Amber Hagerman: Epilogue

In the final installment of the Amber Hagerman series: the Amber Hagerman Taskforce disbands. Detective Jim Ford and Sgt. Mark Simpson follow leads out of state, one that has a connection to Berlin, Germany. Amber’s mother Donna Whitson, Brother Ricky. And Father Richard Hagerman struggle to come to terms with the 9-year-old’s senseless and violent death. The legacy left after the tragic death of another little girl, 7-year-old Athen Strand, adds strength to the Amber Alert system in Texas.

If you have any information about the abduction and murder of Amber Rene Hagerman, please call the Arlington Police at [phone]. You can also submit a tip by texting 847411 and typing ArlingtonPD (no spaces) first, followed by a space and your information. To remain anonymous and be eligible for a reward, please call Tarrant County Crime Stoppers at [phone]

If your child is struggling with the loss of a loved one and you’re in North Texas, The WARM Place provides a safe, compassionate space for grieving children and their families. Go to thewarmplace.org for more information.

Please consider donating to the go fund me for Leon Laureles. You can find it at: gofundme.com/f/leon-laureles-private-detective-and-memorial

You can support gone cold and listen ad-free at patreon.com/gonecoldpodcast

Find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by using @gonecoldpodcast and on YouTube at: youtube.com/c/gonecoldpodcast

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, The Dallas Morning News, The Boston Globe, The Raeford News-Journal, and court documents were used as sources for this episode.

#JusticeForAmberHagerman #AmberHagerman #JusticeForAthenaStrand #AthenaStrand #Arlington #ArlingtonTX #TarrantCountyTX #Texas #TrueCrime #TexasTrueCrime #TrueCrimePodcast #GoneCold #GoneColdPodcast #ColdCase #Kidnapping #Abduction #Unsolved #Murder #ColdCase #UnsolvedMurder

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Episode Transcript

(00:01):
If you have any information about theabduction and murder of Amber Renee Hagerman,
please call the Arlington Police at eightone seven four five nine five seven seven
two. To remain anonymous and tobe eligible for a reward, you can
provide a tip at Tarrant County CrimeStoppers at eight one seven four six nine

(00:24):
eight four seven seven. The concolpodcast may contain violent or graphics subject matter.
Listener discretion is advised. Though oftenreferred to as the first time the
Amber Plan was ever implemented, evenby some major news outlets, the emergency
alert had been used several times beforethe November nineteen ninety eight abduction of Rayleigh

(00:50):
and Bradbury. It was, however, the first time the law enforcement agency
who was in charge of investigating theAmber Plan's namesake, the Arlington Police,
had used it. More importantly,it was the first time it had been
successful. In fact, it wasa monumental success. At about six thirty

(01:15):
pm on Monday November ninth, nineteenninety eight, Patricia and Stephen Bradberry both
arrived home to their apartment off RandallMill Road in Arlington, not too far
from the ballpark home of the Texasrangers. They got off from work,
expecting to see their two month olddaughter and her babysitter at any minute.

(01:38):
The parents trusted forty two year oldSandra Joyce Fallus. Not only had she
come highly recommended by other tenants inthe Waterford apartment complex, but she also
seemed to adore little ray Lee.Stephen and Patricia became increasingly worried, however,

(01:59):
as the continued to make its rounds, and when it was approaching ten
pm, the worry had turned tosheer panic. They called the Arlington Police,
who quickly arrived at the couple's apartment. Before long, a few FBI
agents showed up, and the Bradberryhome turned into a command post. Loathe

(02:22):
to prematurely label the case in abduction, detectives and agents investigated until around three
am, when they officially determined rayLeigh's case a kidnapping. At six thirty
am, detectives met with their chief, David Kunkel, who gave the go
ahead to implement the Amber Plan,as it was known at the time.

(02:45):
The alert was broadcast over the localradio airwaves at seven twenty six am.
It included a description of ray LeeA Bradberry, an eight week old baby
with blonde hair, blue eyes,and wearing all white. A description of
babysitter Sandra Fallus's Ford Ranger splash witha distinctive wooden flatbed were also given,

(03:09):
along with the license plate number.In less than thirty minutes, a call
came in toinee, what is youremergency? That abro art the ladies right
in front of me? B Fbree nine four nights flash pick up with
the wood bed on it. I'mon air State Pointy picting the crowd in

(03:30):
thirteen eighty two going with bail Itire I came for movie. The driver
followed the truck to keep a closeeye on it while officers made their way
to the scene. About three anda half miles southeast of the Bradbury home
on Texas Highway three sixty, Arlingtonpolice pulled over the vehicle, identified two

(03:54):
month old ray Lee and took herbabysitter, Sandra Fallus into custod with no
incident besides sitting in a dirty diaperand quite hungry. The child was unharmed.
After about thirteen hours, Patricia andStephen Bradberry were reunited with their baby.

(04:16):
Later, it was determined that SandraJoyce Phallus had taken Rayleigh to an
apartment in southwest Dallas, where shescored and smoked crack cocaine all night.
The house had no electricity or runningwater. The baby soiled herself, missed
several feedings, and was left unattended. Sandra Phallus was given ten years probation

(04:44):
nearly a year and a half beforeray Leigh Bradberry's kidnapping. The Amber Hagerman
Task Force disbanded after seventeen months.Their motto, which might be seen next
to a sketch drawn while an investigatormade calls or on a computer screensaver constantly
scrolling, was Amber Haggerman Homicide taskForce in search of the facts and one

(05:09):
low life Killer. During the taskforce's lifespan, detectives followed more than six
thousand tips, collected forty eight boxesof evidence, which, with reports,
interview transcripts, and suspect information,among other things, brought the total number
of banker style boxes in the caseto well over one hundred. Most of

(05:32):
those were moved to a separate facilitywhen the task force disbanded. The result
of the fact that tips had becomefew and far in between. At least
twelve folks confessed to Amber's abduction andmurder in that time, all were cleared.
The task force investigated so many rumorsit was almost impossible to keep track

(05:57):
of them all. Many of thedetective have spent so much time with Amber's
family, visited her grave and thecrime scenes again and again, and had
watched the documentary video footage so manytimes that the case was personal to detectives.
The Hagerman and Wits and families feltlike relatives. None perhaps felt this

(06:21):
way as much as Detective Jim Ford. He told a reporter for the four
or Star Telegram, We've all goneto all of those scenes a bunch of
times and just stared and hoped thatsome vision would come to us. Though
the task force's time together had cometo an end, the search for Amber's

(06:41):
killer was far from over. ArlingtonPolice Sergeant Mark Simpson, who headed the
Amber Haggerman Task Force, continued towork the case after the nineteen ninety seven
disbandment. Detective Jim Ford also continuedto investigate leads. The lawmen were all

(07:10):
but certain of one thing. Amber'sabduction and murder was not their suspect's first
depraved act in nineteen ninety eight,Sergeant Simpson read about two out of state
cases that became a high investigative priority. The first was Sarah Pryor. On

(07:31):
Wednesday, October ninth, nineteen eightyfive, nine year old Sarah Elizabeth Pryor
made herself some jello and devoured itwhile catching a TV show. She was
a happy, active, normal childwho made good grades, was family oriented,
and shy around strangers, her mothertold a reporter for the Boston Globe.

(07:56):
At four PM, when her televisionprogram ended, Sarah told her dad
Andy, she was going for awalk. She left her Whaland, Massachusetts
home and headed north on Concord Road. Judging by the several folks who saw
her, Sarah made it about oneand a half miles and then vanished into

(08:18):
thin air. There was no traceof the nine year old girl, no
evidence, and no one who sawanything other than Sarah herself. Whaland,
situated fifteen miles west of Boston,had about twelve thousand residents at the time
and was a peaceful, low crimecommunity. Residence struggled to make sense of

(08:41):
the disappearance. Whaland Police Chief GeraldGalvan, however, knew from the get
go that he was dealing with anabduction, but since there was no evidence
no scene of the crime, thedepartment struggled with the investigation, which eventually
took them through several states, intoPuerto Rico, and even as far away

(09:05):
as Berlin, Germany. Sometime betweennineteen eighty five and nineteen eighty seven,
police and Wayland, Massachusetts, weresent snapshots of graffiti on the Berlin Wall
that read Sandra Pryor, wherever youare, we love you, age nine,
Missing October nine, nineteen eighty five, Whalin m A USA, God

(09:31):
Love you. Almost two years afterSarah Elizabeth Pryor vanished in nineteen eighty seven,
Martin Yant, a journalist from Columbus, Ohio, visited the Berlin Wall
as he was traveling through Germany andwrote down the message as well, but
of course police were already aware thenote was quite peculiar. Not only had

(09:56):
no one in the missing girl's familybeen to West Berlin, but also the
town from which she disappeared was misspelledon the graffiti, wha l e N
instead of way l a n D. Perhaps the oddest thing was that it
was the only incorrect detail. Thewriting was about ten feet high, above

(10:22):
most of all the other graffiti,art and writing. To this day,
no one knows who put it there. As if that unsolved mystery hadn't confused
the case enough, The next yearwould take detectives and state police to a
sandpit in a tiny town in Massachusettsnamed Berlin. A state prisoner had drawn

(10:46):
authorities a detailed map of where tofind Sarah Pryor's body. It wasn't there.
A suspect in Sarah's disappearance had emergedabout a month after she went missing.
Arlington Police Sergeant Mark Simpson was likelyinterested in this man's Texas ties.

(11:09):
When he was twenty one years oldin nineteen sixty six, John Robert Wordy
fled to Texas from Massachusetts before hecould be tried for charges related to the
attack of a twelve year old girl. The following year, he raped and
strangled fifteen year old Rose Marie Martinin a remote wooded area near White Rock

(11:30):
Lake in Dallas. A jury sentencedWordy to life in prison, but he
was released on parole in nineteen eightyfour. He made his way back to
Massachusetts the month after Sarah Pryor waslast seen, just ten miles east of
the Missing Girls home in Newton,Wordy abducted a twenty year old woman at

(11:54):
knife point. He was apprehended,tried, and sentenced to five years in
prison for that crime, after whichhe was transferred to Texas to serve the
remainder of his life sentence in anAmarillo prison. In nineteen ninety five,
a young man walking his dog ina wooded area in Weston, Massachusetts,

(12:18):
the town adjoining Wayland to the east, found a human skull fragment. The
fragment was examined by a forensic anthropologistin nineteen ninety seven, who determined the
remains belonged to a girl around SarahPryor's age and had been in the woods
for three to fifteen years. SarahPryor was laid to rest on what would

(12:43):
have been her twenty second birthday,January thirteenth, nineteen ninety eight, two
years to the day after Amber Hagermanwas snatched off her bicycle in East Arlington,
Texas. Sarah's case remains officially unsawolved. John Robert Wordy died in a

(13:03):
Texas prison in twenty twenty two atseventy seven years old. Because of the
primary suspect and Sarah Pryor's disappearance wasin prison at the time of Amber Hagerman's
nineteen ninety six abduction and murder.Arlington Police Sergeant Mark Simpson's hopes that he'd
found a connection were at least somewhatdashed. However, the policeman was keeping

(13:28):
an open mind and was interested inthe cases other suspects, as he was
another case out of North Carolina thatwas unfolding as Sarah Elizabeth Pryor was being
eulogized. Britney Linlocklear was a memberof the Lumbie Tribe Native Americans who largely

(14:00):
reside in North Carolina and who arestill seeking full federal recognition to the day
of this recording in July of twentytwenty three. Brittany was incredibly intelligent.
Though she was a lot smaller thanher kindergarten classmates at West Hope Elementary School,
the girl was much more mature.The five year old's dream was to

(14:22):
drive airplanes, as she herself putit. She was also the girl that
hugged every single teacher she saw onher way to class. The morning of
Wednesday, January seventh, nineteen ninetyeight was dark as Brittany Lynn Locklear waited
alone at the end of her drivewayfor the school bus in the western part

(14:45):
of Hope County, North Carolina.Then the area was remote, with sporadic
cotton fields and narrow roads the onlythings separating the woods of shrub pines and
white oakes. Brittany was only waitingalone because her mother, Connie, had
to go inside to use the bathroom. When Connie began to make her way

(15:09):
back out, she noticed her daughterwas no longer there, and she had
not heard the school bus come by. She called Brittany's school right away and
then police. The following day,the body of five year old Brittany Lynn
Locklear was found about three miles fromher home by searchers. She was unclothed,

(15:31):
floating face down in a rain drainageditch. Brittany had been raped,
she had drowned. There were witnessesto what happened to Brittany. Neighbors told
police that a pickup truck had slammedon its brakes just in front of the
Lochlear home and then pulled into thedriveway. A white male exited the driver's

(15:56):
side, grabbed the five year oldgirl, and be off with her.
The truck had a camper show andrunning lights. The color was described quite
differently by each neighbor, from creamcolored to dark brown. Detectives eventually determined
that the pickup was full sized andof unknown color. The North Carolina Bureau

(16:21):
of Investigation primarily handled the case,but the hundreds of leads they were receiving
were too much for the force tohandle, considering both resources and manpower.
After about a year of detectives assignedsolely to Britney's case chasing down what leads
they could, their duties again includedother cases, and the investigation stalled,

(16:47):
but physical evidence was processed for DNAat State Labs. In two thousand and
three, forty four year old FortBragg firefighter Keith Douglas Laundry was rested the
day he robbed at Carthage, NorthCarolina bank, wearing a full hazmat suit.
During their investigation of the robbery,co workers of Laundry expressed concerns to

(17:11):
investigators about the man. He hadphotos of Brittany Lynn Locklear in his work
locker, though it appeared they werenever one hundred. Certain detectives also uncovered
evidence suggesting Laundry had been involved inthe searches for the five year old as
well, alongside the other Fort Braggfirefighters who volunteered. He was subsequently tried,

(17:37):
convicted, and sentenced to eighteen monthsin prison for the bank robbery.
Eventually, however, DNA cleared KeithDouglas Laundry of raping and murdering five year
old Brittany Lynn Locklear, and hercase remains unsolved. Sergeant Mark Simpson of

(18:00):
Arlington Police was interested in Britney's casebecause he explained both she and Amber Hagerman
were kidnapped in high risk situations andbecause their bodies were discarded similarly and both
discovered unclothed in water. But therewere cases closer to home that were of
great interest as well. In Marchof nineteen ninety nine, nine year old

(18:26):
Felicia Moore and a classmate were walkinghome from school in their southeast Dallas neighborhood,
Pleasant Grove. As they cut througha church parking lot on the sixteen
hundred block of SunView Drive, aman approached the girls and offered them a
kitten. The man later described asa white in his thirties, about six

(18:48):
feet tall and one hundred and seventyfive to two hundred pounds, with brown
hair, brown eyes, a mustache, and freckles. A scar on his
left cheek was standing outside his latemodel maroon or red, darkly tented Chevy
truck smoking a cigarette. A yellowair compressor sat in the pickup's bed.

(19:11):
Although her friend refused, Felicia madeher way toward the stranger, who forced
her inside his vehicle. Soon,the Amber Plan alert tone was blasting from
car radio speakers around the Dallas FortWorth Metroplex, followed by a description of
Felicia, the man, and thetruck. Meanwhile, the Dallas Police went

(19:34):
door to door in the neighborhood.Cruisers crept the streets, and a helicopter
shined a spotlight down after the sunfell. About six hours after Felicia was
kidnapped, and approximately thirty five milesto the south in Navarro County, an
Interstate forty five traveler phoned nine oneand reported seeing a young girl walking on

(19:59):
the highway median. A Rice,Texas Patrol officer picked the girl up shortly
thereafter. It was Felicia Moore.The girl was traumatized and there were scratches
on her body. Police believed she'dbeen assaulted. Felicia told officers that as
they drove down a back highway inRice, her abductor heard the Amber alert

(20:23):
over the radio, pulled over abruptly, told her to get out, and
sped off. She walked through thefield to Interstate forty five. Felicia's was
another life saved by the Amber Plan. Amber Haggerman's mother, Donna Whitson,

(20:44):
struggled to come to terms with theirloss. Ricky was faced with a constant
reminder of Amber every time he walkedinto Berry Elementary, where she had gone.
Normal fights with friends might end brutally, as sometimes said things like your
sister's dead. To come out ontop, Ricky naturally began acting out.

(21:08):
He and his mother both got counselingat The Warm Place, a nonprofit organization
in Fort Worth devoted to helping parentsand siblings cope with a loved one's loss.
Finally, by two thousand and one, Donna moved them to an apartment
and near by Hurst, where Rickycould at least avoid such hurtful encounters.

(21:30):
At a new school where the kidsdidn't know Amber, his grades and behavior
quickly improved. It was a bigstep in moving forward for Donna as well.
She no longer looked at Amber's roomand all her things every day.
Donna's visits to the site of theabduction lessened significantly. She had to allow

(21:55):
herself to heal, but there wasno removing the scar. Someday she'd sit
crying, debilitated by depression. Rickiesometimes still blamed himself for Amber's kidnapping and
murder. For years, Amber's father, Richard Hagerman, received prank calls about
Amber's murder. Perhaps he often thoughtit was the killer taunting him. He

(22:23):
refused to change his phone number incase it was, and in the hope
that some day the phone would ringand the caller would provide the information needed
to break the case. In twothousand and six, even as some in
government and law enforcement debated the necessityand usefulness of the Amber Alert system,

(22:45):
the United States Post Office released theAmber Alert stamp. That same year,
the Lifetime Channel released the movie Amber'sStory, which was broadcast nationally. Amber
hagger should have graduated high school theyear before. In twenty thirteen, Arlington

(23:18):
police detective Jim Ford died. He'dworked to Amber's case for fourteen years until
he retired in twenty ten. Amber'scase remained active the entire time, as
one hundred and twenty days had notgone by in a row without the department
receiving a tip. Her abduction andmurder was still talked about regularly in the

(23:41):
press, but was generally relegated tobrief blurbs and articles or television news segments
about the Amber alert. Also intwenty thirteen, local artist Patch painted a
large memorial to Amber Hagerman on aconcrete wall adjacent to the spot where she
was taken, behind the abandoned WinDixie supermarket that is now a lamicha Khanna

(24:06):
meat market. In the beautifully paintedmural, Amber blows a dandelion and the
floating seeds transform into butterflies. Everyday since we started working on the mural,
actual butterflies who were coming and landingon her portrait, landing on her
name. All of a sudden,they were all over the place, Patch

(24:27):
said in twenty nineteen when he andhis friend Michelle Fagenbaum were repainting the memorial.
Since then, Arlington firefighter Mitch Carryrestored and installed a steel angel sculpture
just above the mural. Folks fromall around have left everything from notes to

(24:47):
teddy bears to toy cars around theangel, which is enclosed inside a black,
wrought iron fence. Jimmy Kevill,the only known witness to Ambers of
died in twenty sixteen at age ninetyeight. Though many news articles have Amber's

(25:07):
father, Richard Hagerman, passing awayin two thousand and seven, records indicate
he died in two nineteen, exactlytwenty five years after Amber was taken.
On January thirteenth, twenty twenty one, the Arlington Police Department held a press
conference in an effort to renew thepublic's interest and plead for someone who saw

(25:30):
the abduction of Amber Hagerman or hasinformation to come forward. During the press
conference, it was announced for thefirst time that genetic forensic evidence exists in
Amber's case, and after a quartercentury, the department was finally submitting items
for testing. Police refused to commenton what the evidence was. They also

(25:55):
showed never before released photos, includingone of the pink bike Amber was riding
when she was taken more than twoyears later. It's unclear if the evidence
provided a DNA profile. Just thisyear, another little girl's unfortunate death resulted
in a legacy that would add onto Amber's. On Wednesday, November thirtieth,

(26:22):
twenty twenty two, North Texans mobiledevices did not light up with an
Amber alert. Seven year old AthenaPresley Munroe Strands disappearance didn't meet the required
criteria for police to order it.Athena had gone missing in the small community
of Paradise, Texas, in WiseCounty, at approximately five thirty pm that

(26:47):
evening. The missing girl's parents werein a panic, of course, and
that was only exacerbated by law enforcement'srefusal to issue an Amber alert. Athena's
mother later it was a helpless feeling. To their credit, the Wise County
Sheriff's Office sprang into action fast asfar as search efforts were concerned, having

(27:10):
quickly enlisted the help of the TexasDepartment of Public Safety, the Fort Worth
Police area, fire departments, anda canine rescue team. Area residents,
as well as some folks from surroundingcounties, also rushed to Paradise to help.
Finally, the following day, andAmber alert was issued. On Friday,

(27:33):
December second, twenty twenty two,the third day of the searches,
the body of seven year old AthenaStrand was found at the edge of the
waters of the Trinity River's West Fork, about nine miles southwest of her home
near the town of Boyd after beingarrested earlier in the day and confessing thirty

(27:56):
one year old FedEx contracted driver TannerlynHorn of Lake Worth led police to Athena's
body. In his confession, Hornerclaims to have accidentally hit Athena with his
box truck after delivering a package tothe Strand home, which was later revealed
to be a set of You CanBe Anything Barbie dolls. The seven year

(28:18):
old was to be given for Christmasbecause he didn't want to get in trouble
for the claimed accident, Horner triedsnapping her neck but couldn't, he says,
so he strangled her to death insteadwith his bare hands. The case
has yet to go to trial,but there are strong reasons to doubt Horner's

(28:40):
story. Reports by Wise County SheriffLane Aiken suggest the injuries to the seven
year old's body are inconsistent with beinghit by a vehicle. Also, within
weeks of his arrest, media outletsdiscovered that Horner had also been charged with
three ounce of the sexual assault ofa child under seventeen years old in Tarrant

(29:03):
County, all separate and apparently unrelatedincidents that took place In twenty thirteen,
Tanner Lyn Horne was charged with thecapital murder and aggravated kidnapping of seven year
old Athena Presley Monroe Strand. InMay of twenty twenty three, Texas House

(29:25):
Bill thirty five fifty six was signedinto state law, otherwise known as the
Athena Alert. The bill was fasttracked through state Congress. It allows law
enforcement agencies across Texas to immediately reporta child missing to the public via the
Amber Alert system and in a onehundred mile radius of their last known location

(29:49):
and or home county, no longerrequiring that there be evidence of an abduction.
Even before it was signed by thegovernor, at least in some parts
of the state, police were alreadyutilizing that Athena Alert, resulting in a
noticeable increase in the familiar Amber alerttone buzzing out abruptly from mobile devices.

(30:14):
Athena's legacy provides a long overdue changeto the Amber Alert system, and should
police agencies across the state of Texasdecide to do the right thing and issue
alerts for every reported missing child,including runaways, the lives of even more
children will be saved. Arlington PoliceChief David Kunkel, who was one of

(30:38):
the many folks instrumental in helping getthe Amber plan off the ground, died
of complications from Louis body dementia onJuly fourteenth, twenty twenty three. If
your child is struggling with the lossof a loved one and you're in North
Texas, the Warm Place provides asafe, compassionate space for grieving children and

(31:02):
their families. The Warm Place islocated in Fort Worth and offers support community
and their services are provided at nocost to families. They also offer El
Taso de la Vita grief Camp.To directly quote their website, children do
not always possess the necessary skills tocope with their loss effectively, and El

(31:23):
Taso de la Vita, a weeklong resident camp for children ages seven to
seventeen, helps children learn these skillsalongside their peers. I'd like to give
us special thanks to Diane Kay forher help. Shout out to the Cowtown
Cold Case Chicks if you have anyinformation about the abduction and murder of Amber

(31:48):
Renee Haggerman. Please call the ArlingtonPolice at eight one seven four five nine
five seven seven two. To remainanonymous and to be eligible for a reward,
you can provide a tip at TarrantCounty Crime Stoppers at eight one seven
four six nine eight four seven seven. If you have not already, look

(32:13):
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(32:37):
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(33:00):
Every little bit helps, and weappreciate your support immensely, however you choose
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