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The Abduction and Brutal Slaying of Amber Hagerman
Nothing startles you out of a deep sleep quite like receiving an Amber Alert on your phone. The alerts can be frightening and disruptive, but they have saved hundreds of lives.
The sad reality of the world we live in is that the best and biggest societal changes are often the result of a tragedy. Leaders and lawmakers may have the foresight to recognize that certain systems need to be improved, but it takes a calamity before someone takes action.
Americans are occasionally disturbed by Amber Alerts on their phones because of the abduction and murder of nine-year-old Amber Hagerman. The little girl did not die in vain, but it’s a shame that it took such a heartwrenching loss to enact such important changes to the way law enforcement and the public responds to the snatching of innocents.
Gone in Minutes
It was January 13, 1996, in Arlington, Texas. In other places of the country, youngsters were bundled up playing in the snow, but a Texas winter is typically a warm winter. [1]
That day, Amber Hagerman, 9, and her brother, Ricky, 5, along with their mother, Donna Hagerman, were in town visiting their grandparents, Jimmy and Glenda Whitson.
Amber and Ricky asked if they could ride their bikes, and their grandparents gave them permission without so much as a second thought. They could go, but they weren’t to travel more than a block away. But as children often do, the siblings defied their grandparents and rode to an abandoned Winn-Dixie grocery store. It was further than they were allowed to go, but not by much; it was just two blocks from their grandparents’ home. It was in a safe residential area.
The abandoned grocery store was a popular site for local kids because the entrance…
