Detectives hope to generate new leads in case that prompted Amber alert

Ricky Hagerman cried Tuesday as he recalled the day his older sister was abducted as she rode her bicycle in a grocery store parking lot.

In 1996, Ricky Hagerman, then 5-years-old, was riding bicycles with his 9-year-old sister, Amber Hagerman, who he called his best friend.

“She was like my second mom,” said Ricky Hagerman on Tuesday. “I just remember that she was gone.”

And the 25-year-old brother wept Tuesday as he, his mother and detectives again pleaded for help to find the killer of Amber Hagerman who went missing 20 years ago Wednesday.

The Hagerman family and detectives gathered at the Arlington, Texas, police station Tuesday morning on the eve of Amber’s abduction in hopes of getting new leads in one of the nation's most shocking cold cases, the one that prompted the now-worldwide Amber Alert Program.

"As her mother, I’m not going to give up," mother Donna Williams said Tuesday. "I still have hope that he will be caught one day."

A team of detectives and police officials vowed Tuesday to continue searching for the man who grabbed the 9-year-old off her bicycle.

"Someone knows something," said retired police Sgt. Mark Simpson, who led the initial task force on the case. "There's no doubt in my mind that this case will one day be solved."

Detectives have pored over more than 8,000 leads in the slaying, over the years.

At this point, detectives did not have any forensic evidence to link any suspects to the slaying.

“We’ve had no credible confessions in the case,” said Det. Ben Lopez who is now the lead investigator in one of Arlington’s oldest cold cases.

On Tuesday, Ricky Hagerman and Donna Williams noted how difficult the years have been since Amber’s killing.

“Everyday, she’s on my mind,” Ricky Hagerman said.

“It’s been very difficult,” Donna Williams said referring to the years after Amber’s slaying.

Amber was abducted as she rode her bicycle in a grocery store parking lot on Jan. 13, 1996.

A man working in his back yard nearby called police after hearing the third-grader’s screams and seeing a man driving a dark-colored pickup take the girl from her bike, then drive away with her.

A man walking his dog found Amber’s body four days later in north Arlington, on the bank of a north Arlington creek.

Her throat had been slashed. She wore only a sock on her right foot.

Donna Williams said Tuesday she still had some questions for Amber’s killer.

“Why did you take my little girl? Why did you touch where you are not suppose to?,” her mother said. “Why did you terrify her? Why did you take her clothing from her?”’

Within days, almost 50 detectives were on the case and a task force was formed on the Amber case. But in 18 months, the number of investigators dwindled down as leads started drying up. At one point, there was a $75,000 reward.

Lopez estimated that the department still receives about two to three tips a month on the case.

“If we get a new lead now, we will check to see if that lead has already been covered,” Lopez said. “If it hasn’t, we will investigate it.”

A year after her death, the Dallas/Fort Worth Association of Radio Managers teamed with area law enforcement agencies to implement the Amber Plan, an early warning broadcast system that alerts the public when a child is abducted.

Today, the Amber Alert Program is used across the nation and in other countries, including Canada, England, France, Greece and Portugal. Facebook users also can now sign up to receive Amber Alerts issued in their state or region.

Simpson noted that training on how to investigate child abductions was limited in 1996.

“No question that this case has helped improve that throughout the country,” Simpson said.

Donna Williams said the Amber Alert program has helped her get through these years.

“Amber would be very proud of the program,” Williams said. “But I also want people to remember that Amber sacrificed her life for it, and I don’t want anyone to forget her.”

This story was originally published January 12, 2016 at 1:55 PM with the headline "Detectives hope to generate new leads in case that prompted Amber alert."