MURDER
CASE #: 1996-5
Amber Hagerman
Status:
Open
Date of Offense:
Date of Offense:
Jurisdiction:
Offense Location:
Arlington, TX
Reward:
up to $10,000
via Tarrant County Crime Stoppers
Not from STC, Conditions and restrictions apply
Summary:
Amber and her brother Ricky were riding their bikes around the neighborhood on Jan. 13, 1996 in Arlington, TX. They’d been told to just ride their bikes around the block but were drawn to a “cool” ramp in an abandoned Winn-Dixie grocery store parking lot nearby. Amber wanted to go ride on it, but Ricky, remembering that his grandparents had told them not to stray too far, headed back home. The parking lot was just 2/10ths of a mile from their grandparent’s house.
Vital Statistics
Circumstances of Offense:
When Ricky arrived home without Amber, his family asked him where she was. He told them that Amber had gone too far and was at the grocery store parking lot, at which point he was sent to go and retrieve her. By the time he got there, she was already gone. Before Amber could follow after Ricky when he’d left to return home, she was abducted – kicking and screaming –by a man in a black truck who grabbed her off her bike and pulled her into his car through the driver’s side door. The time was 3:18 PM — just 8 minutes since Amber and Ricky had left her grandparent’s home. The man, either white or Hispanic, had waited until Amber’s 5-year-old brother, Ricky, had left on his bike, heading back to their grandparents’ house.
Additional Details:
A man named Jimmie Kevil, who was a neighbor in the area, witnessed the kidnapper getting Amber off her bicycle and putting her inside his black pickup truck. He heard Amber cry for help as the man drove off from the spot. Kevil was 78 years old at the time and was a former sheriff’s deputy. He called the police right after the incident occurred. Amber’s body was discovered in a creek four days later on January 17th and about four miles away. Her dead body was nude -except for a sock on her left foot - and in unrecognizable condition. She had a deep stab wound around her neck. Amber Hagerman's heart-wrenching demise inspired the creation of the AMBER Alert System or America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response Alert.
Case Last Updated:
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