell Swoop grabbed Amber and forced her into his truck she tried to kick and let out one
loud scream the truck left the parking lot and turned West on East Abram Street Jim keville immediately called
the police who were on the scene un Less Than 3 minutes time the officers found no sign of Amber except for her
abandoned bike it's not that big of a city so you got Patrol officers probably on that main road so they they respond
as quick as possible I mean a thre minute turnaround time you can't blame the police for that that one but could
you even imagine seeing what he saw it probably took him longer than the action that he saw it probably took him a
little bit of time to gather his thoughts on what did I just see did I see somebody kidnap a girl or or was
this her parents retrieving her from the time Amber and Ricky left their grandparents home to ride bikes to the
time that the neighbor Jim keville called police is approximately 8 minutes minutes that had elapsed 8 minutes time
that's it that is how quick all of this went down this here is some very detailed information so I say listen
closely so this is from WFT v9 and it states a 78-year-old man who lived down the street witnessed a terrible sight
through the chain link fence that separated his backyard from the rear of this article refers to it as a strip
mall I wouldn't call it a strip mall it looks like three businesses in a large parking lot to me where the store was
located the witness Jimmy keville told CBS Dallas Fort Worth about the experience in
2016 he says quote I saw Amber riding up and down we should note here keville passed away months after this interview
but he goes on to say she was by herself I saw this black pickup he pulled up jumped out and grabbed her
when she screamed I figured the police ought to know about this so I called them he says Amber also tried to kick
the man as he forced her into the truck keville is a US Navy veteran and former sheriff's deputy he told police that as
he hurried into his house to call 911 he saw the kidnapper pull out of the parking lot and head West on Abram
Street he described Amber's abductor as a white or Hispanic man in his 20s or 30s under 6 feet tall with a
medium build and brown or black hair his truck was a single cab pickup it was in
good condition and was solid black with no Chrome or striping police have said that the truck was believed to be a
1980s or 1990s full-sized Fleet side pickup with a short wheel base and a non-sliding clear
rear window but this is Arlington Texas my friend and to find a black pickup truck in Arlington Texas that's like
finding a needle on a hay stack yeah there's a lot of pickup trucks in Texas the what's great here though from a
investigator standpoint is your witness you would hope they had more witnesses right like
said there were people that were at the laundry mat I believe there were people working or even potential customers at
the auto tint shop as well but those people didn't see anything you would hope for more witnesses you would hope
for somebody to have some kind of plate number or a partial plate for you and unfortunately we didn't get that with
Amber's case but the one thing that you do have is your your witness is a one-time police Deputy or sorry
sheriff's deputy so this is a man who at some point has been trained to very quickly observe and take in as
much information and observations of a situation and a person and a a suspect as he can very quickly well what
it makes you wonder though too do is there I know for a long time in Ohio both on
the car you had to have a a front license plate and a back license plate so I wonder in 1996 if that was a law in
Texas or did they only have to have a back plate and it seems to me and I could be wrong but it seems to
me as he's seeing this individual he's almost seeing the truck forward facing or do you think he's seeing it
from behind I I actually think he's seeing it from the side and and look right you know we see a reenactment in
the documentary there's also a dramatization movie about this case that came out many years ago that I'm sure
gives a a slightly different version of the Abduction the the Fort Worth Star Telegram diagram that I referred to
earlier that lays out all the streets and kev's home in relation to where the abduction took place he so his home
pretty much backs up to the his backyard backs up to the laundry mat you know there's there is some distance between
his chain link fence and the laundry mat but I I'm not going to lie to you man when when I first looked at this
situation I was a little suspicious of this old man I didn't know his background right prior to but the reason
why I was supicious was something that you're kind of honing in on here with with the him not seeing the plate
because in his one description he says that her feet didn't touch the ground meaning the abductor picked her up and
carried her she lets out the scream and carries her and forces her into the truck and hit one of his statements to
police is her feet did not touch the ground and I thought if he's in his f backyard how the hell did he see that
low to the ground from his vantage point so I was I'm always suspicious when somebody tells part of a story that just
cannot be or doesn't make sense but then I quickly learn that he has a chain link
fence so he's he's not obstructed his view is not obstructed by his fence it's troubling that he can see
that low to the ground from his vantage point and not see the license plate which would be approximately about the
same height off of the ground that I would expect her her feet to be as the abductors carrying her to the truck but
in this description that is put together with the newspaper here Captain it appears that the truck pulled in at
haste pulls in and and turns into this space that is big enough plenty big enough for his truck to fit between the
laundry mat and the old wind Dixie and that the way that he would have pulled in there naturally would
have given only a side view of the truck now one thing that could have potentially partially obstructed this
eyewitness's view would be the laundry mat itself because how it's positioned from the back of his his lot so
unfortunately our man here doesn't see the plate which would have been of course it's helpful in any case but as
the captain points out there's going to be a lot of trucks and probably a lot of
similar trucks to this one in this area at the time now one thing that they point out
in the documentary that we wouldn't have any ability to know because we're not from this area I'm I've actually been to
Arlington before it it is a great City and if you're ever there I recommend you go to a place called Texas live you will
have a a Fant fantastic time make sure you bring your credit card because you're going to melt it while you're
there but um they they tell us in the documentary that the direction that the witness states that the truck went after
taking the girl would be to be heading back into the busy part of the city which
could be telling it it could be telling it all it also could be nothing the reason why that's important is
she's going to be taken somewhere where the hell did this guy take her they do point out too that somebody could have
taken that same route to try to get to I think it's I35 Interstate 35 that is near there and you would take that
direction to get to that interstate so this detail from the eyewitness lends itself to two things either this person
wanted or needed to go back into the city for some reason because he lives there or plan to take her
somewhere or wanted to get to the interstate to get out of there because like you said this main road just
picture on both sides of this Main Road him this the kidnapper is heading back into the city if you will small City but
on both sides of the road you're going to have businesses but behind those businesses are neighborhoods so there
was also some speculation that maybe he lived in one of these neighborhoods and that he went back on the main road to
turn into a different neighborhood and I think some people are probably questioning what I'm trying to
lay out here and I don't know that I've done a great job of laying it out but because I'm saying two things he could
take him be he could be taking her that direction because he needs to go back into the city for some reason or because
he's trying to get to the interstate which are two different thoughts but what the documentary the
people on the documentary I believe are trying to point out is the problem with going back into the city is now you have
abducted this little girl you have something in your vehicle that you do not want to be seen with right and
you're going to be passing a lot of other motorists passing a lot of other cars and even people walking on
sidewalks you have the potential to be spotted by a lot of more eyewitnesses and and frankly the police said and
detective said the direction that we are told that he went if he didn't want to be seen or or was really worried about
being seen he would have simply taken one of the other streets and got out of town very quickly to unpopulated areas
they they were disappointed that there was no other eyewitness not just from the laundry mat or from the other
business in the lot but from the route that they believe that the abductor took with Amber in his pickup but I think if
you're in law enforcement you have to say there is no action that the kidnapper took to let us
to lead us to believe that he knew the city or didn't know the city that's just there's no evidence to speculate I
think one way or the other is kind of what you're saying no I I wouldn't say that I what I'm saying is that if the
route that he took that he chose to take in that moment whether it be planned or panicked or what have you
right he chose to take that route and I think he chose to take that route and I think that the investigators are
thinking this and not so much saying it out loud but he chose to take that route
because it was necessary for him for some reason meaning if he simply wanted to detect or
avoid being detected or getting pulled over with this kid in his car he would have taken any other route
but he took this route taking him back to where the most populated portion of the city would be right but what I'm
saying what I'm saying is there's no clear indication of was he heading to another neighborhood within this town or
was he heading in to a direction to to get out of town because essentially those are the same direction exactly but
what I'm pointing out is that the need could be the same for either but regardless of what he was doing in that
moment there was a need for him to go in that direction when you talk about Captain does this guy does the abductor
know the city doesn't know the city it gets tough to say I I'm under the belief that he knows the city and we'll get
into that here with more details about this case in a minute what did the abductor know and what he didn't
know I think is key to get into here briefly and touch on it here briefly because I was quite surprised that some
of the early speculation in this case by people that news outlets were talking to
back in 1996 well this abductor must have been somebody that was had some kind of
relationship knew Amber she was familiar with him he I don't know that I would go
as far to say the word grooming but that seemed to be some of the speculation that was being discussed with these news
outlets early on in the investigation now while it's great to keep the story in the papers and keep the story on the
6:00 and the the 10 and 11:00 news that was surprising to me because cuz you saw
the documentary and one thing that the detectives stated in the documentary was based off of our eyewitness's account
yes we have every reason to believe that the abductor probably didn't know Amber
that she didn't know him and that's why she screamed like it like he runs out grabs her forcefully grabs her she kicks
him screams and he forces her into the truck meaning if it was somebody that knew she was familiar with he could have
quietly coaxed her into his truck rather than this I I mean I hate to say it this way but this looks
like a snatch and grab situation he just like truck pulls up sees a victim potential victim alone vulnerable pulls
up comes to a screeching stop hops out of the truck and as fast as he can grabs this little girl and boom he's back in
his truck and he's getting out onto the street again and I'm glad you bring this
up because when you think about the eyewitness even if he doesn't have a chain link fence if the perpetrator this
kidnapper picks her up and is carrying the kid sideways you would know that her feet didn't hit the ground and so I
think this is a very good point and and it makes zero sense to me why would why they would say well we think that maybe
this kidnapper knows her this is not the action of a person that knows the victim
this is a action of a person that saw an opportunity and kidnapped this girl viciously violently and and quick
there's a quickness here and like you said if you knew her you could hey put your bike in the back of my truck and I
I'll drive you back to your grandpa's house she gets in the truck and you don't take her back to the grandpa's
house or hey Amber it's it's me your buddy Tony or whoever if if she knows you if you've been grooming her she's
not going to have any fear of getting in the truck with you yeah I I believe what
the detectives say I believe what you're saying I agree with all of that because
if one thing we do know when we try to get into the psychology of these cases is that usually when a
perpetrator knows the victim the closer that relationship the greater lengths and
efforts the offender will go to to conceal and hide what they did and cover up what
they did confuse the investigation confuse the detectives that could have you could have added a speed bump into
this whole scenario just by taking the bike but he didn't he took the girl and not the bike can you imagine had our
eyewitness seen the guy come up and grab the girl and grab the bike he might have
just thought oh I don't need to call this in this is not this is a dad is mad at little girl girl doesn't want to go
home girl wants to keep playing kids never want to come home they always want to keep playing he's just taking his kid
and he's taking the bike and he's going home that would have thrown a huge speed
bump into this situation but this guy this abductor in the moment didn't care about any of that
all he cared about was taking the little girl and driving off yeah and also cuz if you take the bike we have no way of
knowing if this kidnapper saw the eyewitness or not but if you take the bike now we don't even know where the
CME scene is if we have no eyewitness her little brother Ricky goes back and says well she was riding up and down on
this ramp and then they go to the ramp and they see no bike they start driving around the
neighborhood see what I'm saying oh exactly they they have to you know they canvas the area anyway talk to all the
neighbors and of anybody that they could speak to anyway but you're exactly right
Captain they they would have a whole different line of questioning talking and canvasing the area because
they would have no idea where the girl went missing from or or that she was abduct this is this is one thing I I
wanted to point out this is one thing that was so very horrific about this particular case to me compared to the
dozens and dozens of cases that we've covered in the past and I'm sure it MIRS some cases in some regard but this is
not a story of a missing kid this is not the story of a missing then later we find out a murdered child this is the
story of every parents's worst nightmare this was an abduction a little 9-year-old girl was taken snatched off
of the streets of Arlington Texas a witness calls Emergency Services sounded the alarm he called because he watched
and knew in the very moment from what his eyeballs were telling him this some man grabbed this little girl from off of
her bike and drives off with her in his truck this is a story and a case where right out of
the gate as soon as the alarm is raised with he's calling he's walking into his home to call
911 while the abduction is still in progress is how quickly this is taking place so this is a rare
scenario where you know immediately this isn't some kid that isn't where she you
know is off where she shouldn't be is in the basement of a friend's house and you
just can't find her and this is not a case where she mysteriously disappears right kid walking home never seen again
kid riding bike never seen again no this is a witness saw the abduction and you know from second one in this case we are
talking about an abduction look abductions of this type are very rare stranger abductions even more rare thank
God but even with how safe this area Arlington Texas was and still is and how rare abductions would be you know that
these police officers and detectives they're hearing this 911 call they're getting they're interviewing the
eyewitness can you imagine they know right away what we're dealing with here this is not a custody battle issue this
is not she went off with somebody that she knows this is a stranger abduction and it's the Abduction of the worst
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Amber Alert ////// Part 1

Episode: 813

Amber Alert: The Unsolved Case of Amber Hagerman

Part 1 of 2

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January 13, 1996 - 9 year old Amber Hagerman was taken off of her pink bicycle and we are still looking for her killer. A still unidentified man snatched Amber off of her bike in broad daylight in a public area. Sadly her body was found 4 days later in a location nearby. Today we have the Amber Alert, an emergency broadcast alert system aimed at saving lives and bringing children home. If you have any information about Amber’s case please contact the Arlington Police Department Detectives at 1-817-274-4444 or remain anonymous and contact crime stoppers of Tarrant County at 1-817-469-TIPS (8477). If you would like to help to bring more kids home - consider donating to the True Crime Garage / National Center for Missing and Exploited Children campaign by typing True Crime Garage NCMEC into your search engine browser.

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Brief Summary

Amber Hagerman, 9, is abducted in Arlington, Texas, in 1996, leading to a frantic search and investigation after a witness sees the crime.

Key points

The Search for Amber Hagerman. Amber's abduction leads to a desperate search by family and community.
Amber's Life Before the Tragedy. A glimpse into Amber's happy childhood before her disappearance.
The Abduction of Amber Hagerman. In just 8 minutes, a young girl is abducted while riding her bike.
Witness Account. A neighbor describes seeing Amber being abducted by a man in a pickup truck.
The Abduction of Amber. A chilling account of a 9-year-old girl snatched from the streets of Arlington, Texas.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I just want to touch her and hold her now.

Amber's mother expressing her desperation during the search.

4:52WatchJan 15, 2025

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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