Speaker 1: Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership
Speaker 1: with iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: We're going to start with a little peak behind the
Speaker 2: scenes of Criminalia. If you're a longtime listener, you may
Speaker 2: have noticed that there are some stories we keep off limits.
Speaker 2: For example, we don't typically talk about crimes against kids.
Speaker 2: We also try to talk about crimes that haven't been
Speaker 2: splashed all over modern media. I mean, you know those
Speaker 2: crime stories that you know all the details from. With
Speaker 2: that said, this episode doesn't make sense if you look
Speaker 2: at it through those guidelines. This episode is about the
Speaker 2: legacy of Third Greater Amber Hagerman, who was kidnapped and
Speaker 2: killed near her home. Her long unresolved case is a
Speaker 2: very important one in United States history, even though it's
Speaker 2: only a few decades old. Also, there's an obvious warning
Speaker 2: with this one that it involves violence against a child,
Speaker 2: so please feel free to skip over it if that's
Speaker 2: not something you're comfortable hearing about. Now, welcome to Criminalia.
Speaker 2: I'm Maria Tremarki.
Speaker 3: And I'm Holly Frye. Amber had long brown hair and freckles.
Speaker 3: She liked playing with her Barbie dolls, and she was
Speaker 3: a devoted girl Scout. She was born on November twenty fifth,
Speaker 3: nineteen eighty six, to Donna Williams and Richard Hagerman in Arlington, Texas.
Speaker 3: But on the afternoon of January thirteenth, nineteen ninety six,
Speaker 3: everything changed. Amber age nine, was abducted while riding her
Speaker 3: pink bicycle in an abandoned wind Dixie parking lot on
Speaker 3: East Abram Street in Arlington, just two tenths of a
Speaker 3: mile from her grandparents' house. The suspect, still unknown, is
Speaker 3: believed to have waited until Amber's five year old brother, Ricky,
Speaker 3: had left on his bike. The kids had been told
Speaker 3: to only ride their bikes around the block, but instead
Speaker 3: Amber wanted to try a bike ramp that she saw
Speaker 3: in the nearby parking lot, and so she went to
Speaker 3: try it out and Ricky went back home. It only
Speaker 3: took eight minutes for Amber to disappear.
Speaker 2: Amber's bicycle was recovered from the parking lot, but Amber
Speaker 2: wasn't found until just around midnight, four days after her abduction,
Speaker 2: when an apartment security guard discovered her body face down
Speaker 2: in a creek bed behind the Forest Hill Apartments, only
Speaker 2: about four miles from the parking lot where she had
Speaker 2: been taken. The Terrant County Medical Examiner's office ruled her
Speaker 2: death a homicide and stated the cause was quote cut
Speaker 2: wounds to the throat. But to add more complicit to
Speaker 2: this scene, there had been a fierce storm during Amber's disappearance,
Speaker 2: and the creek she was found in had risen rapidly.
Speaker 2: Authorities considered that her body had quote moved there during
Speaker 2: the rainstorm. They also worried the water washed away any
Speaker 2: potential evidence as to who her killer could be.
Speaker 3: A seventy eight year old United States Navy veteran and
Speaker 3: former sheriff's deputy named Jimmy Kevel witnessed the abduction. As
Speaker 3: far as anyone knows, he was the only witness. He
Speaker 3: lived just down the street, and he was working on
Speaker 3: his car when he saw the kidnapping through the chain
Speaker 3: link fence that separated his backyard from the rear of
Speaker 3: the Strip Mall where the wind Dixie parking lot was located.
Speaker 3: He recalled the experience to CBS Dallas Fort Worth in
Speaker 3: twenty sixteen, saying, quote, a man pulled up, jumped out
Speaker 3: and grabbed her when she screamed. I figured the police
Speaker 3: ought to know about it, so I called them. He
Speaker 3: told the police that as he hurried back into his
Speaker 3: house to call nine one one, he saw the kidnapper
Speaker 3: pull out of the parking lot and head west on
Speaker 3: Abram Street. According to Arlington Police detective Grant Gilden quote,
Speaker 3: he described the suspect carrying Amber as she kicked and
Speaker 3: screamed to his truck, putting her inside the driver's side door.
Speaker 2: Based on Jimmy's eyewitness account and evidence they were able
Speaker 2: to collect, police believe the suspect was or is a
Speaker 2: white or Hispanic male in their twenties to thirties, shorter
Speaker 2: than six feet tall, with a medium build, and with
Speaker 2: brown or black hair. Now it's important to consider those
Speaker 2: ages are from nineteen ninety six. Kevil described the vehicle
Speaker 2: as well. He saw a nineteen eighties or nineteen nineties
Speaker 2: solid black, full size pickup truck with no chrome or striping.
Speaker 2: It was a single cab and had a short wheelbase.
Speaker 2: Its rear window was clear and did not not slide,
Speaker 2: and in general he was pretty confident that the truck
Speaker 2: was in good condition and had no visible damage, but
Speaker 2: he wasn't sure of the model or the license plate.
Speaker 3: Okay, if you are thinking that eyewitness accounts are unreliable,
Speaker 3: You're not alone. Human memory is faulty, and it is
Speaker 3: easy to misremember things or to only remember small pieces
Speaker 3: of an event that you've witnessed. The science of memory
Speaker 3: is something that researchers are still constantly examining and learning
Speaker 3: more about, and there are a lot of instances where
Speaker 3: convictions based solely on eyewitness testimony have been overturned after
Speaker 3: being found to have been erroneous. But that doesn't mean
Speaker 3: all eyewitness testimony is useless. In the twenty eighteen book
Speaker 3: Psychology of Learning and Motivation, researchers Scott D. Gronlind and
Speaker 3: Aaron S. Benjamin note that dismissing the use of eyewitness
Speaker 3: evidence isn't really the best way to look at it,
Speaker 3: and that a reframing of how eyewitness accounts are used
Speaker 3: might offer a better result. They state that quote, A
Speaker 3: broader view of eyewitness cognition includes both memory judgments, for example,
Speaker 3: the selection of an individual from a lineup, and an
Speaker 3: accompanying metacognitive context, for example, the level of confidence that
Speaker 3: an eyewitness places in that selection. When these components are
Speaker 3: considered jointly, eyewitness evidence is highly reliable and can be
Speaker 3: treated like any other source of evidence in the courtroom,
Speaker 3: valuable when appropriately a sayed, but prone to contamination. So
Speaker 3: all of this is to say, if you eyewitness an event,
Speaker 3: even if you have just a tiny detail that might help,
Speaker 3: that's the kind of thing that should absolutely be shared
Speaker 3: with authorities. They then vet that information.
Speaker 2: We're going to take a break for a word from
Speaker 2: our spot. When we're back, we'll talk about how after
Speaker 2: more than twenty five years, investigators are still asking the
Speaker 2: public for information.
Speaker 3: Welcome back to crimin Ilia. Let's talk about the task
Speaker 3: force still investigating this case and they're renewed hope for
Speaker 3: closure that modern DNA technology may offer.
Speaker 2: More than fifty police officers and FBI agents made up
Speaker 2: the original task force created to investigate Amber's kidnapping and murder.
Speaker 2: Sergeant Ben Lopez, a rookie back then, was on that team.
Speaker 2: According to Lopez, the still unsolved case has generated more
Speaker 2: than seven thousand leads over the years. All were investigated
Speaker 2: with the help of the Terrant County Sheriff's office and
Speaker 2: the FBI, but there is still no suspect. Authorities held
Speaker 2: a press conference on the twenty fifth anniversary of Amber's
Speaker 2: death in twenty twenty one to put the case back
Speaker 2: in the public consciousness. During that news conference, Lopez stated, quote,
Speaker 2: all this time, we've only had one witness. He continued,
Speaker 2: that's why we're pleading if there's anyone out there that
Speaker 2: has information, even if they think it's just a small
Speaker 2: bit of information, it may be the lead we need
Speaker 2: to break this of the crime. He has since stated
Speaker 2: that it has quote stayed with me ever since end
Speaker 2: quote is personal to me.
Speaker 3: Police believe there may be more witnesses to the abduction,
Speaker 3: such as someone from the laundromat that was next to
Speaker 3: the wind Dixie, but that perhaps they were or even
Speaker 3: still are too afraid to come forward. Additionally, investigators believe
Speaker 3: Amber was alive for at least two of the four
Speaker 3: days she was missing, and they believe someone must have
Speaker 3: seen something during those two days. During the twenty fifth
Speaker 3: anniversary press conference, Arlington Detective Guilden stated, quote, our hope
Speaker 3: is that someone in the community saw something. Maybe they
Speaker 3: didn't come forward then out of fear or not wanting
Speaker 3: to get involved, whatever reason. We need folks to search
Speaker 3: their minds and bring forward anything that may add value
Speaker 3: to our investigation.
Speaker 2: Coinciding with the twenty fifth anniversary of this tragedy, police
Speaker 2: ask for the public's help in the case and have
Speaker 2: offered a ten thousand dollars reward for information leading to
Speaker 2: an arrest. They also established a special tip line. For
Speaker 2: the first time, they released photos taken after Amber's body
Speaker 2: was found, hoping someone may remember something and come forward.
Speaker 2: In twenty twenty one, investigators also disclosed that analysis by
Speaker 2: FBI laboratories has yet to lead to a full DNA profile,
Speaker 2: but there's hope that advances in DNA technology, including genetic geniusology,
Speaker 2: can increase their odds of finding the long unidentified suspect.
Speaker 2: Detective Grant Gilden though consistently declined to say what physical
Speaker 2: evidence the department has in the case, stating just that
Speaker 2: it was information only Amber's killer would be aware of.
Speaker 3: Also on the twenty fifth anniversary of Amber's death, her
Speaker 3: mother stated to the press, quote, I implore the media
Speaker 3: and public to ensure the focus remains on finding the
Speaker 3: killer and bringing him to justice. I miss her every day.
Speaker 3: I want to know why her. She was just a
Speaker 3: little girl. And then, directly addressing her daughter's killer, she said, quote,
Speaker 3: please turn yourself in.
Speaker 2: We are going to take a break for a word
Speaker 2: from our sponsors. When we return, we'll talk about the
Speaker 2: public emergency alert system inspired by Amber's kidnapping and murder.
Speaker 3: Welcome back to Criminalia in nineteen ninety six, There was
Speaker 3: really no way to get this type of emergency information
Speaker 3: out to the mass public in any timely fashion. What
Speaker 3: you might not know about Amber's story, and this was
Speaker 3: a primary reason that we chose this story for this episode,
Speaker 3: is that her tragedy inspired the creation of a nationwide
Speaker 3: emergency alert system for law enforcement to quickly notify the
Speaker 3: public about missing and abducted children. These are Amber Alerts,
Speaker 3: officially called America's Missing Broadcast Emergency Response. An Amber alert
Speaker 3: includes the basics, the name and description of the abductee,
Speaker 3: a description of the suspected abductor if they have it,
Speaker 3: and a description and license plate number of the doctor's vehicle,
Speaker 3: if available.
Speaker 2: Amber's story changed the way the country handles child abductions.
Speaker 2: The Amber Alert system is her namesake, and it's her legacy,
Speaker 2: and it happened because Amber's kidnapping and killing inspired her
Speaker 2: own Arlington community to take action. It all began when
Speaker 2: a local resident named Diane Simone, who heard about Amber's
Speaker 2: abduction on the evening news. Wanted to help in the
Speaker 2: search for the killer, but wasn't sure how or what
Speaker 2: to do. Like other Arlington locals, she wanted to help
Speaker 2: keep the case alive and moving forward, but felt frustrated,
Speaker 2: so she called a local radio station. The self described
Speaker 2: quote ordinary woman and mother phoned a Dallas Fort Worth
Speaker 2: radio station with an idea to pitch to them. There
Speaker 2: are weather alerts and civil defense alerts, but why not
Speaker 2: alerts to help find abducted children?
Speaker 3: And this idea, of course, took off. In fact, today
Speaker 3: you get these alerts even readily available on your smartphones.
Speaker 3: At first, in response to community concern, the Dallas Fort
Speaker 3: Worth Association of Radio Managers teamed up with local law
Speaker 3: enforcement agencies in northern Texas to create this kind of system,
Speaker 3: and initially it was just radio stations that participated. Then
Speaker 3: in nineteen ninety nine, eight area television stations began issuing
Speaker 3: the alerts in urgent bulletins. Next, at the direction of
Speaker 3: law enforcement, these alerts were sent to radio and television stations,
Speaker 3: the lottery, the Department of Transportation, and to the National
Speaker 3: Center for Missing and Exploited Children. An organization designed to
Speaker 3: send this type of information to a much wider audience,
Speaker 3: and that list of people who get the alerts is
Speaker 3: even bigger now. According to the Department of Justice, the
Speaker 3: Amber Alert system is used in all fifty States, the
Speaker 3: District of Columbia, tribal communities, Puerto Rico, and the US
Speaker 3: Virgin Islands, and similar child abduction emergency alert systems have
Speaker 3: also been created and adopted internationally in more than thirty countries.
Speaker 2: In the United States, in nineteen ninety six, broadcasters and
Speaker 2: law enforcement first partnered to help find abducted children with
Speaker 2: these alerts. Two years later, an infant abducted by her
Speaker 2: babysitter became the first child to be safely returned home
Speaker 2: because of an Amber alert. As of December sixth, twenty
Speaker 2: twenty four, one thousand, two hundred and twenty one children
Speaker 2: have been successfully recovered and one hundred and ninety five
Speaker 2: children have been rescued because of these alerts, alerts that
Speaker 2: were first thought of by that quote ordinary woman and mother.
Speaker 2: Carly Tapp, Amber Alert's program specialist at the National Center
Speaker 2: for Missing and Exploited Children has stated it's likely that
Speaker 2: the number of recovered children is higher and that while
Speaker 2: most children in which an Amber alert has been issued
Speaker 2: are found, it's not always possible to determine if it
Speaker 2: was actually because.
Speaker 3: Of the alert. Amber's case has remained unsolved for nearly
Speaker 3: thirty years, but investigators are trying to keep it alive.
Speaker 3: Detective Guilden, recall he was the lead investigator on the case,
Speaker 3: stated that quote, this is still an open, ongoing murder investigation.
Speaker 3: We want to solve it. We want to get answers
Speaker 3: for the family. He continued in that statement, quote, we
Speaker 3: continue to have leads. A lot of people will refer
Speaker 3: to Amber's case as what's commonly referred to as a
Speaker 3: cold case, but for the Arlington Police Department, it has
Speaker 3: never been listed as a cold case because we've never
Speaker 3: gone one hundred and eighty days without having some lead
Speaker 3: come in. What investigators want people to know is that
Speaker 3: it's not too late. It's not too late to share information,
Speaker 3: and it's not too late to hope for this case
Speaker 3: to be solved.
Speaker 2: The Arlington Police Department as recently as twenty twenty four
Speaker 2: stated to CBS News Texas that they quote remained dedicated
Speaker 2: to finding her murderer and providing her family with the justice.
Speaker 2: They deserve. The phone number to that special tip line
Speaker 2: dedicated to Ember's case remains active today. Tipsters can call
Speaker 2: eight one seven five seven five eight eight two three.
Speaker 3: Oh, this is the heavy one.
Speaker 2: There are reasons why there are certain things we don't
Speaker 2: talk about, right, this is a big one to get through.
Speaker 3: But would you like to step inside the cooler?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 3: Please? Okay, this one's tricky. They're all tricky talking about
Speaker 3: unsolved cases, but this one's extra tricky because it does
Speaker 3: involve a child. For that reason, one of the things
Speaker 3: they were doing is a reversal we've done before. We're
Speaker 3: doing the mocktail first as something that a kid could drink.
Speaker 2: Totally makes sense.
Speaker 3: And I also just want to be very careful about
Speaker 3: it because the first thought I had to reference this
Speaker 3: drink is her bicycle. But that doesn't feel like a
Speaker 3: thing I want to use for the name of the drink,
Speaker 3: because that just feels a little bit ghoulish. The colors, though,
Speaker 3: are going to reference it in a subtle way, but
Speaker 3: the drink itself is going to be called nineteen ninety six.
Speaker 3: And the reason why is that I like probably you
Speaker 3: in research and probably our listeners. The whole time I
Speaker 3: was looking at this story. I was like, really, was
Speaker 3: it just nineteen ninety six? Did I hear? How did I?
Speaker 3: How do I vaguely feel like I have memories of
Speaker 3: having heard this before. I didn't, but it's been so
Speaker 3: pervasive that it feels more long term.
Speaker 2: I would have guessed, honestly, I would have guessed eighties.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So it's it's called a nineteen ninety six and
Speaker 3: it's a very simple drink. You can make it in
Speaker 3: the glass. Like I said, we're going to do the
Speaker 3: mocktail first. It's a very yummy sip As a mocktail,
Speaker 3: it is a little on the sweeter side because it's
Speaker 3: made for kids. And the idea is, you know, as
Speaker 3: we've done with a number of drinks during this season,
Speaker 3: we want to think of the alternate world where this
Speaker 3: didn't happen, and where Amber got to have a wonderful
Speaker 3: visit with your grandparents and maybe drink something a little
Speaker 3: extra sweet and delicious that she probably wouldn't normally get.
Speaker 3: So this is one where you're gonna put before you
Speaker 3: put any ice in your glass. And I would recommend
Speaker 3: a highball glass or something similar basically, or like a
Speaker 3: Collin's glass. You want something that is like a tall,
Speaker 3: narrow cylinder more than like a rocks glass or a short,
Speaker 3: wide cup. And that's just because we're making stripes and
Speaker 3: you want to be able to see him a little bit.
Speaker 3: So first you're gonna put in an ounce of raspberry
Speaker 3: syrup and you're just gonna pour that directly in your glass.
Speaker 3: Then put your ice in, because we're doing ripeing. Remember
Speaker 3: it goes from heaviest ingredient to lightest because that's how
Speaker 3: they will sit on top of each other and not
Speaker 3: just blend altogether. So the syrup goes in, the ice
Speaker 3: goes in. Then you are going to carefully pour in
Speaker 3: two ounces of cream soda. I did these one ounce
Speaker 3: at a time from my jigger, just to try to
Speaker 3: see how it was going to go. They will mix
Speaker 3: a little bit the syrup in this, but you're still
Speaker 3: going to get a base of that brighter red or
Speaker 3: like a deeper, you know, kind of Maroni red. And
Speaker 3: then on top of that, you're gonna put two ounces
Speaker 3: of hibiscus tea and you're just gonna float it on top.
Speaker 3: I would not add any sweetener to that for two reasons. One,
Speaker 3: this is already a sweet drink to have syrup on
Speaker 3: the base and then a sweet soda in the middle,
Speaker 3: and then the hibiscus tea can just sit on its own.
Speaker 3: But also if you add sugar to it, if you
Speaker 3: add a sweetener of any kind, you're going to change
Speaker 3: the weight of it and it won't float as easily.
Speaker 3: The way it works now, it floats really easy because
Speaker 3: it's like sugar sugar water essentially, right, like a tea
Speaker 3: does not have all of the stuff, and that is
Speaker 3: literally it. You're gonna serve it like that with a
Speaker 3: beautiful straw in it, make it a red and white stripe.
Speaker 3: If you want to drink it, you'll swizzle it first
Speaker 3: and mix it all together, but for presentation it starts
Speaker 3: out with stripes. The cocktail version is also super easy.
Speaker 3: It's the same exact method, but you're gonna start with
Speaker 3: an ounce of a raspberry liqueur in your base, put
Speaker 3: in your ice. You'll still do your cream soda, and
Speaker 3: then instead of hibiscus tea, you're gonna do high biscus
Speaker 3: infused vodka in this one. And that's just easy. It's
Speaker 3: your same two ounces. So it is a little bit
Speaker 3: of a heavy hitter in terms of alcohol content. But
Speaker 3: I do want to say this one works a little
Speaker 3: differently than some others we've done. You're not gonna make
Speaker 3: a full cup of tea. You are litter a full
Speaker 3: cup of vodka. Like normally I would say, get your
Speaker 3: four to six ounces of vodka put in your tea bag,
Speaker 3: blah blah. You're going to put your tea bag in
Speaker 3: a small receptacle and only put two ounces of vodka
Speaker 3: in with it and let it sit. I mean, mine
Speaker 3: infused for ten minutes maybe less, and it got very
Speaker 3: bright red and was very beautiful and a lot of
Speaker 3: hibiscus flavor. So it's a very concentrated one, but it
Speaker 3: just makes those gradations of color a little more prominent
Speaker 3: and a little prettier. That's all same deal. You're going
Speaker 3: to want to mix it all together before you drink it,
Speaker 3: but for presentation, it has a beautiful striated striping of
Speaker 3: a deep reddish brown most raspberry liqueurs, the very pale
Speaker 3: gold of the cream soda, and then the bright red
Speaker 3: of the hibiscus, and it's quite pretty. And hopefully as
Speaker 3: you drink this you will consider just how recent some
Speaker 3: things that we think of as having been around forever
Speaker 3: are I mean I was alive then, I had already
Speaker 3: met my husband then.
Speaker 2: But I also like in the story that there's this
Speaker 2: thing now after her terrible tragedy that can help us
Speaker 2: with cold cases.
Speaker 3: Yes, I mean, we're it's a very hopeful thing right.
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 3: In addition to just it it establishing a hopeful methodology
Speaker 3: for sharing information and getting kids back to where they
Speaker 3: need to be and back to safety, which is wonderful.
Speaker 3: It's also really nice to know that new technologies are
Speaker 3: being not only developed but also applied to some of
Speaker 3: these cases where absolutely, again, this isn't that old of
Speaker 3: a case, as her mom said, like that family still
Speaker 3: needs closure and they still want to feel like everything
Speaker 3: possible was done to solve the crime, to bring the
Speaker 3: person who did it to justice. Like I'm sure they
Speaker 3: know nothing is going to bring their child back, but
Speaker 3: the closure still feels. Yeah, but you still need closure
Speaker 3: for something like that. So that is the nineteen ninety six.
Speaker 3: I hope that you have enjoyed as much as one
Speaker 3: can enjoy such a sad story, spending this time with us.
Speaker 3: I hope you enjoy this drink if you make it,
Speaker 3: whether you make it for littles. You're making it for kids,
Speaker 3: don't tell them what the inspiration is. Call it anything else.
Speaker 3: Call it pink bubble juice. I don't care. Don't ruin
Speaker 3: a child's sense of safety and security. If you don't
Speaker 3: have to with.
Speaker 2: A cotton candy on top, that's a very kid there.
Speaker 3: If you want to just call it pink bubble juice
Speaker 3: for yourself, or whatever else you want to call it.
Speaker 3: We're in a time when we need to protect our
Speaker 3: joy and our mental health as much as possible, where
Speaker 3: we can still know in our hearts that we're honoring
Speaker 3: the story of someone who has ultimately led to you
Speaker 3: a lot of good in their unfortunate tragedy. But we
Speaker 3: will be right back here next week where we're going
Speaker 3: to wrap up this season on Cold Cases. That means
Speaker 3: you're gonna get our top three stories and our top
Speaker 3: three cocktails of the season. Top three stories with honorable mentions.
Speaker 3: It's a fuzzy it's a fuzzy one and Top three
Speaker 3: stories is going to be hard for this one because
Speaker 3: we don't really love any of these, but we'll do
Speaker 3: our best. We'll see what happens, so there will be
Speaker 3: a lot of fun talk next week and we hope
Speaker 3: you will join us here on Criminalia. Criminalia is a
Speaker 3: production of Shondaland Audio in partnership with iHeartRadio. For more
Speaker 3: podcasts from Shondaland Audio, please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 3: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.