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Amber Hagerman Part 4: The Investigation · Gone Cold - Texas True Crime

0:02
Speaker 1: The Gone Cold podcasts may contain violent or graphics subject matter.
0:06
Speaker 1: Listener discretion is advised. The striking coincidence's Arlington Police detectives
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Speaker 1: working nine year old Amber Rene Hagerman's case came across
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Speaker 1: or just that coincidences, but nonetheless they were difficult for
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Speaker 1: any human mind to come to terms with. Amber's niece,
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Speaker 1: newborn Felicia Hagerman, was kidnapped from John Peter Smith Hospital
0:32
Speaker 1: about four and a half years before she herself was abducted.
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Speaker 1: It was a statistical anomaly that also weighed heavy on
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Speaker 1: the mind of Amber's father and Felicia's grandfather, Richard Hagerman. Luckily,
0:47
Speaker 1: Felicia was found unharmed. Conversely, and tragically, Amber's body was
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Speaker 1: found late on the night of Wednesday, January seventeenth, nineteen
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Speaker 1: ninety six, four days after she was snatched off her bicycle,
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Speaker 1: six miles to the south. The discovery of Amber Hagerman's
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Speaker 1: body was an unthinkable coincidence for thirty six year old
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Speaker 1: Stuart Cocher, whose dog Yoda led him to her. He
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Speaker 1: had found another body about a year prior the creek
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Speaker 1: where Amber was found, floating face down and unclothed, save
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Speaker 1: a single sock on her right foot, ran alongside the
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Speaker 1: forest Ridge Apartments in northeast Arlington. A week after that
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Speaker 1: terrible day, stretched thin and loathe to encounter yet another coincidence,
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Speaker 1: the Arlington Police responded to a disturbing call at that
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Speaker 1: very same complex just after midnight on Wednesday, January twenty fourth,
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Speaker 1: nineteen ninety six. A couple living at the forest Ridge
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Speaker 1: Apartments heard a baby crying. Such a sound isn't necessarily alarming,
2:00
Speaker 1: or at least not a sound that inspires panic, but
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Speaker 1: this was different. The cries were relentless, and even more troublesome,
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Speaker 1: seemed to be coming from the area around one of
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Speaker 1: the complex's dumpsters. When the couple investigated further, they were
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Speaker 1: horrified to find a plastic bag, inside of which was
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Speaker 1: an infant wrapped in a towel and newspapers. One of
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Speaker 1: them raced back to their apartment and called nine to
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Speaker 1: one one. By this time, the forest Ridge Apartments were
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Speaker 1: at the forefront of every Arlington Police officer's mind. As
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Speaker 1: patrol cruisers hurried to the scene. The cops inside couldn't
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Speaker 1: help but rack their brains for a potential connection to
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Speaker 1: the Amber Hagerman case, but of course these were pieces
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Speaker 1: to a completely different puzzle. It turned out that the
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Speaker 1: infant was approximately two to four hours old, and as
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Speaker 1: responding officer's relinquished custody of the abandoned baby to paramedics,
3:06
Speaker 1: they prayed with all their might that the thirty four
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Speaker 1: degree night and the limited air in the plastic bag
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Speaker 1: hadn't caused irreversible harm. After an initial and extensive health
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Speaker 1: check at Arlington Memorial Hospital, it was determined the newborn
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Speaker 1: was just fine. In fact, the child's mother had washed
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Speaker 1: her after giving birth and cut and pinched the umbilical
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Speaker 1: cord for both health and security reasons. She now being
3:38
Speaker 1: referred to by her doting nurse and CPS caretakers as
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Speaker 1: Baby Chloe was being looked after at the facility's neonatal
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Speaker 1: Intensive care unit. Arlington Police spokesman De Anderson told reporters
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Speaker 1: for the Dallas Morning News that it appeared the infant's
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Speaker 1: mother had placed her near the dumpster, knowing it was
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Speaker 1: a high traffic area. Baby Chloe was wrapped in a
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Speaker 1: way that provided sufficient protection from the cold and enough
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Speaker 1: air de breathe for some time. Officer Anderson went on
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Speaker 1: and the department could only theorize that the mother intended
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Speaker 1: and anticipated her newborn being found and cared for quickly. Still,
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Speaker 1: it was no way to leave a baby of any age.
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Speaker 1: A Child Protective Services official recalled another baby found in
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Speaker 1: a clothes basket at the unheated laundromat of a different
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Speaker 1: Arlington apartment complex just over a year earlier, a few
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Speaker 1: days after Christmas in nineteen ninety four, the last time
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Speaker 1: a newborn was found abandoned in the city. This newborn
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Speaker 1: girl was named Baby Noel by caretakers. Luckily, she was healthy,
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Speaker 1: but her parents hadn't been found, not yet. Infant abandonment
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Speaker 1: was incredibly rare, the CPS official commented, and the similarities
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Speaker 1: between the cases of Baby Chloe and Baby Noel were
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Speaker 1: somewhat shocking. But Baby Chloe's case, of course, was quickly
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Speaker 1: determined to share no connection whatsoever to Amber Hagerman's abduction
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Speaker 1: and murder. The discoveries occurring in such close proximity was
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Speaker 1: just another bizarre and statistically unlikely coincidence. As the investigation
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Speaker 1: into Amber's killing continued, other occurrences caught the attention of detectives. However,
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Speaker 1: some were more difficult to rule out as merely coincidence,
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Speaker 1: while about a dozen Arlington Police detectives and a handful
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Speaker 1: of patrol officers collaborate with authorities from other area law
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Speaker 1: enforcement jurisdictions and federal agents, together forming the Amber Hagerman
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Speaker 1: Task Force. The murdered nine year old's family and concerned
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Speaker 1: citizens were also taking action. The day before newborn baby
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Speaker 1: Chloe was found near a dumpster at the forest Ridge Apartments,
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Speaker 1: and seven days after Amber's body was found at a
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Speaker 1: creek running directly beside the same complex, Richard Hagerman, Donna Whitson,
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Speaker 1: and family friend Bruce Siebert formed PASO, or People Against
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Speaker 1: Sexual Offenders. The group began collecting signatures on a petition
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Speaker 1: that called for tougher penalties against sex offenders and laws
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Speaker 1: that might make it more difficult for them to reoffend.
6:52
Speaker 1: As they worked for legislative changes, Dallas Fort Worth area
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Speaker 1: law enforcement began working in the background with lower radio
7:00
Speaker 1: station bigwigs on an idea. Color Diane Simone gave a
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Speaker 1: radio talk show host the seed that would later grow
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Speaker 1: into the Amber Plan and then Amber Alert. Amber Hagerman's mother,
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Speaker 1: Donna Whitson, had been avoiding going back to her apartment
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Speaker 1: since her little girl's abduction, opting instead to stay with
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Speaker 1: her parents. Nothing could insulate her from the unimaginable loss
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Speaker 1: she had suffered, But what little comfort the familiarity the
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Speaker 1: house she'd grown up in provided helped prevent her from falling.
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Speaker 1: Apart that and Ricky. On Sunday, February fourth, nineteen ninety six,
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Speaker 1: Donna decided to go back to the apartment with her
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Speaker 1: five year old boy. It was nearly unbearable already, not
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Speaker 1: a day had gone by that tears weren't rolling down
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Speaker 1: Donna's cheeks, and now there were reminders all around her.
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Speaker 1: A puzzle Amber had been working on sat unfinished on
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Speaker 1: the table. The nine year old's backpack lay on the floor,
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Speaker 1: where she had tossed it the day before she was abducted.
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Speaker 1: Inside among her schoolwork were the girl Scout badges she'd
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Speaker 1: recently earned. Amber's little bed was bear the sheets had
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Speaker 1: been removed by police to undergo forensic testing, along with
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Speaker 1: her favorite Teddy Bear and the pink bicycle she was
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Speaker 1: yanked off of. Kicking and screaming. Donna's father picked up
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Speaker 1: those items from the Arlington Police Department as quickly as
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Speaker 1: he could, presuming whether they gave Donna comfort or exacerbated
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Speaker 1: her anguish is probably too simplistic and inexperienced a thought
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Speaker 1: likely it was a confusing mix of both. To remind
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Speaker 1: five year old Ricky that Amber wasn't going back to
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Speaker 1: school with him, that his big sister was now an
9:03
Speaker 1: angel was perhaps the hardest. While Donna Whitson attempted to
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Speaker 1: make life for little Ricky as normal as she possibly could,
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Speaker 1: law enforcement continued to check out the leads that were
9:17
Speaker 1: pouring in and had identified all current and past maintenance
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Speaker 1: personnel at the forest Ridge Apartments. These individuals were a
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Speaker 1: high priority. Tenants that had moved out of the complex
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Speaker 1: within the past fourteen months were also identified and scrutinized. Elsewhere,
9:37
Speaker 1: the Tarrant County Probation Office offered a list of possible
9:41
Speaker 1: suspects as the Arlington Police began trying to match the
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Speaker 1: FBI's psychological and physical suspect profile. By the end of
10:02
Speaker 1: January nineteen ninety six, the FBI had completed the creation
10:07
Speaker 1: of a profile theorizing the type of individual who would
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Speaker 1: have committed such a heinous and abhorrent crime as the abduction, assault,
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Speaker 1: and murder of nine year old Amber Hagerman. Their suspect,
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Speaker 1: the profile suggested, is a white or Hispanic man who
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Speaker 1: likely lived alone. He might carry a knife found in
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Speaker 1: the open, like in a belt sheath, something that gives
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Speaker 1: him confidence or that he sees as bolstering some sort
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Speaker 1: of tough guy image. Perhaps he's at least twenty five
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Speaker 1: years old and likely familiar with both the East Arlington
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Speaker 1: area where he took Amber and the North Arlington area
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Speaker 1: where the girl's body was found. The suspect possibly lived
10:55
Speaker 1: or worked in one or both of those areas. Comfort Zone,
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Speaker 1: the profile said folks who knew him probably considered him immature,
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Speaker 1: particularly his inability to handle stressful situations and his temper,
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Speaker 1: which causes him likely to violently erupt at times. A
11:18
Speaker 1: recent stressor probably triggered his abducting, sexually assaulting, and killing Amber,
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Speaker 1: something like the loss of employment, a major argument or
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Speaker 1: falling out with someone, or the loss of a romantic relationship.
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Speaker 1: After performing the unforgivable act, the suspect likely became more
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Speaker 1: stressed and withdrawn than usual, potentially using illness as an
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Speaker 1: excuse for his recent lack of participation in normal, everyday activities.
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Speaker 1: The report suggested his consumption of drugs or alcohol might
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Speaker 1: have increased, and his eating and sleeping habits may have changed.
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Speaker 1: There was a good chance he had altered his appearance,
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Speaker 1: things like cutting and or coloring his hair, or shaving
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Speaker 1: off or growing a beard or mustache. As far as
12:14
Speaker 1: the black truck driven by the suspect goes, he may
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Speaker 1: have shown an unusual interest in cleaning the vehicle suddenly,
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Speaker 1: and perhaps even attempted to alter its appearance or sell it.
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Speaker 1: The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, also known
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Speaker 1: as nick MACK, also developed a sort of profile based
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Speaker 1: upon their experience and knowledge, which by nineteen ninety six
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Speaker 1: was unfortunately vast. Senior analyst and child sexual assault authority
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Speaker 1: at nick MACK, Reuben Rodriguez, commented that the perpetrator's name
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Speaker 1: is likely already in Amber's case file, one of an
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Speaker 1: overwhelming many. Rodriguez guest the suspect was as socially inadequate loaner.
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Speaker 1: He might be a neighbor or maybe simply saw Amber
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Speaker 1: at a store or around the area. Perhaps, Rodriguez added,
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Speaker 1: he stalked her for weeks, but it was just as
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Speaker 1: plausible that he'd never seen her, and that he'd only
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Speaker 1: been stalking her for minutes. The violent manner in which
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Speaker 1: Amber was slain through the expert for a loop. Usually,
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Speaker 1: Rodriguez said, these types of offenders either suffocate, strangle by ligature,
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Speaker 1: or bludgeon their victims to death. The guy knocks her
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Speaker 1: out and then strangles her, Rodriguez explained, of the usual suspect,
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Speaker 1: you don't find knives and that sort of violence unless
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Speaker 1: the victims much older. We're talking about a very angry
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Speaker 1: person here. A federal agent who gave a fort Worth
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Speaker 1: Star Telegram reporter a comment on the condition of animimity
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Speaker 1: had a slightly different take. The cutting can mean lack
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Speaker 1: of control panic. He's trying to get her to shut up,
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Speaker 1: the unknown agent said, adding instead of putting his hand
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Speaker 1: to her mouth, he's using his knife. Both he and
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Speaker 1: Nick mes Reuben Rodriguez did agree that the man who
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Speaker 1: kidnapped Amber might have a criminal history of sexual offenses
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Speaker 1: or abductions, and he almost certainly sexually molested family members
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Speaker 1: or strangers in the past. Forensic psychiatrist doctor park Elliott
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Speaker 1: diets a leading authority on sex offenders, turned the loner
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Speaker 1: theory up a notch. Doctor Dietz said A man who
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Speaker 1: takes a little girl the way Amber was taken, snatched
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Speaker 1: off her bike in broad daylight, with absolutely no attempt
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Speaker 1: to lure her quietly, is likely a man who cannot
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Speaker 1: communicate with with other people. It was a desperate act,
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Speaker 1: a primal urge to act out his fantasies. Doctor Deets
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Speaker 1: suggested he might be mentally ill or mentally challenged. The
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Speaker 1: blunt doctor said, though he used words that are fairly offensive.
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Speaker 1: A little after three twenty pm on Monday, February twelfth,
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Speaker 1: nineteen ninety six, just after classes were dismissed at Nola
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Speaker 1: Dunn Elementary in Burlison, an eleven year old girl was
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Speaker 1: walking home alone. A black pickup truck pulled up beside her.
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Speaker 1: The trucks driver asked the girl if she wanted a ride,
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Speaker 1: and she replied that she did not. Do you need
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Speaker 1: a ride? The man persisted, and again the eleven year
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Speaker 1: old said no. Demand drove away, either unwilling to force
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Speaker 1: the depraved matter, or because he saw a car of approaching,
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Speaker 1: which happened to be the girl's mom. When she told
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Speaker 1: her mother what had happened, they drove directly back to
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Speaker 1: the school and reported it to principal Harold Moore. Moore
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Speaker 1: called the Burlison Police and a patrol officer was at
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Speaker 1: the scene within minutes. The next day, during the morning announcements,
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Speaker 1: Principal Moore reminded students to never go anywhere with a stranger,
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Speaker 1: no matter what they say. He penned a letter to
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Speaker 1: parents describing the event. Since Nolah Dunn Elementary is only
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Speaker 1: a block from Interstate thirty five, folks took the possible
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Speaker 1: failed abduction attempt very seriously. A kidnapper could be gone
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Speaker 1: in a flash from that area. Burlison Police Chief Doug
16:50
Speaker 1: Sandifer realized the similarities to Amber Hagerman's case, almost thirty
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Speaker 1: miles to the northeast. It's unknown if the would be
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Speaker 1: kidnapping was ever theorized to be connected to Amber's case.
17:07
Speaker 1: As the month of February nineteen ninety six came to
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Speaker 1: an end, two major events took place. The first was
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Speaker 1: in the form of a semi routine order of business
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Speaker 1: concerning the investigation. On the twenty seventh, the Arlington Police
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Speaker 1: Department moved forensic evidence from the Amber Hagerman case from
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Speaker 1: the Arrant County Medical Examiner's office in Fort Worth to
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Speaker 1: the FBI's crime Lab in Quantico, Virginia. The second event
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Speaker 1: was yet another tragedy for Donna Whitson and the family
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Speaker 1: of her boyfriend, Marion Allen Lake Junior. Just before ten
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Speaker 1: pm on a day that comes only once every four years,
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Speaker 1: February twenty ninth, nineteen ninety six, thirty four year old
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Speaker 1: Marion was driving south on the seventy three hundred block
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Speaker 1: of South Cooper Street and N Arlington in his nineteen
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Speaker 1: eighty three Buick Skyhawk when he had a seizure and
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Speaker 1: veered across the double yellow road stripes into the northbound lane.
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Speaker 1: Marion died instantly upon a head on collision with a
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Speaker 1: nineteen ninety one is Suzu truck. The driver of that vehicle,
18:20
Speaker 1: a twenty three year old Arlington man, was lifted to
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Speaker 1: a Fort Worth hospital by helicopter and luckily lived. The
18:28
Speaker 1: time was nine fifty two pm when Marian died. Two
18:32
Speaker 1: hours and eight minutes later. He would have worked for
18:35
Speaker 1: the company Aircom Fasteners for a full ninety days, and
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Speaker 1: his probationary period would have ended, making a beneficiary eligible
18:44
Speaker 1: to collect on a ten thousand dollars life insurance policy
18:49
Speaker 1: had it not been a leap year. That money would
18:51
Speaker 1: have gone to his working class family and more than
18:54
Speaker 1: covered funeral and burial expenses, but it did not. Not
19:00
Speaker 1: only was Marion Allan Lake Donna Whitson's boyfriend, he was
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Speaker 1: also her best friend, trailing only Amber and Ricky. Even
19:10
Speaker 1: though they'd only been back together romantically for a couple
19:13
Speaker 1: weeks they were planning to get married. Donna was barely
19:18
Speaker 1: holding it together. Though detectives investigating Amber's case looked into
19:23
Speaker 1: Marian as a suspect about as hard as is humanly possible,
19:27
Speaker 1: he was eliminated from the pool. Marian's accidental death was
19:33
Speaker 1: another coincidental event surrounding Amber Hagerman's abduction and murder. In
19:52
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one, former Arlington Police detective Randy Lockhart spoke
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Speaker 1: about the confessions in the months that followed Amber's slang.
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Speaker 1: There were six confessions during this period. Out of those six,
20:06
Speaker 1: two came from jail prisoners. All six of these confessors
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Speaker 1: were cleared of involvement in Amber's case. Pointless rabbit Holes.
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Speaker 1: Lockhart said that only took time away from the real investigation,
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Speaker 1: and the investigation was already tough, unlike today. In the
20:28
Speaker 1: twenty twenties, You couldn't whip out your smartphone or even
20:31
Speaker 1: sit down in front of your personal computer and do
20:34
Speaker 1: a Google search to see where all the sex offenders
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Speaker 1: in your neighborhood lived. There was no way, in fact,
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Speaker 1: for a citizen to obtain that information at all. It
20:46
Speaker 1: might appall modern day folks to know that it wasn't
20:50
Speaker 1: all that much different for the cops. Although Ashley's laws
20:55
Speaker 1: had required all sex offenders to register their addresses, in
20:59
Speaker 1: form the authorities when they moved without excuse, and expected
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Speaker 1: police jurisdictions within the state of Texas to have this
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Speaker 1: information close at hand on a database specifically for this purpose.
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Speaker 1: The system, Randy Lockhart said in twenty twenty one, was
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Speaker 1: a total mess. In ninety six, finding the whereabouts of
21:22
Speaker 1: the seven hundred registered sex offenders within the database was
21:26
Speaker 1: an immense undertaking, considering both work and time, something Amber
21:32
Speaker 1: Hagerman's case would eventually rectify, just not in time for
21:36
Speaker 1: the initial investigation into her own abduction and murder throughout
21:43
Speaker 1: March and April of nineteen ninety six. Considering the bureaucratic
21:48
Speaker 1: obfuscation and the roles of red tape that were yet
21:51
Speaker 1: to even be stuck. Arlington Police detectives and those assisting
21:56
Speaker 1: them from outside jurisdictions were chugging along. On March fourth,
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Speaker 1: amberst case hit the FBI's ViCAP. ViCAP, or the Violent
22:08
Speaker 1: Criminal Apprehension Program in the FBI's own unusually clear words quote,
22:15
Speaker 1: facilitates communication and coordination between law enforcement agencies that investigate, track,
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Speaker 1: and apprehend violent serial offenders. ViCAP maintains a nationwide data
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Speaker 1: information center that collects, collates, and analyzes crimes of violence
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Speaker 1: such as homicide, attempted homicide, missing persons, child abductions, sexual assaults,
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Speaker 1: and unidentified deceased persons. YCAP analysts examine crime data and
22:47
Speaker 1: patterns to identify potential similarities among crimes, create investigative matrices,
22:54
Speaker 1: develop timelines, and identify homicide and sexual assault trends and
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Speaker 1: patterns end quote. Though still providing resources and being briefed
23:06
Speaker 1: on Ambers case, the FBI ended direct involvement on March fifteenth,
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Speaker 1: nineteen ninety six, according to an investigation review Gone Cold obtained.
23:17
Speaker 1: Also that day, four more detectives were assigned to the
23:21
Speaker 1: Amber Hagerman Task Force, and a Tarrant County Sheriff's Office
23:25
Speaker 1: deputy also joined the group not satisfied with limiting the
23:31
Speaker 1: ingoing and outgoing information to federal and state government resources,
23:36
Speaker 1: the task Force applied to the Regional Information Sharing Systems
23:40
Speaker 1: Program or RIS. Ambers case was accepted to the Regional
23:46
Speaker 1: Organized Crime Information Center on March twentieth. Organized crime as
23:52
Speaker 1: in arranged and classified, it should be noted, not as
23:56
Speaker 1: in mafia. Ris In their own words, QUOTE works regionally
24:02
Speaker 1: and on a nationwide basis to respond to the unique
24:05
Speaker 1: crime problems of each region while strengthening the country's information
24:10
Speaker 1: sharing environment by providing adapted solutions and services that facilitate
24:16
Speaker 1: information sharing, support criminal investigations, and promote officer safety end quote.
24:24
Speaker 1: Also on March twentieth, according to the investigation review, the
24:29
Speaker 1: task Force completed background analysis on sex offenders off parole
24:35
Speaker 1: or those whose probation was completed. Because it is extremely
24:40
Speaker 1: likely that a rapist will reoffend within eighteen months of
24:43
Speaker 1: their release from prison, this isolated group was investigated with
24:48
Speaker 1: a fine tooth comb scrutinized particularly hard. A week later,
24:55
Speaker 1: the Arlington Police Department received the results of the FBI's
24:59
Speaker 1: testing a trace evidence via facts. Sometime in mid March,
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Speaker 1: the twenty five year old mother of Baby Chloe, a
25:09
Speaker 1: newborn girl discovered abandoned at the forest Ridge Apartments. A
25:13
Speaker 1: week after Amber Hagerman's body was found, there was finally identified.
25:20
Speaker 1: Authorities in Arlington had compared Baby Chloe's abandonment to another
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Speaker 1: child's a year before, Baby Noel. In a shocking revelation,
25:30
Speaker 1: it was discovered that the same woman abandoned both of
25:34
Speaker 1: these children. The mother voluntarily checked herself into a mental
25:39
Speaker 1: health facility. Though we do know Baby Noel was adopted
25:44
Speaker 1: by a family, it's unclear exactly what happened to Baby Chloe,
25:48
Speaker 1: or if the mother of these two children ever sought
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Speaker 1: custody of either child. On Monday, April first, nineteen ninety six,
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Speaker 1: at the Arlington Convention Center, around one hundred law enforcement
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Speaker 1: officials from Texas and the surrounding states were briefed on
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Speaker 1: the Amber Hagerman case by the local task Force. It
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Speaker 1: was the first of many such meetings aimed at exposure
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Speaker 1: and to identify as many similar offenses as possible in
26:20
Speaker 1: order to identify new suspects. A week later, on the eighth,
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Speaker 1: Amber's mother, Donna Whitson, held a news conference when hearing
26:30
Speaker 1: of a killer who turned himself in after his victim's
26:34
Speaker 1: mother wrote an impassioned plea for him to do so.
26:38
Speaker 1: Donna figured writing a letter herself was worth a shot.
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Speaker 1: She couldn't just sit back and do nothing. Anyway, My
26:47
Speaker 1: little girl did nothing to you. Donna's letter read, in part,
26:52
Speaker 1: why did you terrify her, why did you touch her
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Speaker 1: where you were not supposed to, why did you hurt her?
26:59
Speaker 1: And most of all, why did you kill her? Donna
27:03
Speaker 1: Whitson provided the killer a post office box to which
27:06
Speaker 1: he could mail his response. If he chose not to
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Speaker 1: respond to the letter, the grieving mother said she'd write another.
27:15
Speaker 1: At the conference, Amber's father, Richard Hagerman, told reporters they'd
27:20
Speaker 1: been working with state Senator Florence Shapiro on writing up
27:24
Speaker 1: legislation for tougher penalties against sex offenders and the abolishment
27:29
Speaker 1: of deferred adjudication for child rapists and molesters. After only
27:35
Speaker 1: about a month, Richard, Donna and others at People Against
27:39
Speaker 1: Sexual Offenders or PAESO had collected over fifty five thousand
27:44
Speaker 1: signatures of North Texans who strongly supported such laws. Make
27:50
Speaker 1: no mistake, there were millions more. It was just a
27:54
Speaker 1: matter of getting to them. By the end of April,
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Speaker 1: the Amber Hagerman Task Force had begun another canvassing of
28:02
Speaker 1: the East Arlington neighborhood where the nine year old was abducted,
28:06
Speaker 1: which included the businesses along both Abrams Street and Stadium Drive.
28:12
Speaker 1: Steadily and relatively quickly, the target area spread further west,
28:18
Speaker 1: the direction the man drove after abducting. Amber focus also
28:23
Speaker 1: came back to black pickup trucks as the task force
28:26
Speaker 1: began recanvassing such vehicles that patrol officers identified on the
28:31
Speaker 1: day of the abduction and in which the owner matched
28:35
Speaker 1: the description of the man given by witness Jimmy Kevel.
28:40
Speaker 1: The task force sought to leave no stones unturned. Suspect's
28:46
Speaker 1: profile information was sent to probation and parole officers from
28:50
Speaker 1: all over. Detectives contacted the Arlington Water Department and Texas
28:55
Speaker 1: Utilities to identify even more folks who'd moved away from
29:00
Speaker 1: the abduction or body disposal site since the crime took place.
29:07
Speaker 1: As the year crept on, some months were spent re
29:10
Speaker 1: reviewing work that had already been done. Leaning on local
29:14
Speaker 1: sex offenders continued to be at the top of the
29:17
Speaker 1: priority list, and evidence synopsis was handed out, which included
29:22
Speaker 1: the results of the FBI analysis, and a coordinated effort
29:27
Speaker 1: with Ford Motor Company to identify all full sized black
29:31
Speaker 1: trucks in the city was undergone. This time, the concentration
29:36
Speaker 1: was on earlier models as nineteen eighty six and newer
29:39
Speaker 1: models had already been looked at. While an entire case
29:44
Speaker 1: summary was prepared for and sent to the California Department
29:48
Speaker 1: of Justice, Sexual Investigative Support Unit, Intelligence at the Texas
29:54
Speaker 1: Department of Public Safety developed a list of twenty possible
29:58
Speaker 1: suspects by performing a parole analysis. Those efforts took place
30:04
Speaker 1: in July, and as six month anniversary articles showed up
30:08
Speaker 1: on the front page of the Fort Worth Star Telegram.
30:11
Speaker 1: A little early on the eighth, the task force was
30:14
Speaker 1: busy going down the list of volunteers for People Against
30:18
Speaker 1: Sex Offenders or PAYS to see if Amber's killer was
30:22
Speaker 1: staying close by. Anniversary surveillance began a couple days later
30:28
Speaker 1: at the site of the abduction, the disposal site, and
30:32
Speaker 1: at Amber's grave. That ran for ten days, and exactly what,
30:38
Speaker 1: if anything, was gleaned is unknown. It does seem clear, however,
30:44
Speaker 1: that absolutely nothing was panning out daily briefings were an
30:50
Speaker 1: important part of the task forces organization. They made sure
30:55
Speaker 1: everyone was on the same page, shoveled specific areas of
30:59
Speaker 1: investigation around so each was seen by fresh eyes on
31:03
Speaker 1: a regular basis, and gave detectives the chance to bounce
31:07
Speaker 1: strategies off one another. Beginning in August nineteen ninety six,
31:13
Speaker 1: a new strategy began as areas of investigation were categorized
31:18
Speaker 1: in a simple way and assigned individually. For instance, all
31:23
Speaker 1: information on out of town offenses were consolidated and under
31:28
Speaker 1: the charge of one detective who was to concentrate only
31:32
Speaker 1: on that tip. Priorities were also redefined from most important
31:38
Speaker 1: to least in this order, truck analysis, sex offender list
31:43
Speaker 1: detective generated leads and department move outs. On the twelfth
31:49
Speaker 1: of August, a report trying to identify a specific piece
31:53
Speaker 1: of evidence came in but was no help. This exact
31:58
Speaker 1: thing would be done over and over again, though we
32:02
Speaker 1: cannot reveal what this evidence is. Detectives on the task
32:07
Speaker 1: force believed that if this particular aspect of the crime
32:11
Speaker 1: could be identified, it would sway the investigation in the
32:14
Speaker 1: direction it needed to go and eventually would lead to
32:18
Speaker 1: Amber's killer. But no one recognized it. Many members of
32:24
Speaker 1: the task force strongly suspected that someone in the laundromat
32:29
Speaker 1: adjacent to the abduction site witnessed the crime. This belief
32:35
Speaker 1: stemmed from an actual tip, which wouldn't come to light
32:39
Speaker 1: for another month. Going into September nineteen ninety six, the
32:44
Speaker 1: list of various sex offenders continued to be refreshed, with
32:48
Speaker 1: new names showing up from time to time. Homeowners in
32:52
Speaker 1: the neighborhood across the creek from the forest Ridge Apartments
32:55
Speaker 1: were able to provide new potential suspects in the form
32:59
Speaker 1: of sub contractors working in the area. Once September rolled around, hoaxes,
33:07
Speaker 1: an attempted abduction and a mysterious witness gave the cops
33:12
Speaker 1: plenty to grapple with. In the September fifth, nineteen ninety
33:28
Speaker 1: six edition of the Fort Worth Star Telegram, an article
33:32
Speaker 1: appears referencing the hoaxes that have been perpetuated since the
33:36
Speaker 1: terrible crime against nine year old Amber Hagerman took place
33:41
Speaker 1: in Arlington. In one of the dozens of reports the
33:45
Speaker 1: police had received to the time of the articles printing,
33:49
Speaker 1: and Ellis Elementary sixth grader reported one such attempted abduction,
33:54
Speaker 1: black truck and all, prompting the school to send warning
33:58
Speaker 1: letters to parents and to police report. A few days later,
34:03
Speaker 1: in the Everman suburb of Fort Worth, a school aged
34:06
Speaker 1: girl reported the same thing, but later admitted she'd made
34:10
Speaker 1: up the story to get out of some trouble she
34:12
Speaker 1: was in. Both instances were investigated and closed quickly. Kids
34:19
Speaker 1: are well kids, Sergeant Mark Simpson suggested, And anyway, it
34:25
Speaker 1: was the hoaxes put forth by the adults that were
34:28
Speaker 1: especially maddening. They knew better. Usually it was one scorned
34:35
Speaker 1: ex spouse giving false information about the other in order
34:39
Speaker 1: to create doubt in child custody cases, the sergeant said,
34:44
Speaker 1: adding that he believed the media played a big role
34:46
Speaker 1: in this very problem, though the press had no idea
34:51
Speaker 1: at the time. Less than a week before the hoax
34:54
Speaker 1: article's publication, an actual attempted abduction took place on the
35:01
Speaker 1: afternoon of Sunday, September one, nineteen ninety six, in the
35:06
Speaker 1: Colonial Estates neighborhood of Arlington, about eight miles from the
35:10
Speaker 1: site of Amber Hagerman's abduction. A dark colored pickup slowed
35:14
Speaker 1: down and tried to lure a five year old girl
35:17
Speaker 1: into the vehicle. A thirty nine year old neighbor was
35:21
Speaker 1: walking out of her house and witnessed the attempted kidnapping.
35:26
Speaker 1: The precise details of what happened are unknown, but, judging
35:31
Speaker 1: by the description of this man, he actually exited the truck.
35:36
Speaker 1: He was described as a white male in his thirties,
35:40
Speaker 1: short bowl style brown hair, a pierced right ear, and
35:45
Speaker 1: wearing a black jacket, long sleeved light green shirt, white jeans,
35:50
Speaker 1: and black and white sneakers. His vehicle was described as
35:55
Speaker 1: a dark blue truck, with no other detail given. Arlington
36:00
Speaker 1: Police spokesman d Anderson told reporters that the descriptions of
36:04
Speaker 1: this would be abductor and the man slash vehicle that
36:08
Speaker 1: took Amber Hagerman were not strikingly similar, seemingly suggesting that
36:14
Speaker 1: he thought the crimes were not related. Still, the task
36:18
Speaker 1: force interviewed folks in the neighborhood to see if reason
36:22
Speaker 1: to suspect a connection developed. Next came the mysterious Anna.
36:31
Speaker 1: On September tenth, another news article brought to light a
36:34
Speaker 1: week's old lead detectives had been chasing in the form
36:38
Speaker 1: of an undocumented emigrant known only as Anna. Leads were
36:44
Speaker 1: becoming fewer and farther in between, until a woman called
36:48
Speaker 1: in and told police that an acquaintance of hers named
36:51
Speaker 1: Anna was at the Quick Wash on January thirteenth, nineteen
36:54
Speaker 1: ninety six. Or was she. Police told reporters that they
37:00
Speaker 1: believe either Anna or someone she knew was at the
37:03
Speaker 1: laundromat the day nine year old Amber was taken by
37:07
Speaker 1: a man in a black truck, making the entire story
37:10
Speaker 1: seem to crumble over the course of a single newspaper article.
37:15
Speaker 1: Though the description of Anna was incredibly specific and distinct,
37:20
Speaker 1: including the detail that her mid twenties year old son
37:24
Speaker 1: uses a wheelchair, no one seemed to remember, let alone
37:28
Speaker 1: was able to find this woman. Police received a tip
37:33
Speaker 1: about another supposed witness, an undocumented man, who they said
37:39
Speaker 1: was also at the Quick Wash that day. The cops
37:43
Speaker 1: pleaded through the media for someone who knew this man
37:47
Speaker 1: or Anna to come forward or the people themselves, and
37:51
Speaker 1: even promised immunity from being deported and pointed out that
37:55
Speaker 1: they'd be eligible for a seventy five thousand dollars reward.
38:00
Speaker 1: Like the hoaxes by children and scorned lovers, these mystery
38:04
Speaker 1: folks seemed more the product of an ulterior motive than reality.
38:09
Speaker 1: This time, perhaps the tipsters desired to insert themselves into
38:15
Speaker 1: the case. At the end of September nineteen ninety six,
38:20
Speaker 1: a Task Force detective attended to homicide seminar in Cooperstown,
38:25
Speaker 1: New York, with the synopsis of Amber Hagerman's case in hand.
38:31
Speaker 1: Approximately one hundred and sixty five homicide detectives from four
38:35
Speaker 1: countries were present. Though bringing her daughter's killer to justice
38:42
Speaker 1: was incredibly important to her, Donna Whitson's priorities began to shift.
38:48
Speaker 1: Amber deserved a legacy. She was kind, loyal, happy, and
38:54
Speaker 1: wanted nothing but the best for everyone around her. In October,
38:59
Speaker 1: as President Bill Clinton signed the Amber Hackerman Child Protection
39:03
Speaker 1: Act into federal law, Donna was right next to him,
39:07
Speaker 1: and she knew from this point forward her little girl
39:10
Speaker 1: would be responsible for saving the lives of so many
39:14
Speaker 1: other children, more than one thousand at the time of
39:18
Speaker 1: this recording in July of twenty twenty three. In fact, meanwhile,
39:24
Speaker 1: the Task Force was still hard at it. The identification
39:29
Speaker 1: of sex offenders moved into other zip codes, strategies were
39:34
Speaker 1: tweaked and altered. On November twenty fifth, nineteen ninety six,
39:40
Speaker 1: what should have been Amber's tenth birthday. The task Force
39:44
Speaker 1: conducted another round of surveillance at the abduction site, the
39:48
Speaker 1: creek where her body was found, and at her grave.
39:53
Speaker 1: No additional suspects were identified, according to an investigative review,
39:59
Speaker 1: though detectives were developing their own leads, tips coming in
40:03
Speaker 1: were dwindling a little more every week. In December, the
40:08
Speaker 1: task Force requested from the Fort Worth Police and subsequently
40:12
Speaker 1: reviewed the case file of eleven year old Julie Fuller,
40:16
Speaker 1: who was abducted from a hotel not terribly far from
40:20
Speaker 1: the site where Amber Hackerman was taken in June of
40:24
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty three. The site was only three and a
40:27
Speaker 1: half miles to the east. Julie's body was found the
40:32
Speaker 1: next day, fifteen miles west in Fort Worth. Julie had
40:37
Speaker 1: been raped and strangled to death. Detectives could find no
40:41
Speaker 1: cause to suspect a connection between the cases. It would
40:45
Speaker 1: be decades before police identified the killer of Julie Fuller.
40:52
Speaker 1: By the end of nineteen ninety six, the Task Force
40:55
Speaker 1: began an attempt to coordinate with authorities in Mexico to
40:59
Speaker 1: share information about similar crimes, which proved to be unhelpful
41:04
Speaker 1: for the most part. It appears. Near the one year
41:08
Speaker 1: anniversary of Amber's abduction, police once again began the surveillance
41:13
Speaker 1: of key areas. On the actual date, task Force members
41:18
Speaker 1: filmed a candlelight vigil at the abduction site. The next day,
41:24
Speaker 1: crime stoppers re enactment videos were given to state prisons
41:28
Speaker 1: with the hope that an inmate might be able to help, playing,
41:32
Speaker 1: of course, on the fact that child rapists and killers
41:35
Speaker 1: are not well liked by even the most hardened and
41:38
Speaker 1: remorseless criminals think tanks. Notwithstanding, the investigation began creeping to
41:46
Speaker 1: a slow crawl, and then came the spring of nineteen
41:51
Speaker 1: ninety seven. On April third, nineteen ninety seven, the disappearance
41:57
Speaker 1: of a twelve year old girl two hundred and seventy
41:59
Speaker 1: seven miles away in Friendswood, Texas, caught the attention of
42:04
Speaker 1: the Amber Hagerman Task Force. It wasn't until more than
42:08
Speaker 1: two weeks later, when the body of Laura Kate Smither
42:12
Speaker 1: was found, however, that detectives in Arlington began scrambling to
42:17
Speaker 1: compare her case with theirs. The similarities were about as
42:22
Speaker 1: striking as any of the seasoned officers that made up
42:26
Speaker 1: the task Force had ever seen Next Time Ungone Cold
42:32
Speaker 1: the Bad Men. If you have any information about the
42:38
Speaker 1: abduction and murder of Amber Renee Hagerman, please call the
42:42
Speaker 1: Arlington Police at eight one seven four five nine five
42:47
Speaker 1: seven seven to two. To remain anonymous and to be
42:51
Speaker 1: eligible for a reward, you can provide a tip at
42:54
Speaker 1: Tarrant County Crime Stoppers at eight one seven four six'
42:59
Speaker 1: nine eight four seven to. Seven if you have not,
43:04
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