Amber Hagerman

Amber Rene Hagerman
Born	November 25, 1986
Died	January 15, 1996 (aged 9) Arlington, Texas

Amber Rene Hagerman (November 25, 1986 – January 15, 1996) was a young girl who became a victim of an abduction and murder. On January 13, 1996, she was riding her bike near her grandparents' home in Arlington, Texas, and was kidnapped soon thereafter. Her murder would later inspire the creation of the AMBER Alert system.

Abduction

On January 13, 1996, Amber was visiting her grandparents at their home in Arlington, Texas. Her grandparents kept two bicycles for Amber and her younger brother Ricky. The children asked if they could go for a quick ride, and Amber's mother and grandfather said yes but only to go around the block. Amber and Ricky pedaled around two corners, before Ricky stopped and said "I'm going back because Mama said only to go around the block", and Amber carried on riding to the parking lot of an abandoned grocery store. Neighborhood kids enjoyed riding on a ramp there, so Amber rode round a few times, within the view of Jim Kevil. According to Kevil, a white or Hispanic man in a black pickup truck sprinted up to Amber and dragged her into his truck. When Ricky got home, his grandparents and mother asked where Amber was, and he said he didn't know. They told him to go and look for her, and when he returned, he said "I can't find sissy". When Amber's grandfather drove round to the parking lot looking for Amber, the police had arrived, who told him that Kevil had seen a man kidnapping a young girl. Police rushed to the scene, but all they found was a bicycle. Amber's grandfather said "that's my granddaughter's bicycle". Amber was the second child in her family to have been kidnapped. Her father's two-day-old granddaughter was abducted in 1991 and recovered safely 10 hours later.
Arlington police began searching for Amber immediately. Volunteers searched for Amber Hagerman for several days, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation investigated. Four days after her abduction, a man walking his dog found Amber's corpse in a creek bed. An autopsy revealed that her throat had been cut. She had been alive two whole days before being killed. Although a $75,000 reward was offered for information leading to Amber's killer, he was never found. The task force investigating Amber's murder was dissolved in June 1997.

Additional investigation

On April 20, 2009, a group of college students with Bauder College's Cold Case Investigative Research Institute began a year-long pursuit to solve the case. The volunteers have also reviewed other high-profile cold-cases such as Chandra Levy.

Legacy

Within days, Hagerman's mother, Donna Whitson (now Donna Norris), was "calling for tougher laws governing sex offenders". Whitson testified in front of the U.S. Congress in June, asking legislators to create a nationwide registry of sex offenders. Representative Martin Frost, the Congressman who represents Whitson's district, proposed an "Amber Hagerman Child Protection Act." Among the sections of the bill was one that would create a national sex offender registry. Both of Hagerman's parents were present when President Bill Clinton signed into law the bill creating the national sex offender register. Whitson and Richard Hagerman then began collecting signatures in Texas, which they planned to present to then-Governor George W. Bush as a sign that people wanted more stringent laws for sex offenders.

AMBER Alert

The first AMBER Alert trial was run in 1996 at KRLD Radio Studio at the Ball Park in Arlington, Texas. In October 2000, the United States House of Representatives adopted H.R. 605 which encouraged communities nationwide to implement the AMBER Plan. In April 2003, President George W. Bush signed the AMBER Alert legislation, making it a national program.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children assists in the implementation of AMBER Alerts.
In 2006, a TV movie, Amber's Story, was broadcast on Lifetime. It stars Elisabeth Röhm and Sophie Hough.
A comic book entitled Amber Hagerman Deserves Justice: A Night Owl Story was issued by Wham Bang Comics in 2009. It tells the story of Amber and the investigation into her murder.