‘I’m not going to give up.’ 25 years after Amber’s abduction, mother hopes for answers
Donna Williams remembers every little detail of her daughter, Amber Hagerman.
She remembers how the 9-year-old with long brown hair and freckles was filled with a boundless love of life — of going to school at Arlington’s Berry Elementary, playing with her collection of Barbie dolls, riding her pink bicycle with her younger brother, Ricky Hagerman. Amber, whose straight bangs covered her forehead, was an “innocent and sweet little girl,” Williams said on Wednesday morning. She loved the Disney princess Pocahontas. She loved acting like a “little mommy” to Ricky.
Amber and Ricky were riding their bikes together on Jan. 13, 1996, in a laundromat parking lot blocks away from their Arlington home, when Ricky left and Amber stayed behind. An eyewitness saw her weaving in circles alone in the parking lot, with a carefree look on her face, according to Arlington police. The witness saw a man then walk up behind her and lift her from underneath her arms, throwing her into his black pickup truck as she kicked and screamed.
It was the last time Amber would be seen alive, as four nights later a resident of the Forest Ridge apartments about six miles away found her dead along a creek, the water washing away some potential evidence as to who her killer could be. Her murder shocked her family, Arlington and America as a whole, leading to the creation of the nationwide Amber Alert system named for her.
Though 25 years have passed since the killing, it still feels as if it were yesterday to Williams, whose memories of her daughter haven’t faded. She remembers her sweetness, and the last words she ever heard her speak: “OK, Mommy, I will. I love you, Mommy.”
“I miss her voice. I miss her touch. I miss her hugs,” Williams said Wednesday in the parking lot where her daughter was abducted. “I remember everything about her. There’s nothing I’ve forgotten about her. She is the love of my life.”
As she addressed the media on the 25th anniversary of her daughter’s abduction, occasionally stopping to collect herself from the tears, she offered a plea to the man whose identity has eluded police all these years: “Please, turn yourself in. Give Amber justice.”
A gaggle of police officers and press flooded the parking lot on Wednesday, where a pink mural for Amber graces a concrete wall, showing her smiling face alongside childhood mementos and brightly colored flowers. At least one of the officers in attendance, Sgt. Ben Lopez, was on the force the day Amber was abducted.
Though more than two decades have passed since the incident that changed how abducted children cases are handled in America, little is still known about what happened between the time Amber was kidnapped and found dead. The message from law enforcement, more or less, is the same as it was then.
“Our hope is that someone in the community saw something — maybe they didn’t come forward 25 years ago out of fear, or not wanting to get involved,” Assistant Chief Kevin Kolbye said during the press conference. “Whatever reason, we need folks to search their mind and bring forward anything that may be of value to our investigation.”
The investigation, officials assured the crowd, is still open and active in 2021, and the motivation for the press conference on the 25th anniversary was to put the case back in the public consciousness.
Lopez, who was a rookie officer in January 1996, told the press in attendance that finding out who killed Amber “is personal to me.”
“During the years, I’ve come to know Donna Williams, Amber’s mother, and Ricky Hagerman, Amber’s brother,” Lopez said. “I would love to be able to give Donna and Ricky and the rest of the members of their family the answer to the question they would want to know.”
A big reason officials say police haven’t learned the identity of the killer, believed to be in his 20s or 30s at the time of the abduction, is because the only eyewitness was the man who was working on an old car in his backyard when he saw the abduction. This man saw a full-size single-cab pickup truck, but wasn’t sure of the model, or the license plate. He was also unsure if the abductor was a white or Hispanic man.
There have been around 7,000 tips submitted over the years, according to police, but none have pointed detectives in the right direction. Officials said they believe the tip to break the case open is still out there.
Lopez said police are aware there could have been undocumented residents at the nearby laundromat who were too fearful to come forward, and that “if there is a witness or witnesses who have that concern, we are not interested at all in pursuing any kind of deportation.”
Another reason so little is still known about the killer is that, of the DNA able to be recovered at the creek bed, analysis by FBI laboratories has yet to lead to a full DNA profile.
Officials acknowledged on Wednesday, however, there is some limited DNA evidence in the case. They didn’t want to disclose what that was so it’s not known to anyone but the killer.
“We’re excited because this year there is new technology when it comes to DNA,” Kolbye said. “We’re excited about this year being able to submit that and hope we can get a better DNA profile.”
‘I’m not going to give up on her’
A month after Amber’s death in 1996, Williams told the Star-Telegram it wasn’t getting any easier, according to newspaper archives. She had to remind Ricky that Amber wasn’t going to be coming to school with him, that she was an angel now. She couldn’t get through a day without her tears wetting her face.
She told a Star-Telegram reporter two years later, in January 1998, she was still finding little notes, or toys, or knick-knacks of her daughter’s that brought her memory rushing back. Her daughter’s dresses continued to hang in her bedroom closet like they did in the winter of ‘96, her Barbies untouched.
On Wednesday, again, Williams said she misses her daughter every single day, and that Jan. 13, 1996 is never far from her mind. She said she wonders, all the time, “Why her? She was only a little girl.”
“Me and Amber’s family, we are desperately wanting closure,” Williams said. “It would not make my heart feel any better, because my heart breaks every day for her.”
She is proud her daughter didn’t die in vain, she said, and that her life and her legacy has led to a system that has helped save children not only in Texas but across America. Amber is “still taking care of our little children, as she did when she was here,” Williams said.
She doesn’t think she’ll ever stop thinking about her daughter, and the life that was stolen.
She holds out hope, she said, she will one day learn what happened to her.
“I just want Amber’s killer to know, I’m not going nowhere,” she said. “I’m not going to give up on her. Never.”
How to report tips in the case
Officials said on Wednesday police have set up a new tip line for the case at 817-575-8823.
Oak Farms Dairy has renewed a $10,000 reward for information that helps officers in the case.
This story was originally published January 13, 2021 at 5:13 PM.
