182. The Kidnapping Behind The Amber Alert
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Hey everybody, welcome back to our podcast. This is Murder With My Husband. I'm Peyton Moreland. And I'm Garrett Moreland. And he's the husband. And I'm the husband. Well, if you didn't listen to our midweek feed drop, then boy, do we have news for you. This is very true. Major, major news. Garrett and I are doing our first in-person Murder With My Husband live show. Honestly, it might be the only one we ever do. Really? Yeah.

I mean, I'm so freaking nervous. I'm excited. I'm all the things. I just want it to be great. We've put a lot of preparation and planning into it. So it is October 26th in Brea, California. Please, if you're nearby, please, please, please come. I assume there's tickets still available unless for some reason when we announced it on Friday, everyone bought tickets. But I mean, if people want to see, is that bad? I just...

like it feels weird it feels weird that i don't know it doesn't feel real i guess we'll see how i feel once we get there and i get on the stage i'm gonna be like holy crap i'm more interested to see if i'm as nerd like if i'm more nervous than i used to be to dance on stage

That's the only performing I've ever done. It's just going to be weird because we are used, we've been talking to the camera and these microphones for the last three years. Yeah. So it seems weird that we're going to do one in person. I don't know.

Pretty nuts. Okay, but anyways, yeah, in-person live show. That's like major news. It's October 26th. It's our very spooky Halloween live show. Spectacular. We are so excited. Okay, Garrett, I think that leads us into your 10 seconds. Well, I won my fantasy. I won week one in both leagues that I'm in currently. Easy week, easy win. You know, same old, same old. So we'll see what happens in week two this week. If anyone else has a fantasy team,

I'll put my team up against yours. Last time I was talking about how I wanted to do an Ironman, I've gone really far. I haven't run a single mile or biked or swam. A lot of progress going on there, but I think we'll get there eventually. What do you think? I'm going to have to go with no, but I'll support you if you do. I'm going to do it. I just, you know, it's hard to just go running. Hard to just, I don't have a bike, so I guess we'll get there.

but i'd rather like play sports than run you know what i'm saying last but not least i'm working really hard on trying to train daisy like i want her to be just tip top shape i want her just everything i say she just listens she knows exactly what's going on i want her to be like a canine german shepherd but she's not even close to the size and

Yeah, but I just want, you know, I just want to train her. Not like attack. I mean, that'd be kind of cool if this little dog could attack people. But just like, I already have, we have sit down, you know, stay. Here's, I don't know, recall. She's pretty good at that. I would say her recall is probably 70%.

um she's pretty good at you know when we say go potty she goes to the bathroom but i need to be better at like healing like so heal any off-leash work recall like all the time like as soon as i recall her whether there's another dog or whatever she comes the biggest thing is she's scared of other dogs very intimidated like very timid and intimidated she doesn't want to play with them she wants to just walk around them

we've we'd had her around a bunch of dogs and people as a puppy and i don't know she just she doesn't like other dogs so i did ask a trainer and they said well do you like everybody yeah but she likes nobody she likes nobody she's not aggressive at all she in fact she rolls over on her on her back yeah so i don't know

We'll figure it out. I'm going to keep doing some research. If anyone has any tips, feel free to comment them, send them in. I'm always open to it. Okay, let's get into it. Our sources for this episode are allthatsinteresting.com, thecrimewire.com, missingkids.org, Dallas News, CBS News, Refinery29, finelaw.com, Daily Mail, Peacock's Amber, the girl behind the alert, Child Crime Prevention and Safety Center, NBC Dallas Fort Worth, and Cold Case is a True Crime Collection by Shaina Roth. Okay, eight minutes.

Let's be honest, you can't get a whole lot done in eight short minutes. Maybe a quick shower, less than half an episode of The Office, heat up some old leftovers. But eight minutes was all it took for the Hagerman family's life to change forever. In January 1993, nine-year-old Amber asked if she could go for a ride on the new bike that she'd just gotten for Christmas. "Don't go far," her mother told her. Amber only rode up the block,

But she never turned back because eight minutes later, the only thing left of Amber was that hot pink bike turned over sideways in a nearby parking lot.

It only took eight quick minutes for Amber to disappear. And while Amber never came home, those eight minutes have saved over a thousand children, giving them years that might have otherwise been taken from them. Because Amber Hagerman's disappearance started the Amber Alert. No way. And that's the case we're covering today. I didn't know where you were going with this, and now that makes sense.

Our story today takes place in a little city in Texas midway between Dallas and Fort Worth. It's called Arlington. Today it's home to almost 400,000 people. So by no means is it the small town feeling many of our stories happen to come with.

But being home to the University of Texas at Arlington and the Texas Rangers at Global Life Field, it does have a strong community. People are loyal to Arlington. Many of the homes there have been occupied by the same families for decades. And in the 1990s, it was considered a family-friendly city, not a high-crime area.

which might be why Donna Whiteson felt comfortable staying in the town of Arlington after she grew up and raising her own two kids there. Donna discovered she was pregnant with her first child at 18 years old. She'd met her baby's father, 34-year-old Richard Hagerman, when she was out walking around the neighborhood one afternoon with friends. Both of them were locals, and despite their age gap, Donna fell for Richard. The two eventually tied the knot.

On November 25th, 1986, they welcomed their first child, who they named Amber. Just a heads up, that is the same day Peyton was born. I swear I don't intentionally pick these cases with our birthdays. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm sure, I'm sure.

Amber had bright blue eyes and dark brown hair with thick bangs, a style not unlike her mother's. She also had these tiny freckles that peppered her always smiling cheeks. And as she grew older, Amber became obsessed with things like I Love Lucy, vanilla ice cream, her Girl Scout troop, and her little brother Ricky, who was born four years after her. But

But over time, the relationship between Donna and Richard soured. Donna claimed that Richard was always out partying with friends and that he had begun abusing alcohol and on at least one occasion had physically assaulted her. The yelling in the house had gotten so bad that neighbors often had to call the police on the couple.

In fact, law enforcement had knocked on the door so many times that they eventually insisted if they came back again, they'd be taking the children with them. And that was all Donna had to hear to make a change. Donna took the seven-year-old Amber and the three-year-old Ricky and finally left the home that she shared with Richard. For two days, Donna and the kids slept in her car, terrified that if she went to her parents' home, Richard would find them and convince them to move back.

Eventually, Donna took the children with her to a local women's shelter. She lived there for about six weeks while they helped get Donna and her family back on their feet.

Donna found her own apartment and got herself on welfare. And soon she Amber and Ricky were starting their next chapter of their lives for her. Of course, it wasn't easy for Donna to be raising two kids all on her own. So every dollar counted and small things that the kids wanted to do, like go to a skating party at school had to be passed up on because Donna couldn't afford the tickets.

But Donna always put a positive spin on it. She assured the kids they would never go hungry. And come 1995, things were really starting to look up. Donna filed for divorce from Richard. She was volunteering at the food stamp office while she began attending medical school. Most importantly, Amber and Ricky, her two kids, were happy. Over time, Donna even let Richard back into their lives a little bit. She allowed him to come visit with the kids.

And it seemed as though Richard was genuinely trying to clean up his act. Amber, who had always been a little nervous around her father, finally started to warm up around him. And eventually things seem to be going smoothly. Then in August, 1995, Donna was offered a unique opportunity that would bring even more positivity to her life, a chance to help other women like herself.

Pam Curry, a reporter with the WFAA News in Dallas, was looking to make a documentary. As a mother herself, she wanted to share the success stories of single moms who'd made their way off of welfare and gotten a fresh start at life. After contacting a local women's shelter, Pam got Donna's contact information, and after speaking to her, Donna agreed to be the subject of Pam's film.

Throughout the fall of 1995, a camera crew captured hundreds of hours of footage of Donna and her two children.

Amber blowing out candles on her ninth birthday. Amber and Ricky climbing the trees outside of their home. Donna taking the kids to the playground outside their school. - Geez, this just makes everything even worse. - I know. - Like more heartbreaking. - Those tapes had immortalized the Hagerman family, particularly Amber. And in a few short months, that footage would become more crucial than they ever imagined.

On Saturday, January 13th, 1996, Donna had taken Amber and Ricky to a park to play for a few hours in the early afternoon. But by 2.30, they were getting antsy. They wanted to go over to Donna's parents' house and play with the new bikes that they'd just gotten for Christmas. I remember when I got a new bike.

I don't remember how old that was. Probably 13, 12. It was like the best day ever. Best day ever. Did you ever get a new bike when you were a kid? I'm sure, but I remember getting motor scooters. I didn't even have those when I was a kid. Oh my gosh. Me and my sister got them. We walked out to that Christmas tree. Boom. Two bright red motor scooters sitting there. I thought I was like, this is it. I've peaked. My life will never get better than this. That's so funny. It was so fun. They got stolen.

No way. Yeah, right off our doorstep. Oh, man. You know, how sad is that? It's sad. I think it was one of the neighborhood kids. Probably a loser. If you're listening to this, I know it was you. You're a loser. Because the next day, they just happened to have two bright red scooters that their parents had bought them. Are you serious? Dead serious. You're 100% serious? 100% serious, but we couldn't ever prove that they were ours. Oh, I would have taken them back.

these are my scooters i just think it's weird okay never mind i won't go there but i was gonna say i think it's a little weird that the parents would lie too yeah so by 3 p.m that day they arrived at their grandparents arlington home the kids offered up their hugs and almost immediately hopped on their new bikes

Donna had let them ride around the neighborhood dozens of times before. This felt no different aside from the fact it was an unseasonably warm January day. The two kids didn't even need their jackets. It was about 3:10 PM when the nine-year-old Amber in her little pink jeans and camp t-shirt went riding down the block away from the house. Donna yelled after her not to go farther than a block.

Amber yelled back, okay, mommy, we promise, while five-year-old Ricky rode behind his sister trying to keep up. Ricky and Amber had their usual route, but that day when they reached the end of the block, Amber made a left instead of their usual right to complete the loop back home.

She told Ricky, today they were going to the Winn-Dixie grocery store parking lot. They had a cool ramp there that she'd seen, one that would be fun to ride their bikes down. It was only one more block. So what was the big deal?

but the five-year-old ricky was worried their mother would find out he didn't want to get in trouble she had specifically told them to only go a block he begged amber to turn around to come back home with him and when she didn't ricky turned around by himself and went back on his own it was 3 18 p.m when ricky returned to the house he'd only been gone eight minutes

But Amber wasn't behind him. Their grandfather was working in the garage as Ricky pulled up, and when he asked where Amber was, Ricky said she'd stayed behind to play with the ramps in the parking lot. Their grandfather scooped Ricky up, threw him in his truck, and drove over to the Winn-Dixie. Oh, this makes me sick. Like, we haven't even gotten into it, and I'm just sick to my stomach. I know. But by the time he got there, the only thing they found was Amber's pink bike laid out on its side.

Around the same time, a 911 call was coming in to the local Arlington dispatcher, and it wasn't from Amber's grandfather. The caller lived across the street from the Winn-Dixie, and he'd just seen something alarming. The witness's name was Jimmy Kevil, a 78-year-old retired sheriff's deputy. Jimmy told the operator that while he was out doing some yard work that day, he noticed a black pickup truck pulling to the parking lot and grab a little girl off her bike.

He said the girl screamed so loud that he could hear it clear as day from across the street on his property. From the distance, he couldn't make out a full description of the man, but he got the basics. He said the suspect looked to be in his 20 or 30s, either white or Hispanic, less than six feet tall and a medium build. Jimmy also gave them a decent description of the car, a black 1980s or 90s fleet-sized pickup truck with no visible damage.

only he didn't see the license plate number. However, when the driver sped away, they went west on East Abram Street, which meant they were headed towards the downtown area of Arlington. - All right, probably not expecting me to start this ad, but I'm gonna start this ad, the Skims ad. And let me tell you about something that Peyton's been wearing. The Skims soft loungewear is amazing. It feels great.

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Now, considering the suspect drove through a busier area of town, police wondered if he had a specific destination in mind. One that would have made it hard for him to avoid the downtown area. They figured if the man was from out of town, he likely would have turned east out of the parking lot to go get on the highway. Unfortunately, the suspect's car was not in the area.

Unfortunately, there's little evidence to go off of at the scene itself. There's no tire marks left from the vehicle, so no way to identify it further. Nothing left behind by the driver, like a cigarette butt or a piece of clothing that might offer some DNA. There was, however, a laundry mat on the other side of that parking lot, which typically would mean more potential witnesses.

Problem was the laundromat windows faced a different direction away from the lot. And when police questioned those inside, no one admitted to seeing the kidnapping. So for now, Jimmy Kevill remained their one and only witness. The next thing police did was put a call to dispatch looking for any black pickup trucks in the immediate area with a driver who might match Jimmy's description. But keep in mind, this is Texas.

There's a lot of black pickup trucks on the road. A few of them were pulled over that afternoon, but none brought police any closer to finding Amber Hagerman, which was terrifying because when it comes to child kidnappings, time is extremely of the essence. Statistics show that in 74% of child abduction cases that turn into a homicide, the child is killed within the first three hours of being taken. I actually thought it would be less.

I mean, that's quick, but I was thinking like an hour or so. Yeah, it's actually like a devastating statistic. Oh, yeah, it's 70%, right? 74. Yeah, that's insane. So if Amber's abductor did plan to take her life, police had to move quickly to save her, which means getting information out to the public was a critical step on the afternoon of January 13th.

And luckily for the Hagerman's, Donna's been doing this documentary. So not only do they have still photos of Amber to show the public, they have video footage of her living her life, being a little girl, playing with her younger brother. It really humanized her to anyone watching the six o'clock news that evening. And it led to over 200 tips within the first 24 hours of her disappearance.

but police also have to eliminate one disturbing possibility that any family members were involved so keep in mind only 28 of kidnappings are performed by complete strangers which which makes sense i mean anytime we hear about an amber alert i feel like 80 of the time it's always some family member yeah like whenever i look back at the amber alert try to find more information it's always some family member

Um, dad, mom, brother, sister, someone who had taken the kids. Well, 50% are done by a family member and the other 22% by an acquaintance of the family. Oh, so someone they know. Yes. So 72%. All right. So it makes sense that law enforcement would want to better understand the dynamic of Donna and Richard is the dad in the picture. Did he possibly kidnap his daughter? They wanted to make sure he had an alibi during the time of the kidnapping.

Even Donna questions at first whether Richard might have played a role in Amber's disappearance. But after seeing him face to face, she thinks there is absolutely no way. He was too distraught. It just didn't make sense. Police, however, needed more than gut to rule him out.

Richard was cooperative with their investigation, which certainly helped his case. Some detectives actually said he bared his soul to them during the interrogation. Plus, video footage caught him in the warehouse where he worked during the time of the kidnapping, so police were able to corroborate his alibi. To top it all off, Richard even passed a lie detector test, which fully eliminated him as a suspect. Don't take them.

But there was someone close to Richard that they felt should be looked into further, a family friend named Mike Thompson.

Richard had been living with Mike in the months since his divorce. And Mike was often included in family outings, so he'd spent time with both kids, Amber and Ricky. Now, there were a few things that made Mike suspicious to detectives. For starters, he'd kind of inserted himself into the case pretty early on, almost making himself out to be a spokesman for the family. Why? They all do that. Anytime we hear about the killing, I mean, not all of them.

A lot of them, anytime we hear about a killing, kidnapping, so on and so forth, they always insert themselves in the investigation. It's a way to relive the crime. Yeah. It's gotta be some ego, something they get off on, which is super disturbing. He was chatting with reporters, commenting on the state of the family's wellbeing, just that sort of thing. And when police see someone overly inserting themselves into a trauma like this, their first question is what is this person overcompensating for?

But that's not the only questionable thing about Mike. He also happens to own a black pickup truck. Of course he does. One that some sources say does match the description Jimmy Kevil had reported. But again, it's Texas. Seems like you can't throw a stone without hitting a vehicle like this, which means it's not quite enough to lock in on Mike. So they look into his alibi.

Now, Mike is a delivery truck driver who transports auto parts. And every time he makes a stop somewhere, there's a log of it. Well, on January 13th, around the same time that Amber was taken, Mike was at a location about 45 minutes away, dropping off a shipment. So Mike's alibi also checks out.

Plus, police have to take into consideration that Amber knows Mike. If he wanted to kidnap her, he probably could have just lured her into the car. He wouldn't have had to cause a scene, make her scream. Yeah, that's true. A simple conversation or I need to take you home to your parents probably would have done it.

he likely wouldn't have scooped Amber off her bike. So the police think the Mike Thompson theory just doesn't add up, which is why they go to the more difficult scenario that the person who took Amber Hagerman was in fact a complete stranger. Now in the days following Amber's disappearance, Arlington got eerily quiet. If there was a kidnapper on the loose looking to target children, that meant everyone's kid could be next.

Streets that were just days ago full of kids playing kickball or out selling Girl Scout cookies were now completely empty. Every corner offered a reminder of Amber's disappearance with her photo stapled to a telephone pole.

Meanwhile, the Arlington Police Department assembled a task force of 15 detectives, people who were great with interrogating suspects, who had a strong attention to detail, who refused to let anything slip through their cracks. They also contacted everyone on their list of registered sex offenders in the area.

The belief was that whoever pulled this off had likely attempted it at least once before or a crime similar to it, which is a good theory. What are the chances that the first time someone tries to kidnap someone, they do it successfully? This actually reminds me of our Dear Daisy story where she almost got kidnapped and then a couple weeks later, someone actually did get kidnapped by the guy. But on January 17th, four days after Amber was taken, the case took a massive turn.

and not in the direction these detectives were hoping for. It was a Wednesday night, and a giant thunderstorm had just rolled through the Dallas-Fort Worth area, bringing back that January winter chill.

That evening, a call came in to the local 911 operator at around 11.30 p.m. The woman said her neighbor had come up and knocked on their apartment door. He'd found a body in the creek behind their apartment complex. He was afraid the body might wash away with the recent rains. They needed the police to come quickly.

Now, the neighborhood found the body was named Stuart Kocher. He'd been out walking his terrier, Yoda, after the storm subsided, but he became alarmed when Yoda wouldn't stop barking at something in the creek behind their Forest Ridge apartment complex, a location that was only about four miles from where Amber had been taken. The body appeared to be of a little girl, but she was face down and naked, aside from the one sock still on her foot. Oh my gosh. That's so sad. The only way to know

the only thing that had stopped her from washing away was the fact that she was caught in the brush along the side of the creek so police arrived moments later on the scene and they rolled the body over for a better look going off a few identifying birth marks they were able to confirm this was in fact the body of nine-year-old amber hagerman she was covered in bruises and appeared to have several cuts around her throat

Now collecting evidence, particularly DNA evidence, was going to be near impossible at this crime scene. By this point, Amber's body had been rinsed by thousands of gallons of rainwater. Judging by the state of her decomposition, police determined Amber had probably been kept alive for about two days before she was killed. - Whoa, that's a long time. - And taken to this area.

Amber's family was notified almost right away, but they were in complete disbelief. It's kind of crazy because I know we're going to get into it, but it's pretty mind-boggling to me that

There wasn't something before Amber Alert. You know, I mean, I know it feels like there always needs to be something tragic or something crazy needs to happen before this stuff is implemented. But, like, how do we not think about it earlier? Yeah, how do we not think to send something out at mass and say, hey, everyone on the lookout. I know, I know, I know.

Richard, her dad, refused to accept the news and kept shaking his head saying, no, she's still alive. But Arlington police didn't have time for doubt. They had to face the truth. They were no longer dealing with a missing persons case. This was now a homicide.

Investigators returned to the creek several times over the next few days and here's what they started to believe. Essentially, they felt the person who killed and disposed of Amber's body knew the apartment complex well, including the fact that there was a creek that ran through the property. Police believed that disposing of her body in this way, especially during the storm, was an intentional move. It was premeditated.

which would mean the suspect was probably a local in the area. Aside from that, there were two gates that allowed access to the apartment complex, a main gate and a side gate. Only the side gate had recently been broken and was waiting for repairs, which meant anyone could have come and gone from the complex without much issue. Now, there was also a security camera, one that captured footage along the main entrance.

So police spent hours combing the grainy tapes, analyzing any cars that may have entered through there or gone around the side.

and they clock dozens of vehicles. At one point, they even spot a dark pickup truck pulling into the area, but with all the wind and rain that happened, the quality of the footage from the time around Amber's possible drop-off was extremely low. The camera was shaking as the rain made the picture even grainier, so there was no way to identify if the truck they'd seen was the same one that had first abducted Amber.

And there was certainly no way to pull or run plates off of the footage. So essentially the tapes lead nowhere. So over the next several days, they took another approach. Local police joined forces with the FBI to question every maintenance person, gardener, and independent contractor that had passed through the property. They're thinking maybe this person doesn't live here. Maybe they worked here.

They went door to door and spoke with every single resident in the building, but no one had seen or said anything suspicious to investigators. By the end, they'd produced no new leads. The Forest Ridge apartment complex became another dead end in the Amber Hagerman case. Where'd you go? Where do you go after this?

It feels like a case that can't be solved. Well, it feels like it should be like there was an eyewitness. We know it was a black truck. We have the description. She stayed alive for two days after being kidnapped. Like that feels solvable. There's no DNA. There's no cameras, no camera footage. It's not 2023 where everyone has phones and everyone can track each other.

like it would you so hard so hard by january 19th an autopsy had been performed on amber and it revealed a little more insight into those days amber was missing the pathologist confirmed that amber had died of the laceration to her neck but didn't find many other injuries on her body it didn't appear as if amber had been restrained and there were no defensive wounds showing amber might have fought back against her attacker despite her lack of clothing

They also found no signs of sexual assault. I was going to ask that because if that is the case, this makes no sense. Yes. This poses another issue for detectives. Why? Because Amber's clothing would have made for great evidence. Yeah. It could have included traces of the suspect's DNA or fibers that might've transferred from their clothing to hers. It was also difficult to collect DNA from under Amber's fingernails, given the amount of water she'd been in.

So with still only one witness and hardly any evidence to go off of, finding Amber's killer wasn't going to be easy, but the police weren't ready to give up. On January 20th, the family held a funeral for Amber and the turnout was...

Unbelievable. Thousands of people showed up to pay their respects to the nine-year-old girl. But outside the funeral home, police were keeping a close eye on those coming and going. They wanted to see if there was anyone acting suspicious, perhaps someone lurking around the scene, unsure of whether to go in. But after analyzing thousands over the course of the six-hour viewing, police found no one who seemed out of character or worth looking into further.

Yet, over the next few weeks, tips continued to flood into the hotlines. Everything from a sighting of a black pickup truck to full names of potential suspects. Imagine how many people called in and were like, hey, I just saw a black pickup truck. Yeah. Probably so many. That's when one woman called to say she had actually seen the abduction happen.

she described the vehicle much like jimmy kevil had on the day he reported the disappearance she insisted she had seen amber sitting in the front seat of the car as it drove off banging on the window she even included a partial license plate number for the police to work off of which was a first for the case kind of confused i'm not blaming her anything but

Does she say why she didn't say this? Yeah. A long time ago? Maybe at first she just thought it was a kid acting up in a car. And then once she learned of the case, maybe it just took her this long to learn.

- Oh, it's felt like everyone knew about it in that city. - Probably, but you just never know. - Dang it. - Yeah, that's why we have Amber Alert. - So the task force immediately followed up on the lead and thanks to the help of Ford, they also had a list of vehicles that were sold in the area that fit the description of the black truck, as well as partial license plates and who the vehicle had been sold to.

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Detectives identified a potential suspect who happened to be an Arlington local and even lived in the direction the truck went right after the abduction. So detectives head to the home. They knock on the door and the man inside is extremely cooperative. He let the police inside his house without a warrant, allowed them to search his property, but there was nothing inside that indicated this person had anything to do with Amber's kidnapping or death.

So police have to go back to this woman who called in the tip. And after offering a few inconsistent details, she totally caves. She says she made the whole thing up. Bet you weren't expecting that. I was not and I'm kind of pissed off. Why? Why would someone do that? Claims she felt so bad for the family that she just wanted to give them something.

Some semblance of hope, something to hold on to even for a day. Dude, get out of here. Nobody, please nobody do that. Unfortunately, all she did was waste the time and resources of the local task force and add more disappointment for the family. As more time passed, Donna began to lose faith that the police were ever going to locate her daughter's killer. As a result, Donna channeled her time and energy into making sure this sort of thing wouldn't happen to anyone else's child.

She began organizing city council and school board meetings, standing in front of hundreds of people hoping to put in more prevention measures. But just 20 miles away, over in Fort Worth, Texas, was another mother. Someone who'd been so moved by Amber's story that she was developing an idea. One that would change the entire nation. And her name was Diane Simone.

And the day Amber went missing, she was watching the 6 o'clock news, as well as the footage the documentary crew had taken of Amber Hagerman in the months before her death. And Diane couldn't turn away from the scenes of Amber blowing out her birthday candles or climbing that tree with her brother Ricky. Amber had come to life on Diane's screen. And Diane figured there must be something we can all do as a community to bring missing kids home.

Seconds after watching the news, Diane called the local radio station to ask if they had any formal system for alerting the public about a missing child and offering a description of who might have taken them.

When they admitted they didn't, Diane put her own plan in motion. She figured if they could alert the public about severe weather warnings, then why not just do something similar for child abductions? So she called her initiative Amber's Plan. And by the end of 1996, Diane had gotten seven local radio stations to participate in her new alert system.

They teamed up with local police departments who provided them with information about the suspect and the vehicle they were driving. Then the radio stations issued their message along with an unmissable sound.

Today, you're probably more familiar with them coming through your cell phone along with the system's updated title, Amber Alerts. And then you get those crazy vibrations as well. The first two cases where the Amber Alert was issued didn't produce the results the public was hoping for. But in November 1998, that all changed.

That fall, a woman named Patricia Sokoloski was living in Arlington, Texas with her eight-week-old daughter, Ray Lee. Patricia's friend, a woman named Sandra Follis, had offered to start babysitting Ray Lee so Sandra could return to work. One morning, Patricia dropped her daughter off at Sandra's home with her diaper bag, and Sandra said she'd bring Ray Lee back as soon as Patricia got home that evening,

Only Sandra didn't keep her promise. When it started to get late and Patricia couldn't reach Sandra, she began calling local hospitals. The word kidnapping had not yet crossed her mind. But when there was still no sign of Sandra or her two-month-old daughter, Patricia called the police.

That's when they put out an Amber Alert, the third ever Amber Alert for the missing Ray Lee, along with a description of Sandra and her vehicle. Ironically, the vehicle was also a Ford Ranger Splash, just like the one that had taken Amber Hagerman, only a different color. 30 minutes after the Amber Alert hit the airwaves, a call came into the local police station.

A man driving down the freeway had spotted the vehicle he had just heard driving with a baby in the front seat. Minutes later, the closest squad car pulled Sandra over and saved Ray Lee from her kidnapper. She was returned home to her mother that night because of the Amber Alert.

today amber's brother ricky says whenever he hears that amber alert go off he knows it's his sister hard at work looking after those kids on april 30th 2003 president bush made the amber alert a massive part of the american legislator he created a law called the protect act that formalized the government's role in the amber alert system and gave 20 million in funds to the system

By 2005, every U.S. state had signed on to adopt the Amber Alert. According to the Amber Alert website, as of January 2023, 1,127 children had been brought home safely. Whoa, that is a ton. Because of the system.

In a 2016 interview, Amber's mother, Donna, couldn't help but wonder what might have happened to Amber had that system been in place before her daughter disappeared. And that's what I was saying. It sucks that something like this has to happen in order to implement all these systems because what would have happened? We'll never know. And that's hard to think of.

So in 2021, there was a brand new development in Amber Hagerman's case. Investigators told the press they had DNA that might belong to Amber's killer. While they didn't share where the DNA came from or what it might be a sample of, it seems they'd been hanging on to it since they first collected the body. Even better, there was new forensic technology that they believed could help them get a conclusive result on it. It has to be...

Like the whole ancestry thing, like related family members. Their reason for never testing the DNA before was they claimed there was so little of it that they wanted to make sure the technology was fully there before they tested it because they would only get one chance. Correct. The Arlington assistant police chief told the press they were hoping to send that DNA out for testing by February 2021. However, as of this recording, they haven't shared any results of that DNA with the public. Okay.

In fact, it's unclear if they ever followed through, like did they ever even test it or if they're still waiting for technology to improve. Interesting. Still, there's several Arlington police officers who believe Amber's case is worth keeping open that her killer might still be out there.

and there's still an opportunity for the family to see justice. To this day, the department is still taking tips and following up on leads about Amber's disappearance, hoping someone might finally be able to come forward, whether that's turning themselves in or even just as a witness. As far as the Arlington police are concerned, Amber Hagerman's case has never run cold. So if you or anyone you know has information on Amber's disappearance or murder, you can

You can call the Arlington, Texas police at 817-575-8823. You can also call their anonymous tip line under Crime Stoppers at 817-469-8477. And that is the case of Amber Hagerman and how her disappearance started the Amber Alert. I find it hard to believe, and maybe this is rude, but I find it hard to believe that no one saw anything. Kind of like what you were saying. There's all these people. She was alive for two days.

i'm not saying someone's covering for whoever did this but maybe like it just seems i don't know you know what i'm saying though i just think people didn't know what to look for if they had immediately gone out within an hour that there's a black truck with a missing girl in this area who could have seen the truck kids why kids

Why we got to hurt kids? I just like... It's like the worst thing you can do. I just can't imagine. I mean, we all get Amber Alerts. Yes. I can't imagine being her family members and getting another Amber Alert on your phone and knowing that there's another family going through what you went through, but also knowing that because of your daughter and her legacy, you might now have a chance to save someone else. I know. I wonder...

i wonder how hard that is too every time you get an amber alert i'm sure you think of your daughter hopefully it's in a obviously it's in a positive light but it's also just something that i've that's never even crossed my mind before which is probably just another devastating thing that families have to go through of kids who've been kidnapped or murdered i i didn't even think about like how amber alert came to

I mean, I guess it makes sense that it's named Amber Alert. Obviously it's gonna be named after somebody. I just thought that they named it Amber Alert. - Yeah. - And legislation just came up with it and we're like, this is a good idea. But no, of course, I mean. - And it was a civilian. - Yeah. - It was a civilian who was like, if you can warn us about tornadoes, why can't you warn us about kids being kidnapped?

I know. It's actually brilliant. All right, you guys, that is our case for this week. Remember about our live show and we are so excited and we'll see you next week with another episode. I love it. And I hate it. Goodbye.