Arlington police announced Wednesday that they’ll resubmit DNA evidence in the 1996 kidnapping of 9-year-old Amber Hagerman, in hopes technological advancements can help catch her killer.
In a recent interview with The Dallas Morning News, investigators acknowledged for the first time that they have genetic evidence in the case.
At a news conference Wednesday marking the 25th anniversary of Amber’s disappearance, police renewed their pleas to the public for any tips that could help bring answers for Amber’s family.
“We’re submitting evidence that we’ve maintained for 25 years, that we believe could possibly provide us with results that could be a DNA profile,” said Detective Grant Gildon, who now leads the investigation.
Amber was abducted Jan. 13, 1996, while she was riding her bike in a parking lot in Arlington. The man who called 911 is the only witness who has come forward since that day.
Four days later, her body was found in a creek bed.
Police are still using the same suspect description they provided in 1996: a white or Hispanic man under 6 feet with a medium build and black or brown hair who would have been in his 20s or 30s at the time of the crime.
Amber Hagerman’s mother Donna Williams waits to speak during a news conference at the site where her daughter was abducted 25 years ago in Arlington. (Tom Fox / Staff Photographer)
He drove a full-size fleetside single-cab black pickup with a short wheelbase, police said. It was in good condition, with no damage, no chrome or striping and a clear rear window.
Gildon declined to provide specifics about what evidence police will submit because that’s information known only to them and Amber’s murderer.
Recent breakthroughs in other cold cases give detectives hope, he said. Genealogical DNA testing solved the 1974 Fort Worth slaying of Carla Walker and has led to the arrest of the Golden State Killer.
Police said the technology they plan to use in Amber’s case is still being developed but could be ready for testing as early as February. They declined to provide further details.
“We believe this case will get solved,” Gildon said. “We believe that there’s no way the killer in this case could have committed the crime in the manner that they did without someone seeing, hearing or having some knowledge of what happened. We believe someone out there still has information that can help.”
Donna Williams, Amber’s mother, arrived early to the news conference Wednesday to lay a bouquet of pink roses at a small memorial in the parking lot where her daughter was kidnapped. She wore a button with Amber’s photograph and a gold necklace with her name.
“It still feels like it was yesterday,” she said. “It’s still raw.”
Williams said Amber was smart and loved taking care of her little brother. In a collage she brought to the news conference — propped on an easel next to crime scene photographs and maps — Amber’s short life was displayed in family pictures. Christmases and Easters and Halloweens, next to photos of memorial crosses and a grave marker.
The abduction led to the creation of the Amber Alert system, which helps law enforcement quickly distribute information about missing children. Across the country, 988 children have been found safe through the system as of May 2020, according to the Justice Department.
“She’s still taking care of little children like she did her younger brother,” Williams said. “I’m very, very proud of my daughter.”
She encouraged anyone who knows something about her daughter’s murder to come forward. The detectives agreed that even a small piece of information could be important.
“The tip that’s going to get us there is still out there,” Gildon said.
1/16Near the 15 year anniversary of her daughter Amber Hagerman being abduction and killed, Donna Norris sits among Amber’s belongings in her Hurst, Texas, home on January 10, 2011.(Andy Jacobsohn / The Dallas Morning News)
2/16Glenda Whitson, grandmother of Amber Hagerman, breaks down Jan. 9, 2006 during an interview while reflecting on Amber’s abduction and murder ten years earlier.(Michael Mulvey / The Dallas Morning News)
3/16Jimmie and Glenda Whitson, grandparents of Amber Hagerman, reflect Jan. 9, 2006 on Amber’s abduction and murder ten years earlier, while at their home in Arlington.(Michael Mulvey / The Dallas Morning News)
4/16Donna Norris, mother of Amber Hagerman, sits next to her daughter’s dolls while at her home in Hurst on January 10, 2006. Donna went to Washington, D.C. that week to commemorate the 10-year anniversary of her daughter’s death. Amber was abducted and killed Jan. 13, 1996.(Mei-Chun Ja / The Dallas Morning News)
5/16President George W. Bush speaks before signing Amber Alert legislation into law during a Rose Garden ceremony at the White House on Wednesday, April 30, 2003. The law creates a nationwide voluntary rapid-response network to help find kidnapped children. Bush is joined by Attorney General John Ashcroft, center, and Donna Norris, second from left, the mother of the bill’s namesake, 9-year-old Amber Hagerman who was abducted in 1996 in Arlington, Texas, and later found murdered. Her son Rick Hagerman stands at far left.(J. Scott Applewhite / AP)
6/16Tears run down the face of Cassie Freeman, 23, a friend of Amber Hagerman, at a candlelight vigil held Jan. 13, 2011 in Arlington, TX in the parking lot where Amber Hagerman was abducted exactly 15 years earlier. She was found dead four days later but her killer has never been caught.(Max Faulkner / Star-Telegram)
7/16Sgt. Mark Simpson who is head of the Amber Hagerman Task Force sits behind stacks of paper containing tips from the case on March 14, 1996. Investigators said then that time was on their side and are confident they would find Amber’s killer.(The Dallas Morning News)
8/16Ashley Hackney, 7, of Arlington waits while her mother, Julia, signs a petition at the site of Amber Hagerman’s abduction. At right: James Sasser, 43, of Arlington, gets assistance from Bruce Seybert, 39, of Arlington as he signs the petition. Seybert and others spearheaded an effort for the state to make an Amber Hagerman amendment to the Ashley Astell bill. That amendment would mandate, among other things, a mandatory life sentence without parole for convicted child sex offenders. Seybert said an estimated 1,000 people a day visited the site of Amber’s abduction.(David Leeson / The Dallas Morning News)
9/16Amber Hagerman’s parents lay a rose on Amber’s casket as they leave graveside services on Jan. 20, 1996 in Arlington.(David Leeson / The Dallas Morning News)
10/16Barbara Dyess and Tammy Zimmerman make pink bows at 3 a.m. on Jan. 18, 1996 for Amber Hagerman as they await word on the identity of a child’s body which had been found earlier that evening. Zimmerman, who was crying as she tied the bows, said they were going to continue despite the outcome of the news.(David Leeson / The Dallas Morning News)
11/16The makeshift memorial to murder victim Amber Hagerman in a vacant parking lot that used to belong to Winn Dixie where she was kidnapped.(David Woo / The Dallas Morning News)
12/16Amber Hagerman, who was abducted from a vacant parking lot in Arlington and killed.(Courtesy )
13/16With television satelite trucks parked outside of his grandmother’s house, Richard Chad Hagerman ( 5) rides his bike under the watchful eye of a television camera. Richard’s sister, Amber Hagerman was abducted as the two rode bicycles in the neighborhood.(William Snyder/DMN)
14/16Jimmie Whitson, Amber’s grandfather, Phyllis Stephens, a family friend, and Glenda Whitson, Amber’s grandmother, spoke to the news media in front her the Whitson’s home early Thursday morning, Jan. 18, 1996.
15/16Amber Hagerman’s parents, Donna Whitson and Richard E. Hagerman, listen to a summary of Amber’s abduction while waiting to be interviewed for the television program ‘Day and Date’ from New York on Jan. 16, 1996.(William Snyder / 87213)
16/16Investigators watch as personnel from the Medical Examiner’s office in Tarrant County remove the body of nine-year-old Amber Hagerman from a creekbed on Jan. 18, 1996.(Beatriz Terrazas)
Arlington police have set up a new tips line — 817-575-8823 — to gather information about the case, and Oak Farms Dairy is offering a $10,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest in the case.
