Documentary reveals story of nine-year-old girl whose murder inspired the Amber Alert system
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Never-before-seen footage of the nine-year-old girl whose shocking kidnapping and murder inspired the creation of the Amber Alert system is featured in a new documentary about the cold case.
The original peacock’Amber: the girl behind the alertexplores the legacy of Amber Hagerman, who was kidnapped while riding a bicycle in Arlington, Texas, on January 13, 1996. She was found dead near a creek days later.
In an interview with yahoo entertainmentexecutive producer Elizabeth Fisher discussed how investigators learned that Amber’s mother, Donna Williams, was the subject of a documentary about women leaving welfare at the time.
Peacock’s original documentary ‘Amber: The Girl Behind the Alert’ explores the life of Amber Hagerman, who was kidnapped on January 13, 1996.
In the months leading up to Amber’s kidnapping, she and her family were filmed for a documentary about women leaving welfare.
The single mother had just left her husband, Amber’s father, whom she claimed was physically abusive. The family was filmed during the months leading up to the kidnapping.
“When you look back on that footage, it’s rare to have those moments, as a mom, where you’re reading a bedtime story or doing homework,” Fisher said of the hundreds of hours that were captured.
Normally, for those of us who have video cameras, we film birthday parties and big events, but we rarely film dinner, you know. I mean, who has time to do that? Especially back then, in the 90s.’
“I want the world to know who Amber was,” her mother, Donna Williams, said in the new documentary broadcast by Peacock, which features the unearthed footage.
Amber was abducted on January 13, 1996, after she and her five-year-old brother Ricky rode their bikes into the parking lot of an abandoned grocery store near their home.
The girl was snatched from her pink bike by a man in a black van after her younger brother headed home without her.
The documentary had already finished and was scheduled to air the week after Amber’s disappearance, but the team returned when Williams told them her daughter was missing.
Fisher noted that some researchers attribute the images to community involvement in the case, which led to the creation of the Amber Alert.
“I want the world to know who Amber was,” Williams said in the new documentary broadcast by Peacock, which features unearthed footage of her daughter.
Jim Kevil, a retiree, witnessed the kidnapping from his backyard and called the police.
Police believed the suspect was local, but there was no way they were going to quickly get the word out to the public.
Four days later, a man was walking his dog and found Amber’s body at the bottom of a creek four miles from the parking lot where she was last seen.
Amber was abducted one Saturday afternoon after she and her five-year-old brother Ricky biked into the parking lot of an abandoned grocery store near their home.
Amber’s kidnapping and murder remains unsolved 27 years later
A man in a black van snatched her off her pink bike after her younger brother went home without her.
Jim Kevil, a retiree, witnessed the kidnapping from his backyard and called the police.
I was alone. I saw this black van. She stopped, jumped, and grabbed it. When she screamed, I thought the police should know so I called them,” Kevil said. CBS Dallas–Fort Worth in January 2016.
He died months after the interview, which marked the 20th anniversary of Amber’s kidnapping and murder.
The suspect was described as a white or Hispanic male in his 20s to 30s with dark hair. The police believed he was local, but there was no way they would quickly get out to the public.
Amber’s distraught mother and father, Richard Hagerman, appear outside the Arlington Funeral Home days after her body was found in 1996.
The tragedy prompted Texas resident Diana Simone (pictured with President George W. Bush in 2003) to contact a local radio station to set up an emergency alert system for child abductions. She later requested that the alert system be called ‘Amber’s Plan’.
The plan was renamed Amber Alert (America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response) when it was first implemented in 1996. Williams is pictured holding a poster of her daughter.
Four days later, a The man was walking his dog and found Amber’s body at the bottom of a creek four miles from the parking lot where she was last seen. She had no clothes on and her throat had been slit.
The tragic kidnapping and murder of Amber prompted Texas resident Diana Simone, who had been following the case, to contact a local radio station to set up an emergency alert system for child abductions.
“I said, ‘I can’t get over this kid. There’s got to be something we can do,'” he said. People. There were weather and civil protection alerts, so ‘why wouldn’t they do it for this?’
Simone then requested that the alert system be called ‘Amber’s Plan’. It was renamed Amber Alert (America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response) when it went live later that year.
The Amber Alert system is now used in all 50 states, and more than 1,000 children have been recovered thanks to it.
Amber’s mother marked the 25th anniversary of her abduction in January 2021
Investigators are now looking into DNA evidence that did not exist when she first disappeared.
The Amber Alert system is now in use in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands and 27 other countries.
As of December 31, 1,127 children have been recovered due to Amber Alerts, according to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.
Amber’s kidnapping and murder remain unsolved, but investigators are looking for DNA evidence that didn’t exist when she first disappeared.
Fisher told Yahoo Entertainment that he hopes the documentary will help law enforcement finally bring his killer to justice.
“It really only takes one witness or one person or one lead to give the family the justice they need, and I think that would just be the dream,” he said.