Thirty years after 9-year-old Amber Hagerman was snatched from an Arlington parking lot while riding her bicycle, sparking the creation of the nationwide AMBER Alert system, police issued a fresh call for information on Monday in the still-unsolved case.
The abduction on January 13, 1996, remains one of North Texas’ most notorious cold cases, with no arrests despite thousands of tips over the decades. Investigators are now applying advanced DNA technology to evidence, hoping to develop a complete profile of the killer.
Amber was playing with her 5-year-old brother, Ricky, in the parking lot of an abandoned grocery store when a man in a black pickup truck grabbed her. A witness reported seeing her scream and kick as she was forced into the vehicle. Ricky had returned to their grandparents’ home nearby, but Amber never made it back.
Four days later, her body was discovered by a dog walker in a drainage ditch about 4 miles from the site, with cuts, including to her throat. Authorities believe she was alive for two days after the kidnapping and that her body may have been carried there by rainwater.
Born November 25, 1986, to Donna [Whitson] Williams and Richard Hagerman, Amber was described by her mother as an “innocent and sweet little girl” who enjoyed writing, Barbies, the Disney princess Pocahontas, and acting like a “little mommy” to her brother. She was a Girl Scout at Barry Elementary, where classmates remembered her as “pretty” and “nice.”
The sole witness, Jimmie Kevil, who died in 2016, told police he saw the incident from his backyard. He described the truck parked earlier at a nearby laundromat before the driver sped off toward central Arlington.
Police believe the suspect was a local white or Hispanic male in his 20s or 30s at the time, putting him in his 50s or 60s today. He was under 6 feet tall, with a medium build and brown or black hair. The vehicle was a 1980s- or 1990s full-size short-wheelbase single-cab pickup with a clear rear window without a slider, in good condition with no visible damage.
“Our detectives believe that someone still has knowledge of this horrific crime, and we need them to come forward,” said Assistant Police Chief Kevin Kolbye, Fox 4 KDFW reported.
Amber’s mother, now a child safety advocate, echoed the appeal.
“I want to know why … why her? She was only a little girl,” Donna Williams said, per Fox 4. “To Amber’s killer: I’m asking you today to turn yourself in. Give Amber justice.”
Williams, who has endured further losses including her fiancé’s death in a car accident, her sister’s passing from a seizure disorder, and the deaths of her husband and father, told reporters she misses her daughter’s voice, touch, and hugs.
“I remember everything about her. There’s nothing I’ve forgotten about her,” she said in a 2021 interview, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.
Ricky Hagerman, now an adult, remains in touch with investigators.
“Every day she’s on my mind,” he said in 2016, per the Miami Herald.
“She was like my best friend, like a second mother,” he said, per The Seattle Times.
The case, though cold, is active, with over 7,000 tips investigated. Arlington Police Sgt. Grant Gildon noted it has never gone 180 days without a lead. “I remain optimistic that this case will be solved,” he said. “I do believe there’s definitely someone out there who has the answers that we’re looking for.”
In the aftermath, a local mother, Diana Simone, proposed an emergency broadcast system for missing children after calling a radio station.
“I said, ‘I can’t get over this child. There has to be something we can do,'” she recalled, according to People magazine.
Dallas-Fort Worth broadcasters and law enforcement developed the AMBER Alert — standing for America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response — in 1996. It was first used in 1997, with its initial success in 1998. The system, now in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and dozens of countries, has rescued at least 1,221 children as of late 2024.
“It’s a shame my daughter had to be butchered and had to go through what she went through for us to have the AMBER Alert, but I know she would be proud of it,” Williams said in 2016, per Yahoo! News.
Oak Farms Dairy is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the case. Tips, no matter how minor, can be submitted to 817-575-8823.
