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Amber Hagerman Part 2: The Search · Gone Cold - Texas True Crime

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Speaker 1: The Gone Cold. Podcasts may contain violent or graphics subject matter.
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Speaker 1: Listener discretion is advised. On Saturday, January thirteenth, nineteen ninety six,
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Speaker 1: a call came in at nine to one to one
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Speaker 1: dispatch in Arlington that would launch one of the largest
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Speaker 1: investigations in North Texas history. Arlington nine one one, what
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Speaker 1: are you reporting? Yeah, I saw a black pickup pull
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Speaker 1: over here on Abrams Street and grabbed a little girl
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Speaker 1: and he took off toward town with her. What kind
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Speaker 1: of truck was he in? Looked like kind of like
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Speaker 1: a Ford, but it was a black one. He didn't
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Speaker 1: bother the bike, He just grabbed her and took off.
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Speaker 1: She hollered real loud because I could hear it plumb
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Speaker 1: over here. So that's what made me think there was
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Speaker 1: something foul about it. Okay, we'll be out there shortly, sir.
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Speaker 1: The caller was seventy eight year old Jimmy Kevell, a
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Speaker 1: retired machinist and World War II to Navy veteran. The
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Speaker 1: girl he saw snatched right off her bicycle on the
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Speaker 1: east side of an abandoned wind Dixie grocery store was
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Speaker 1: nine year old Amber Hagerman. She and her five year
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Speaker 1: old brother Ricky, had ridden their bikes to the vacant
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Speaker 1: building to ride up and down the truck delivery ramp.
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Speaker 1: Ricky didn't stay long before heading back, fearing the trouble
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Speaker 1: he'd be in for breaking the rules their mother had set,
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Speaker 1: which did not include a truck ramp at a vacant
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Speaker 1: grocery store. Amber stayed behind, but assured her little brother
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Speaker 1: she'd be along soon. The winter day was unseasonably warm
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Speaker 1: at almost eighty degrees, so Jimmy Kevell just so happened
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Speaker 1: to be out back doing yard work. Since his backyard
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Speaker 1: was separated from the site of the abduction by a
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Speaker 1: chain link fence and a grass alleyway, Jimmy's line of
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Speaker 1: sight was base unobstructed, and not much more than one
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Speaker 1: hundred feet separated the man from what he saw. He
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Speaker 1: noticed a little girl riding around the ramp of the
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Speaker 1: former grocery store and in circles next to it in
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Speaker 1: the parking lot, and she seemed care free, happy, just
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Speaker 1: a kid having fun. The loading ramp was no longer
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Speaker 1: in use, of course, so the area of the parking
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Speaker 1: lot had become a relatively popular place for neighborhood kids
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Speaker 1: to ride their bikes, something that had also become known
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Speaker 1: to men with depraved intentions. Perhaps in the split second,
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Speaker 1: Jimmy noticed a black pickup truck driving west through the
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Speaker 1: parking lot. He didn't think much of it, particularly since
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Speaker 1: it appeared to be the same vehicle he had noticed
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Speaker 1: part in the lot earlier. Likely, Jimmy thought the truck
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Speaker 1: might belong to an employee or patron of the laundromat
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Speaker 1: next door to the abandoned grocery, But when the driver
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Speaker 1: exited the vehicle and headed toward Amber, the witness's casual
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Speaker 1: observations quickly sharpened. The man accosted the nine year old
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Speaker 1: as she was riding, grabbed her right up under the arm,
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Speaker 1: as Jimmy described it, lifted her off the bicycle, which
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Speaker 1: rolled briefly before falling on its side, and Amber began screaming.
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Speaker 1: If the thought ever crossed Jimmy's mind that this man
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Speaker 1: was the girl's father and was scolding her for doing
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Speaker 1: something she wasn't supposed to be doing, the scream exed
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Speaker 1: out that scenario, the fact that the bicycle had been
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Speaker 1: left behind, that the man hadn't bothered it. As Jimmy
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Speaker 1: told the nine to one one operator strongly suggested that
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Speaker 1: this was no domestic matter, but it didn't factor into
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Speaker 1: the witness's thoughts at that moment. Rather, it was the
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Speaker 1: girl's terrified shriek, one that could have only come from
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Speaker 1: someone in great distress, that best told the story of
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Speaker 1: what was happening. Jimmy knew what he heard immediately. When
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Speaker 1: he was a young man, he was a deputy sheriff
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Speaker 1: in Los Alamos, New Mexico, until the United States government
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Speaker 1: claimed the scant acreage there they didn't already own, displacing
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Speaker 1: the area's smattering of residents and replacing them with U. C.
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Speaker 1: Berkeley professor J. Robert Oppenheimer and his merry band of
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Speaker 1: scientists whose mission was to research, develop and test nuclear
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Speaker 1: weapons during World War II. The man in the pickup
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Speaker 1: then carried her to the vehicle the way he'd grabbed her,
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Speaker 1: as to not miss a beat and to avoid Amber's
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Speaker 1: attempts at struggling. She was kicking her legs as she screamed,
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Speaker 1: but it did not deter this man. He put her
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Speaker 1: in the truck through the driver's side, got in himself,
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Speaker 1: and began driving. Everything happened in seconds, much too quickly
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Speaker 1: for Jimmy Kevell to react physically. Hell, he didn't even
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Speaker 1: have time to verbally confront the man by the time
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Speaker 1: he realized it was a kidnapping, an almost seamless and
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Speaker 1: well practiced one at that it appeared the truck was
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Speaker 1: driving off. The man drove north through the parking lot,
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Speaker 1: Jimmy said, but hesitated at Abram Street before turning west
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Speaker 1: or left toward the center of Arlington. Knowing something was
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Speaker 1: terribly wrong, the witness rushed inside his house to call
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Speaker 1: nine one one. That call was made at three eighteen pm,
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Speaker 1: eight minutes after Amber Hackerman and her little brother Ricky
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Speaker 1: left their grandparents home to ride their bikes, and the
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Speaker 1: search for the nine year old and her abductor began.
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Speaker 1: Arlington Police patrol officers arrived at the scene of Amber
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Speaker 1: Hagerman's abduction within minutes of witness Jimmy Kevell calling nine
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Speaker 1: one one. Jimmy told them everything he had told the
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Speaker 1: emergency dispatch operator, along with all the specific details he knew.
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Speaker 1: The witness believed the black pickup truck was a Ford,
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Speaker 1: though he couldn't swear to it. Having been in law enforcement,
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Speaker 1: Jimmy's attention to detail was keen and left little to
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Speaker 1: the imagination. The vehicle was a late eighties or early
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Speaker 1: nineties model and appeared to be stock, he told officers,
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Speaker 1: meaning he saw no signs that modifications had been made.
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Speaker 1: The full size, fleet side single cab truck had a
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Speaker 1: single paned rear window with no sliding glass opening. Jimmy
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Speaker 1: Kevell saw no damage to the truck and the body
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Speaker 1: had no chrome or striping. He described the driver, Amber's
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Speaker 1: subductor as a white or Hispanic male, under six feet tall,
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Speaker 1: with a medium build. His hair was dark brown or black,
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Speaker 1: though he was just far enough away that he couldn't
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Speaker 1: provide much more detail. Jimmy told officers the man wasn't
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Speaker 1: big and that he was very fast. The witness guest
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Speaker 1: his age was between twenty five and forty. When seventy
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Speaker 1: eight year old Jimmy Kevell saw Amber Hagerman's mother, Donna
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Speaker 1: Whitson for the first time after the abduction, he tried
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Speaker 1: to keep his composure. It was obvious Jimmy knew that
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Speaker 1: he appeared anything but stoic. The elderly man was visibly
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Speaker 1: shaken by what had occurred, horrified, but he tried to
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Speaker 1: at least show strength. This, after all, was her mother.
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Speaker 1: It was all he could do to fight back the
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Speaker 1: tears when he told Donna, I couldn't do anything, as
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Speaker 1: if he were trying to convince himself. Jimmy would spend
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Speaker 1: a lot of time from here on out doing just that.
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Speaker 1: He did great. Amber's mother replied, I wish I'd known more,
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Speaker 1: Jimmy later said, referring to what he had told police,
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Speaker 1: I'd done all I could do. He had lived in
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Speaker 1: Arlington since nineteen fifty two, the man commented, and Amber's
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Speaker 1: kidnapping had given him something to think about for the
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Speaker 1: next couple decades. This day haunted Jimmy Kevell. In nineteen
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Speaker 1: ninety six, when virtually no normal or perhaps common person
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Speaker 1: owned a mobile phone, messages to telephone answering machines were
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Speaker 1: generally heard in real time if anyone was around to
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Speaker 1: hear it. It's likely no one heard the frantic message
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Speaker 1: blaring from the trebly speaker of Richard Hagerman's best friend's
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Speaker 1: machine as Donna left it. Richard, if you're there, please
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Speaker 1: come to Mama's. Somebody kidnapped Amber. Please, Richard, somebody kidnapped Amber.
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Speaker 1: She's gone. Richard, come and help me, please find Amber.
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Speaker 1: Richard certainly didn't hear it. Amber's father had already planned
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Speaker 1: to come to the home of Jimmy and Glinda Whitson,
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Speaker 1: his would be in laws, to see his kids that day.
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Speaker 1: When he arrived there at about four twenty pm, Donna
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Speaker 1: told him everything. Elsewhere, Arlington PD organized and planned their strategy.
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Speaker 1: Arlington police officers and detectives were not the only ones
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Speaker 1: swarming the home of Jimmy and Glenda Whitson in the
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Speaker 1: city's east on the afternoon of Saturday, January thirteenth, nineteen
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Speaker 1: ninety six. In fact, so much media had shown up newspaper, television,
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Speaker 1: and radio reporters that the cops insisted Donna Whitson, the
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Speaker 1: mother of missing nine year old Amber Hagerman, go inside,
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Speaker 1: not knowing what else to do and stumbling the lines
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Speaker 1: between reality, surreality and hopelessness. She'd been waiting out front
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Speaker 1: for Amber to return. Meanwhile, patrolmen were scouring Arlington and
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Speaker 1: the surrounding areas for Amber's abductor. Arlington policeman Ben Lopez,
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Speaker 1: then a patrol officer, was the first who responded to
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Speaker 1: the area where Amber was taken and subsequently began looking
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Speaker 1: for the suspect. To the east of Amber's abduction site,
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Speaker 1: not sixty feet away, was Quick Wash Laundromat. The self
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Speaker 1: service laundry was busy that Saturday, and detectives hoped there
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Speaker 1: was someone inside that saw something, but they could find
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Speaker 1: no witness there. The building was almost all windows except
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Speaker 1: where it mattered on its west end, meaning anyone inside
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Speaker 1: doing laundry could not have seen the man in the
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Speaker 1: black truck take Amber. A patron would have to be
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Speaker 1: coming or going to have seen anything. It all happened
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Speaker 1: within seconds, which also lessened the chance for witnesses. Still,
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Speaker 1: the police urged folks to come forward with anything that
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Speaker 1: they witnessed, no matter where they were or how insignificant
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Speaker 1: they thought the detail was, insisting that it could be
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Speaker 1: the information that breaks the case and finds Amber. At
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Speaker 1: this time, they said there was only one witness, referring
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Speaker 1: to Jimmy Kevell. The description of the abductor's vehicle was released,
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Speaker 1: the full sized American made black pickup truck, as was
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Speaker 1: a description of Amber. She was about four feet six
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Speaker 1: inches tall and seventy five to eighty pounds. It read
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Speaker 1: with blue eyes. Her long brown hair was pulled back
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Speaker 1: in a ponytail when she was last seen. For reasons unknown,
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Speaker 1: the description seldom mentioned the girl's bangs that featured so
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Speaker 1: prominently in every photograph of Amber ever released, nor did
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Speaker 1: they mention her many freckles. She wore pink jeans and
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Speaker 1: a heather gray T shirt that had many multicolor handprints
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Speaker 1: with the words Camp Heart. Amber's shoes were brown swayed.
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Speaker 1: Though the information was featured on the five or six
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Speaker 1: o'clock news that day, depending what channel, and again at ten,
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Speaker 1: the descriptions didn't hit the local newspapers until the following day. Arlington, Texas,
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Speaker 1: particularly its east side, where Amber was abducted, is a
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Speaker 1: working class city for the most part. In nineteen ninety six,
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Speaker 1: the neighborhood just south of Abrams Street was established, and
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Speaker 1: most who dwelled there were longtime residents. Many of them
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Speaker 1: worked down Abrams to the east at the General Motors plant.
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Speaker 1: Other residents worked at area machine shops that were often
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Speaker 1: contracted by nearby military industrial complex plants like Bell Helicopter, Generaldynamics,
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Speaker 1: and Lockheed Martin, or at the factories themselves, the sea
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Speaker 1: of auto repair shops, small independent restaurants and tote. The
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Speaker 1: note used car lots up and down Abrams Street, where
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Speaker 1: potholes were scarcely patched up, also employed some in the neighborhood.
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Speaker 1: Amber Hagerman's mother, Donna Whitson, grew up there after her
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Speaker 1: family moved to the neighborhood in nineteen seventy five. It
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Speaker 1: was safe at the time, and not anecdotally due to
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Speaker 1: residents feelings. On the contrary, the area was statistically low crime,
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Speaker 1: low risk. It was a neighborhood that didn't just bear
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Speaker 1: the city's crime watch signs at sporadic street corners for
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Speaker 1: no reason. Folks there watched out for and took care
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Speaker 1: of their own, which included keeping a watchful eye on
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Speaker 1: the children. It was unthinkable that Amber was kidnapped, a shock,
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Speaker 1: especially considering where it happened, a wide open parking lot
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Speaker 1: just off a busy thoroughfare and in broad daylight. The
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Speaker 1: specific location of the abduction was easily in eyesight of
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Speaker 1: passers by on Abrams, anyone who happened to be in
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Speaker 1: the parking lot itself, and the folks whose backyards were
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Speaker 1: across the grass Alleyway a short distance to the south.
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Speaker 1: Jimmy Kevell's home and at least two others had this
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Speaker 1: particular vantage point. Most of the Whitson's neighbors found out
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Speaker 1: the terrible news right away, alerted by Donna running up
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Speaker 1: the street screaming for her little girl to answer. Whitson
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Speaker 1: neighbor Chris Debello, who lived across the street four houses down,
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Speaker 1: wasted no time when he heard Donna's emotional plea. He
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Speaker 1: jumped in his truck and sped to the site of
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Speaker 1: the abduction. There, the cops gave him a description of
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Speaker 1: the vehicle involved, and Chris immediately began driving around looking.
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Speaker 1: He followed the wrong black truck into Grand Prairie, it
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Speaker 1: turned out, but it didn't deter him. Within a few
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Speaker 1: hours of Amber's abduction, the sun began setting. On his
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Speaker 1: way back to the neighborhood, Chris Debello purchased a high
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Speaker 1: powered flashlight and met up with around thirty friends and neighbors,
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Speaker 1: beginning a routine that would last days. Searchers looked in creeks, ditches,
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Speaker 1: vacant buildings, and lots tall brush, and even combed their
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Speaker 1: own streets. By the morning of Sunday, January fourteenth, nineteen
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Speaker 1: ninety six, less than twenty four hours after she was
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Speaker 1: taken every telephone pole in her grandparents neighborhood had a
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Speaker 1: flyer featuring Amber's photo and a brief description of her
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Speaker 1: and what had occurred. They'd also made their way far
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Speaker 1: outside the area thanks to friends, neighbors, and relatives. On
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Speaker 1: the front page of the Fort Worth Star Telegram was
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Speaker 1: Amber's story, though many of the newspapers and the Whitson's
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Speaker 1: neighborhood remained bagged in yards and driveways as residents were
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Speaker 1: busy helping with the search efforts. The Arlington police were
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Speaker 1: focusing at least some of their attention on going door
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Speaker 1: to door in the neighborhood and paid particularly close attention
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Speaker 1: to the homes of single mails. Trained search dogs excitedly
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Speaker 1: searched for ambers scent. Helicopters buzzed overhead. A hotline dedicated
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Speaker 1: solely to taking tips about Amber's abduction was set up.
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Speaker 1: Donna Whitson and Richard Hagerman took to the Tell Television
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Speaker 1: news to plead for someone with information to come forward.
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Speaker 1: Since post production on WFAATV and Pam Curry's documentary about
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Speaker 1: single mother's battling to get ahead and off assistance and
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Speaker 1: featuring Donna and the kids had wrapped. The very day
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Speaker 1: Amber was taken, news sources had a recent high quality
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Speaker 1: footage of Amber Hagerman. It was impactful, to say the least.
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Speaker 1: There Amber was blowing out birthday candles and doing homework.
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Speaker 1: She was anybody's kid, She was everybody's kid. In between
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Speaker 1: the footage, Donna spoke directly to the man who took
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Speaker 1: her daughter, sobbing, don't hurt my baby, please. She's an
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Speaker 1: innocent child, an innocent and sweet little girl. And then
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Speaker 1: to Amber, I know you're scared. I'm scared too. In
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Speaker 1: nineteen ninety six, Texas Stadium was in Irving, Texas, just
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Speaker 1: outside Dallas city limits and about twenty miles away from
19:13
Speaker 1: East Arlington, the official field of the Dallas Cowboys. On
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Speaker 1: the fourteenth of January, the day after Amber's abduction, the
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Speaker 1: Green Bay Packers were in town to play against the
19:26
Speaker 1: home team in an NFC championship game. It was, in fact,
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Speaker 1: the first time the Cowboys and the Packers had faced
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Speaker 1: each other in the title game since nineteen sixty seven.
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Speaker 1: Lots of folks come to town for Cowboys games in
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Speaker 1: the regular season, and even more for championship contests. Some
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Speaker 1: that weekend, of course, were in town from Wisconsin, having
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Speaker 1: followed their packers down, and many more came in from
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Speaker 1: other places, whether they were folks from the surrounding cities
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Speaker 1: and counties or former Dallas Fort Worth Arlington residents who
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Speaker 1: knew their way around the area. While it seems like
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Speaker 1: a certainty, the Arlington police did what they could do
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Speaker 1: to investigate the potential and out of towner kidnapped Amber Hagerman.
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Speaker 1: The game was never mentioned in any reports or documentaries
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Speaker 1: about the nine year old, so it is unknown if
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Speaker 1: they did. Whatever the case. Amber's family felt this day
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Speaker 1: was a crucial one in the search. This guy has
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Speaker 1: to be going back to work tomorrow and we'll be
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Speaker 1: doing something with her. The missing girl's aunt, Richard's sister Lynn,
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Speaker 1: told reporters We've got to find her today. But the
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Speaker 1: day passed and there was still no sign of Amber Hagerman.
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Speaker 1: Tensions were high. On Monday, January fifteenth, nineteen ninety six,
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Speaker 1: Donna and Richard continued to do television interviews, hoping to
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Speaker 1: reach the man who had taken their little girl. We
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Speaker 1: love you, sweetheart, Richard's said in one. If the person
21:23
Speaker 1: who took my daughter as watching let her go right now,
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Speaker 1: but things between him and Donna were volatile. Richard hadn't
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Speaker 1: known about the documentary she'd done for the local news station,
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Speaker 1: and it had gotten out that Donna had left him
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Speaker 1: because he'd become abusive. He'd only ever yelled at her
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Speaker 1: in the heat of arguments, Richard said, and although in
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Speaker 1: nowadays standards arguments are considered violence, he didn't believe that,
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Speaker 1: no matter his alleged physical abuse of Donna. In his alcoholism,
22:01
Speaker 1: Richard Hagerman was particularly distraught. About four and a half
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Speaker 1: years prior, his granddaughter Felicia, had been kidnapped from the
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Speaker 1: hospital two days after she was born. Richard couldn't believe
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Speaker 1: it was happening again. There was no connection, of course,
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Speaker 1: and the baby Felicia was found unharmed, but he couldn't
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Speaker 1: help but relive the ordeal more emotions stacked on top
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Speaker 1: of the debilitating feelings of uncertainty and dread he was
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Speaker 1: experiencing about Amber's abduction. Both he and Donna agreed on
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Speaker 1: one thing. They wanted to be out there doing something,
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Speaker 1: but the cops wouldn't have it. They needed to stay
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Speaker 1: home near the phone. As the family was forced to
22:50
Speaker 1: sit tight. Detectives were working their way through a list
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Speaker 1: of former kidnappers and sex offenders. The previous year, legislation
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Speaker 1: passed at the state level called Ashley's Laws, named for
23:04
Speaker 1: abducted and murdered seven year old Ashley Estelle, had made
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Speaker 1: it a requirement for sex offenders on probation or parole
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Speaker 1: to report to authorities where they were living. The Arlington
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Speaker 1: Police had identified and eliminated several suspects area sex offenders,
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Speaker 1: some who owned black pickup trucks, though they had not
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Speaker 1: been able to locate all of them, let alone confirm
23:30
Speaker 1: where they were when Amber was taken. In the neighborhood
23:35
Speaker 1: where nine year old Amber was abducted, parents were keeping
23:39
Speaker 1: their kids close. Family friend and neighbor Bruce Siebert, whose
23:45
Speaker 1: daughter was in Amber's Girl Scouts troop, remarked that it
23:49
Speaker 1: was an unusually quiet late afternoon. On any other day,
23:54
Speaker 1: the neighborhood kids would be out playing in droves. Since
23:59
Speaker 1: it was Girls Scout cookie season, they should be out
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Speaker 1: selling them, Bruce said, But he went on, I can't
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Speaker 1: let him go out and do that. As if on
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Speaker 1: Q Folks who needed the help of mental health professionals
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Speaker 1: began trying to insert themselves into the Arlington Police investigation.
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Speaker 1: The cops often knew if and when a particular tip
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Speaker 1: was the work of one of these types of individuals,
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Speaker 1: but every lead was to be checked out and exhausted.
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Speaker 1: Late Monday, after receiving an anonymous call to the tip line,
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Speaker 1: detectives and patrol officers searched a wooded area of Vandergriff Park.
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Speaker 1: The tipster had had a vision at the park about
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Speaker 1: three and a half miles south of the scene. They
24:52
Speaker 1: questioned a homeless man who had set up camp, but
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Speaker 1: that was the extent of the action. They called off
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Speaker 1: the search at about eleven PM after finding absolutely no
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Speaker 1: sign of Amber. The tip line's phone had been ringing
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Speaker 1: NonStop the entire day. Reports about suspicious black trucks made
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Speaker 1: up the bulk of the calls. I'd hate to be
25:19
Speaker 1: anyone driving a black truck. The owner of one such vehicle,
25:24
Speaker 1: used for his buttane company, commented his truck was one
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Speaker 1: of the tips. But the police certainly agreed with his comment,
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Speaker 1: and those were the calls they were particularly eager to
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Speaker 1: check out. In Texas, big black trucks are the hay
25:42
Speaker 1: in the needle in the haystack, as is the case
25:47
Speaker 1: with any investigation of this kind, and although the cops
25:52
Speaker 1: were fairly sure it was simply a necessary formality. Amber
25:56
Speaker 1: Hagerman's family was looked into. Earlier Monday evening, the missing
26:02
Speaker 1: girl's father was brought in for questioning while hooked up
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Speaker 1: to a polygraph machine. Detective Supervisor Sergeant Mike Simons told
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Speaker 1: the Fort Worth Star Telegram, anytime we get new information
26:16
Speaker 1: on this case, we are going to question the people
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Speaker 1: closest to her. That's what we're doing with him. According
26:24
Speaker 1: to Richard, he passed the test and there's little to
26:28
Speaker 1: no reason to dispute that. When he was returned to
26:31
Speaker 1: Jimmy and Glinda Whitson's house, they brought in Amber's mother, Donna.
26:37
Speaker 1: Later that night, Arlington Police spokesman de Anderson told the
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Speaker 1: press for a second time that they do not believe
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Speaker 1: anyone in Amber's family was involved. They weren't focusing on
26:50
Speaker 1: them as suspects, Anderson continued, and the nature of the
26:54
Speaker 1: kidnapping indicated the culprit was a stranger. Donna and Richard
27:00
Speaker 1: were more than happy to comply with whatever the police
27:04
Speaker 1: needed from moment one of the investigation, but the parents
27:09
Speaker 1: were getting desperate. Late Monday night, they contacted fran Baskerville
27:15
Speaker 1: of Dallas, who at the time claimed to have found
27:19
Speaker 1: over two hundred missing children. That number would grow to
27:23
Speaker 1: five thousand at some point. She was known as the
27:27
Speaker 1: Singing Psychic. When Baskerville came to the Whitson home, she
27:33
Speaker 1: told them she felt Amber's vibrations. The girl might very
27:38
Speaker 1: well be alive. The Singing Psychic said, there's not much
27:44
Speaker 1: reason to go into the encounter further. As usual, Shep's
27:50
Speaker 1: Derry stepped up with a reward, as did KRLDAM Radio,
27:55
Speaker 1: and the total someone who provided information leading to an
27:58
Speaker 1: arrestment could collect with seventeen thousand dollars. The next day, Tuesday,
28:07
Speaker 1: January sixteenth, nineteen ninety six, the company Pizza Hut, began
28:12
Speaker 1: including a flyer featuring Amber's photo and description with every
28:17
Speaker 1: pizza pickup and delivery. It was also announced that the
28:22
Speaker 1: investigation was changing courses. The Arlington Police, now working with
28:28
Speaker 1: the assistance of the FBI, were ceasing any and all
28:32
Speaker 1: house to house searches in the neighborhood where Amber was taken.
28:37
Speaker 1: Every street in the city had also been searched, spokesman
28:41
Speaker 1: d Anderson said, and detectives were now concentrating all their
28:46
Speaker 1: efforts on the many tips they'd received, by then more
28:51
Speaker 1: than two hundred. Anderson wouldn't elaborate on the specifics of
28:56
Speaker 1: any of them. The spokesman himself was busy this day,
29:01
Speaker 1: not only with the local press, but also with an
29:04
Speaker 1: appearance on the television show Good Morning America and dealing
29:08
Speaker 1: with the production team at America's Most Wanted who were
29:12
Speaker 1: working hard to get a segment about Amber Hagerman produced
29:15
Speaker 1: as soon as possible. Officer Anderson was working hard for
29:20
Speaker 1: his paycheck. His usual clear and confident voice was overworked
29:26
Speaker 1: and had turned noticeably faint and gravelly. All the morning
29:31
Speaker 1: shows on the three major networks covered Amber's case on Tuesday,
29:36
Speaker 1: as did CNN all day. Amber Hagerman's favorite color was pink.
29:45
Speaker 1: To show the hope and faith they carried for the
29:47
Speaker 1: nine year old's safe return, her teachers and schoolmates at
29:52
Speaker 1: Barry Elementary donned pink ribbons. On Amber's desk sat a
29:57
Speaker 1: two foot tall plant placed the there by her teacher,
30:01
Speaker 1: Jenny Walters, who was having a tough time, as were
30:05
Speaker 1: the sixteen other students in the Missing Girls third grade class.
30:11
Speaker 1: They missed Amber and expressed such by drawing pictures of
30:15
Speaker 1: sad faces and broken hearts. School counselors listened to students'
30:20
Speaker 1: fears and recollections of nightmares they were having since Amber
30:25
Speaker 1: was abducted. Donna Whitson tied pink ribbons around the trees
30:31
Speaker 1: at her grandmother's house. She'd walk by and gently touch
30:35
Speaker 1: them often. On Wednesday, January seventeenth, nineteen ninety six, a
30:41
Speaker 1: fort Worth police helicopter moved and hovered over Veterans Park,
30:46
Speaker 1: almost seven miles southwest of the Whitson home, about three
30:52
Speaker 1: miles east of Lake Arlington, an approximate twenty square block
30:56
Speaker 1: wooded area on the southeast side of the large park.
31:01
Speaker 1: Seven Arlington Police cruisers met to search, acting on a tip.
31:07
Speaker 1: According to Officer Paul O'Connor, no sign of Amber was
31:11
Speaker 1: found there. The cops again pleaded with the public, if
31:17
Speaker 1: you have any information, no matter how insignificant it seems,
31:22
Speaker 1: they begged, please come forward, even with tips still pouring in.
31:29
Speaker 1: Even with tips still pouring in, Jimmy Kevell remained the
31:33
Speaker 1: only actual witness to what happened. He declined to undergo
31:38
Speaker 1: hypnosis on Wednesday, although police thought doing so might lead
31:44
Speaker 1: to more information, Jimmy insisted he could provide no further
31:48
Speaker 1: details and added that you ought not fool with your
31:52
Speaker 1: brain in such a way. Considering what's known about forensic
31:57
Speaker 1: hypnosis today, Jimmy's seems to have made the right decision.
32:04
Speaker 1: Also that Wednesday, it became known that the police had
32:07
Speaker 1: been scrutinizing a close friend of the family. Arlington police
32:24
Speaker 1: detectives quickly became interested in a man named Mike early
32:28
Speaker 1: on in the investigation into Amber Hagerman's abduction. Richard Hagerman
32:35
Speaker 1: lived with Mike, a father of six, who was often
32:38
Speaker 1: at whitson Hagerman family outings, and had become Richard and
32:43
Speaker 1: Donna's media liaison concerning Amber's case, arranging interviews with reporters
32:50
Speaker 1: and sometimes speaking for them. The cops, partially for this reason,
32:56
Speaker 1: felt Mike was inserting himself into Amber's case. It was
33:01
Speaker 1: a stretch. The police know better than anyone that families
33:05
Speaker 1: in similar situations commonly ask a friend or relative to
33:09
Speaker 1: be a spokesperson since they're under intense pressure and their
33:14
Speaker 1: emotions fragile. Although he didn't fit the description of Amber's
33:19
Speaker 1: abductor in any way, Mike did own a black pickup
33:23
Speaker 1: truck a single cab, short bed dodge, not exactly what
33:29
Speaker 1: witnessed Jimmy Kevell described, but a black truck nonetheless, Plus
33:35
Speaker 1: several folks had voiced their suspicions about Mike immediately after
33:40
Speaker 1: hearing what happened to the nine year old girl, But
33:44
Speaker 1: it also didn't make much sense. After all, Amber knew
33:48
Speaker 1: this man well, and it was unlikely he'd feel the
33:51
Speaker 1: need to accost and grab the girl as she kicked
33:55
Speaker 1: and screamed, as opposed to simply asking her to get in.
34:00
Speaker 1: Police asked Mike to come to the station for questioning
34:03
Speaker 1: and a polygraph examination, which the man had no problem doing.
34:08
Speaker 1: He welcomed it. We don't feel like we're being accused
34:12
Speaker 1: or picked on or anything. I understand what they're doing.
34:16
Speaker 1: Richard and Donna understand what they're doing, Mike told reporters,
34:20
Speaker 1: adding that the Quicker family and friends are polygraphed, the
34:24
Speaker 1: better give it to us, so you can quit focusing
34:27
Speaker 1: the investigation here and get your interviews out there. Mike
34:33
Speaker 1: delivered auto parts for a living and was thirty to
34:36
Speaker 1: forty five minutes away at the time of Amber's abduction.
34:40
Speaker 1: According to timestamped delivery receipts. Richard Hagerman didn't believe for
34:46
Speaker 1: a second his friend was involved, and it appears detectives
34:50
Speaker 1: moved on quickly after questioning him. Donna and Richard felt powerless.
34:58
Speaker 1: They were getting no slip, which exacerbated the depression brought
35:03
Speaker 1: on by being required to stay home instead of searching themselves.
35:09
Speaker 1: The only thing in their toolbox was the press, and
35:13
Speaker 1: they'd decided on day one to take full advantage of
35:16
Speaker 1: newspaper and television coverage. But the relationship, of course, was symbiotic.
35:23
Speaker 1: Fort Worth's Star Telegram reporter John Austen spoke with a
35:28
Speaker 1: director of Vanished Children's Alliance, Georgia Hilgeman, about just that.
35:34
Speaker 1: She said, there's usually a certain criteria required for a
35:38
Speaker 1: child's abduction to make the national news. It depends on
35:43
Speaker 1: if it is a visually attractive young child or a
35:46
Speaker 1: slow news day. Hilgeman said it was in fact a
35:51
Speaker 1: slow news weekend when Amber was kidnapped, a holiday weekend.
35:57
Speaker 1: The following Monday was Martin Luther King Junior Day. Other
36:01
Speaker 1: factors included how the child disappeared, clear evidence the case
36:06
Speaker 1: wasn't a domestic matter. Hilgeman went on a huge community
36:11
Speaker 1: effort to search for the child, and parents able to
36:15
Speaker 1: articulate what they were going through. Good video footage also
36:20
Speaker 1: helped a case's chance for national coverage. She said. The
36:24
Speaker 1: footage makes it seem more like a real person than
36:28
Speaker 1: a picture of a child posing. There should not be
36:32
Speaker 1: a specific set of guidelines for a missing child's case
36:36
Speaker 1: to make the national news, but it is the unfortunate
36:39
Speaker 1: state of the media's business over news model, which is
36:43
Speaker 1: giving the people what they want. Also unfortunate. Amber's abduction
36:50
Speaker 1: had all of these things anyway, and was quickly becoming
36:54
Speaker 1: a more reported on and talked about case in Arlington
36:57
Speaker 1: than one that occurred less than a year and a
36:59
Speaker 1: half earlier in nineteen ninety four, the case of Lisa Renee.
37:07
Speaker 1: Sixteen year old Lisa Rene was an honor roll student
37:11
Speaker 1: at Lamar High School in Arlington in nineteen ninety four.
37:16
Speaker 1: She'd recently moved to Texas in search of the education
37:19
Speaker 1: that would allow her to accomplish her dream to become
37:23
Speaker 1: a doctor, and Lisa was well on her way. She
37:27
Speaker 1: was motivated and extremely intelligent. At the Polo run apartments,
37:33
Speaker 1: Lisa shared a unit with her two brothers, sister and
37:37
Speaker 1: her sister's boyfriend. Their folks lived in Saint Croix, the
37:42
Speaker 1: Virgin Islands, where the family was from. On September twenty fourth,
37:48
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety four, Lisa was home alone studying when suddenly
37:53
Speaker 1: three masked men appeared at the door and demanded entry.
37:58
Speaker 1: She refused and dialed NIGH as they attempted to break in.
38:03
Speaker 1: During the nightmarage call, the men identified themselves as FBI.
38:08
Speaker 1: The door is heard being smashed in and a series
38:12
Speaker 1: of terrible screams are unleashed as Lisa struggled, Then the
38:17
Speaker 1: connection is broken. It turned out Lisa's brothers, Neil Renee
38:23
Speaker 1: and Stanfield Vitalis, owed forty seven hundred dollars for drugs,
38:28
Speaker 1: and when they refused to pay, these men drove from
38:31
Speaker 1: El Dorado, Arkansas, to Arlington, Texas to collect. When they
38:36
Speaker 1: failed to locate Nick and Stanfield, they abducted Lisa Renee
38:41
Speaker 1: at gunpoint. Instead, Orlando Hall, who was owed the drug
38:46
Speaker 1: money and who was calling the shots, raped her as
38:49
Speaker 1: they drove to a motel in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. There
38:54
Speaker 1: as four men, including a Hall, tied her up and
38:57
Speaker 1: repeatedly raped The high school junia her brothers, Nick and
39:02
Speaker 1: Stanfield were wasting time that might have saved Lisa by
39:07
Speaker 1: omitting their drug dealings with Orlando Hall. The next morning
39:12
Speaker 1: at a Pine Bluff motel, Hall determined that the sixteen
39:16
Speaker 1: year old girl knew too much. That afternoon, in a
39:20
Speaker 1: heavily wooded area at a nearby state park, he and
39:24
Speaker 1: one of his cohorts dug a four foot deep grave
39:28
Speaker 1: when they brought her there that night. However, they couldn't
39:32
Speaker 1: find it. Two days after she was kidnapped. On the
39:36
Speaker 1: morning of September twenty sixth, nineteen ninety four, the men
39:40
Speaker 1: returned and led Lisa Renee to the site of the grave.
39:45
Speaker 1: When Orlando Hall put a sheet over her and hit
39:47
Speaker 1: her in the head with a shovel. Lisa ran and screamed,
39:52
Speaker 1: but one of the men caught her in a matter
39:54
Speaker 1: of seconds and tackled her to the ground. They then
39:58
Speaker 1: took turns beating her with shovel until she was unconscious.
40:03
Speaker 1: They doused Lisa Renee with gasoline, dragged her to the grave,
40:08
Speaker 1: and buried her alive. Lisa had nothing whatsoever to do
40:14
Speaker 1: with drugs, let alone a several thousand dollars drug transaction
40:20
Speaker 1: in all five men were involved in repeatedly raping and
40:24
Speaker 1: murdering sixteen year old high school junior Lisa Renee. They
40:29
Speaker 1: were all apprehended relatively quickly after Lisa's brothers finally came
40:34
Speaker 1: clean about their drug debt, but it was, of course
40:39
Speaker 1: too late. Three of the men testified against Orlando Hall
40:44
Speaker 1: in exchange for lesser sentences than they almost certainly would
40:48
Speaker 1: have received. Hall was executed by lethal injection, but Webster's
40:54
Speaker 1: death sentence was overturned due to him being ruled intellectually disabled.
41:01
Speaker 1: Lisa Renee's abduction and murder was all over local, state,
41:06
Speaker 1: and national news, both in print and on screen until
41:11
Speaker 1: the late evening of Wednesday, January seventeenth, nineteen ninety six.
41:17
Speaker 1: Her death was considered the most violent of an Arlington
41:20
Speaker 1: resident in recent history, or at least that anyone could remember.
41:26
Speaker 1: That night, at about eleven forty one pm, nine to
41:30
Speaker 1: one one received a call from a resident at the
41:33
Speaker 1: forest Ridge Apartments while walking his dog. The caller said
41:38
Speaker 1: he'd found a small body in a creek bed. Next
41:44
Speaker 1: time on gone Cold Found. If you have any information
41:51
Speaker 1: about the abduction and murder of Amber Renee Hagerman, please
41:55
Speaker 1: call the Arlington Police at eight one seven four five
41:59
Speaker 1: nine seven to two. To remain anonymous and to be
42:04
Speaker 1: eligible for a reward, you can provide a tip at
42:07
Speaker 1: Terrent County Crime Stoppers at eight one seven four six
42:11
Speaker 1: nine eight four seven seven. If you have not already,
42:18
Speaker 1: look for Gone Cold on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter by
42:22
Speaker 1: searching Gone Cold and looking for the Texas logo. If
42:26
Speaker 1: you'd like to support the show and get the episodes
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42:37
Speaker 1: It's a huge deal to us. If you're not in
42:41
Speaker 1: a position to help Gone Cold financially but would like
42:44
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42:49
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42:51
Speaker 1: iTunes particularly helps Gone Cold's visibility. The more folks who
42:57
Speaker 1: find us and listen, the greater chance someone with information
43:00
Speaker 1: about a case here's the show and comes forward with
43:04
Speaker 1: what they know. Every little bit helps, and we appreciate
43:08
Speaker 1: y'all support immensely, however you choose to give it. Sources
43:13
Speaker 1: for this episode can be found in the episode's show notes.
43:17
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, y'all.