By Naheed Rajwani
The Dallas Morning Star

ARLINGTON — It was 20 years ago this week when 9-year-old Amber Hagerman was abducted while riding her bike outside an abandoned Winn-Dixie. She was later found dead in a drainage ditch.

Thousands of tips later, investigators say they’re no closer to solving the Arlington girl’s slaying. But that doesn’t mean they’ve given up or ever will.

“Detectives come and go,” said Lt. Mike Hollier, a 26-year veteran of the Arlington police force and now a lecturer at UT Arlington. “Some have passed away, some have retired. But someone will always be here to carry Amber’s banner.

“We absolutely believe that this case will be solved.”

Amber’s death gave rise to the Amber Alert system, which is credited with saving almost 800 missing or abducted children across the country. Other countries, too, have adopted their own alerts and named them for Amber.

And although that may ensure her name won’t be forgotten, like so many other missing or murdered children, her case continues to weigh heavily on detectives and her family.

“My main thing is for everyone to remember Amber, and remember the sacrifice that she had to endure,” her mom, Donna Williams, said at a news conference Tuesday morning. “Amber desperately needs justice.”

Amber’s abduction

Amber and her younger brother were riding bikes in a grocery store parking lot just a few blocks from their home on Jan. 13 1996, when a man pulled Amber off the bike and drove away with her in a black pickup truck.

When police found Amber four days later, her throat had been cut. Police haven’t publicly said if the girl was sexually assaulted.

“I didn’t quite understand what was going on,” Amber’s brother, Ricky Hagerman, said at Tuesday’s news conference as tears welled up in his eyes. “I just knew my sister was taken from us. She was my best friend, like a second mother.”

Police have investigated 8,000 tips about Amber’s abduction but said that they are no closer to identifying a suspect than they were in 1996.

At Tuesday’s news conference, retired and current Arlington detectives said they hope someone will remember something about Amber’s abduction and will come forward with that information.

Oak Farms Dairy is offering a $10,000 reward for tips leading to an arrest.

Amber’s legacy

Arlington reacted “like a small town” when police started looking for Amber, said Tarrant County Sheriff Dee Anderson, who was the spokesman for Arlington police in 1996.

“It’a almost like she became the child of everyone in Arlington,” Anderson said. “When the terrible day came and we found her, hope and desperation turned to anger and outrage in trying to find [a suspect].”

One day, a massage therapist and her client came up with an idea while listening to a talk show segment about Amber: What if people could receive alerts about a kidnapping, just like they get alerts for tornadoes and thunderstorms?

They wrote to a radio station manager, who took the idea to an association of radio managers in the Dallas Fort-Worth area.

Nine months after Amber’s death, radio stations and law enforcement officials in North Texas launched AMBER (“America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response”) alerts to relay reports of kidnappings to the public.

The early alerts were faxed to radio stations, who were responsible for airing the messages as soon as they received them.

Now, the alerts are sent to the public through social media and cell phones. On Wednesday, law enforcement agencies across the country — including the Texas Department of Public Safety — will commemorate National AMBER Alert Awareness Day.

Anderson said he’s gotten calls from law enforcement officials in countries such as Australia and Japan, asking how they can create their own versions of the Amber Alert system.

“We’re dealing with an issue where literally seconds count,” Anderson said. “Seconds are ticking against you when a child is abducted.”

Arlington police detectives often attend conferences to educate law enforcement officials on how to better investigate child abduction cases.

Although she is proud of her daughter’s legacy, Williams said she is heartbroken that Amber’s own case still hasn’t been solved.

“I know Amber would be very proud of [the alerts]. She was always another mommy to all my children,” Williams said. “But I also want people to remember Amber — she had to sacrifice her life for the Amber Alert.”

Anyone with information is asked to call Arlington police at 817-459-5373. Anonymous tips can be submitted to Tarrant County Crime Stoppers at 817-469-TIPS.

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