In memory of Amber Hagerman

[Faith]

In memory of Amber

April 9, 2008

Mayo woman does her part to protect children throughout the land
By Ira Mikell, Free Press Reporter

Since 1996, the Amber Alert System has been an important tool for law enforcement agencies across the country in locating and reuniting missing children with their families.

The program was created and named in honor of nine-year-old Amber Hagerman, who was abducted and murdered in her hometown of Arlington, Texas.

“The AMBER Alert Program was created in 1996 as a powerful legacy to nine year old Amber Hagerman who was kidnapped and brutally murdered while riding her bicycle in Arlington, Texas,” the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children said on its website, www.missingkids.com. The acronym AMBER stands for “America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response Plan.”

After the AMBER system took root in Texas, the concept quickly spread across the country and every state adopted its own AMBER plan. Information about Florida’s program can be found at www.floridaamberalert.com.

Throughout the country, many people have become active members of the Amber Alert System by promoting it on their personal or business websites, social community profiles such as at MySpace, or by joining community discussion groups.

Mayo resident Kay Craig has been following the Amber Alert program for a number of years. Craig said she spends the majority of her time staying up-to-date on the latest Amber alerts via email, whether they concern missing children far away or in our area.

In addition to being connected to the Amber Alert by email, Craig has set up her own website to promote the program as well as a new tool called the “Amber Stick,” a device invented by David Alkoby, a Florida computer software programmer. Craig’s children, strong believers in the Amber Alert System as well as the Amber Stick, assist her in updating their website, “Single Mothers Are Survivors” at www.singlemothersaresurvivors.com.

According to Craig, the Amber Stick is a great way to help law enforcement authorities speed the process of finding a missing child. It has a built-in software program that allows families to record a large number of profiles. Craig purchased one for her family and has profiles of her three children as well as herself and is encouraging others to buy them for their families.

Keeping records of your children is not the only thing the Amber Stick can do. According to Craig, the Amber Stick can also hold profiles of adults and pets.

The Amber Stick reduces the amount of time needed for law enforcement agencies to find missing children, adults and pets. According to Craig, who has discussed the issue with law enforcement officials in various parts of the country, it takes an estimated two hours to complete the paperwork when someone goes missing. If an adult family member or pet goes missing, Craig noted that law enforcement officials would also be able to access that information quickly and find them sooner.

In contrast to identification cards given to students at school, Craig says the Amber Stick is secure. It can only be accessed by its owners and law enforcement officials by entering a secure user name and password that can be changed multiple times. In addition, the Amber Stick flash drive will not allow anyone to create a duplicate.

Scott Hamlin, Lafayette County School Resource Officer, who recently learned about the Amber Stick, believes it is a great asset, not only for families, but also for law enforcement. “Once the information has been downloaded into this flash drive, it can then be used to get information out to the Amber Alert system. Time is of the essence when a child goes missing and this speeds up the process of finding this child,” Hamlin said in an email interview.

Craig was born and raised in Suwannee County. While attending Suwannee High School, she took classes at the Suwannee-Hamilton Technical Center to be certified in Child Care and Development.

Sometime after receiving her Florida Child Care Licenses from the vocational school, and graduating from high school in 1989, Craig moved to Texas where she lived with her children for 14 years.

They moved to Great Britain in 2002, moving back to Florida to live in Mayo in 2006. Her daughter, Lana, age 10, currently attends Lafayette Elementary, while her sons, Timmy, 15, and Jamie, 17, attend Lafayette High School.

Craig is currently registered to take classes at North Florida Community College to earn a B. A. degree in Forensic Science.

To learn more about the Amber Stick, visit Craig’s website or contact her at 386-294-1957.

http://www.suwanneedemocrat.com/mayo/local_story_100161904.html

If this article needs to be moved, please do so.

:1222423: for Amber.

[LiveLaughLuv]

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d112/nevadabound/candledisanim_01.gif

[Roamer]

Bless Amber and all the children taken too soon. :1222423:

Amber's tragic death has brought many children home safely.

[emmeblu]

http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/jj83/akk4d/tr3nd/amber-hagerman.jpg


In memory of Amber Hagerman

[texanne]

Bless the people who started the Amber Alert system in the name of this beautiful little angel.

[packy]

http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/jj83/akk4d/tr3nd/amber-hagerman.jpg


In memory of Amber Hagerman

Bless her little soul.

[Faith]

College students to investigate Amber Hagerman case

12:00 AM CDT on Monday, April 20, 2009

By SCOTT GOLDSTEIN / The Dallas Morning News
sgoldstein@dallasnews.com

A group of Atlanta college students is launching a yearlong investigation into the 1996 Arlington kidnapping and murder of Amber Hagerman.

An official with Bauder College's Cold Case Investigative Research Institute is scheduled today to join the mother of the child for whom the Amber Alert was named to announce the organization's effort.

"We're going to work it for a year," said Sheryl McCollum, director of the institute. "They're going to do a timeline. They're going to look at cases that are similar within the area or in other states."

Students from the small Atlanta college volunteer their time with the institute, which also includes students from Auburn University Montgomery, Falkner University and Griffin Technical College. Most of the students are studying criminal justice.

The organization has looked at other high-profile murder cases, including the killing of Washington intern Chandra Levy.

A local 14-year-old comic book writer is also dedicating his latest book to resolving the case. Jake Tinsley is partnering with the institute to bring attention to the killing and to educate children on the Amber Alert and general safety tips. His father, Ben Tinsley, wrote about the Amber Hagerman case for several newspapers.

Jake and McCollum will join Amber's mother, Donna Norris, to speak about the efforts at Norris' Hurst home at 4 p.m. today.

Amber Hagerman was 9 when she was abducted on Jan. 13, 1996, while riding her bike outside her grandparents' east central Arlington home. Witnesses told police they saw a man force her into his black pickup and speed away.

She was found dead in a nearby creek bed days later.

A law enforcement task force in the case was disbanded after tracking thousands of leads. The killer was never captured.

Her death sparked the creation of the Amber Alert, a child abduction alert system, that has since expanded nationwide and helped in recovering hundreds of children.

Arlington police spokesman Lt. Blake Miller said the department has always considered solving the case a priority.

"Amber Hagerman and her case have always been very important to the Police Department and to the community," Miller said. "Our detectives continue to work it as a case."

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-hagerman_20met.ART.State.Edition2.4a6adfe.html

[packy]

Oh I am so glad to know that they want to investigate this case. A killer still walks among us and they may find him.

[annalyzer]

Justice For Amber
Shana Franklin, The 33 News

April 20, 2009

"Amber Hagerman Deserves Justice". It is the name of a newly released comic book and the desire of it's 14 year old author, Jake Tinsley. He says, "I hope the sick freak who did this gets caught."

That's why the Keller 8th grader has dedicated his 6th comic book to helping find the killer of Amber Hagerman. The 9 year old girl disappeared in 1996 while riding her bicycle near her grandparents' home in Arlington. Her body was found days later. Amber's Mom, Donna Norris, says, "It's been 13 years since my daughter has been abducted and murdered. I do not want people to forget who Amber is, who she was and what kind of little girl she was."

Donna Norris holds out strong hope for the comic book, which was announced today outside her Hurst home. It coincided with another announcement. A group of college students, headquartered out of Bauder College in Atlanta, is taking a year-long look at the case. Part of the Cold Case Investigative Research Institute. Institute director, Sheryl McCollum, says, "The institute started in 2005, taking on unsolved homicide or missing persons cases, trying to take a new look at em, a fresh look."

The Institute has investigated seven cases to date, including Natalie Holloway's and Chandra Levy's. Alongside experts, 150 students will all but recreate Amber's case, including putting together a timeline. In a year, it will give law enforcement any helpful findings. In the meantime it gives Donna Norris hope. She says, "The person that butchered her he's still out there walking around and I want justice for my daughter deeply I really do."

http://www.the33tv.com/pages/content_landing_page/?Justice-For-Amber=1&blockID=271176&feedID=460

[BOZGAL]

I pray justice can be served for precious Amber someday.

[Faith]

14-year-old’s superhero may solve real-life case

He’s written comic book about long-unsolved slaying of Amber Hagerman

http://msnbcmedia4.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/090818-daughter-mom-12p.h2.jpg
Donna Whitson touches a picture of her daughter, Amber Hagerman, who was kidnapped and slain in 1996. Whitson gave approval to Jake Tinsley, 14, to retell Amber’s story in a comic book in hopes of generating new leads in the still-unsolved case.

updated 12:16 p.m. CT, Tues., Aug 18, 2009

Jake Tinsley is a certified graphic novel wunderkind — at the tender age of 14, he already has five published comic books and some 20 strips under his belt. But the young teen is moving from escapist entertainment and putting his ink-drawn superhero the Night Owl smack in the middle of a real-life tragedy.

In September, Jake is set to publish his sixth comic. “Amber Hagerman Deserves Justice — A Night Owl Comic” is rooted squarely in the reality of the 1996 murder of Amber, a 10-year-old Arlington, Texas, girl who was abducted and murdered. Today her name lives on in the nationwide Amber Alert system that tries to locate kidnapped children.

Jake told TODAY’s Natalie Morales he usually goes for more escapist fare in his Night Owl comics, but found the horrific story of Amber Hagerman too compelling to ignore. And more important, it may stir debate and draw new leads in the unsolved murder.

Unsolved mystery

“Amber’s case was a perfect fit for my comic book, because Night Owl’s entire purpose in life is to abolish evil,” Jake told Morales.

Although the high school freshman was just 1 year old at the time of Amber’s abduction and murder, the case was close to his family’s heart. His late grandfather, Jack Tinsley, was the executive editor of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram at the time of the Amber case, and his father, Ben, was a reporter on the paper covering the story.

Dad Ben’s internal wheels began turning when he learned the Cold Case Investigative Research Institute (CCIRI) at Bauder College in Texas was looking at Amber’s murder case anew.

“He saw an advertisement on Facebook and he told me, ‘I remember the case,’ ” Jake said. “I said, ‘We might want to get the word out about that.’ So we made the comic book.”

http://msnbcmedia2.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/090818-comic-book-12p.standard.jpg
Jake Tinsley says that “Amber Hagerman Deserves Justice: A Night Owl Comic” is designed to inform young readers, not scare them.

Indeed, “Amber Hagerman Deserves Justice” might prove to be more than just a good read when it’s distributed next month; it may also spur new leads in what has long been regarded as a dead-end case.

According to the only eyewitness who saw the abductor, Amber was picked up by a man in a black pickup truck in an abandoned Arlington grocery store parking lot, where the child was riding her bicycle. Four days after her abduction, Amber was found lying dead in a creek bed. Despite large reward offers and an extensive manhunt, her killer was never found, and a task force was disbanded a year after it was formed.

Publication with a purpose

Pretty grim stuff for a comic book. But Jake told Morales his intent is not to scare children with his story. “It’s an informational comic book; it’s not just for kids,” he said. “If kids want to learn, they can always pick it up, and it’s got some good tips in it on how to avoid stranger danger.”

Amber’s mother, Donna Whitson, gave her approval for Jake to do the story, and the CCIRI enthusiastically partnered with him. The group’s executive director, Sheryl McCollum, believes Jake’s Night Owl comic can make a real difference.

“A number of people are going to pick that up and go, ‘Oh yeah, what did happen to her?’ ” McCollum told NBC. “We’re going to start this conversation that’s not going on right now. Somebody knows something.”

http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/090818-comic-author-12p.standard.jpg
Jake Tinsley’s father, Ben, was a reporter covering the Amber Hagerman murder-kidnapping.


Jake added, “If we have one shred of evidence that we didn’t have before, I’ll consider my job done.”

Jake is an outgoing, animated boy — he made Morales chuckle with his elaborate use of sound effects to describe his creative process. And speaking like a true kid, he’s said in interviews he hopes his comics “make people laugh until they poop their pants.”

But there’s also an underlying maturity to his work. He told NBC it took him a long time to “get it into my head that people were evil, that there are evil people out there,” and thus, his Night Owl character is heroic in his efforts to protect young children. With his glowing green eyes, ability to fly and shoot lightning bolts out of his fingers, he has plenty of weapons at his disposal to take down the scum of the earth.

Jake said he believes Night Owl’s job is to “rid the world of evil. Utterly and totally.

“If you ask me,” he added, “he’s got his work cut out for him.”

Video @ Link
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/32462328/ns/today-today_people/

[Claycat]

What a great kid! I hope his work helps this case to be solved, and I hope the Atlanta team can solve it!

[Faith]

Candlelight Vigil in Memory of Amber Hagerman, Amber Alert

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

What: Candlelight Vigil in Memory of Amber Hagerman
When: 6:00 p.m., Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Where: Site of Amber's Abduction. Winn Dixie Parking Lot on the Corner of E Abram St. and Browning Dr. Arlington, Texas

Donna Norris, mother of Amber Hagerman, will hold a candlelight vigil on Wednesday January 13, 2010 at 6:00 PM, at the site where her daughter was abducted in 1996.
The vigil is being held on the 14th anniversary of the abduction to shine light on Amber's story and bring the abductor to justice.
Vigil keepers are asked to bring their own candles.

"My sweet Amber - What a beautiful difference one single life has made. Fourteen years have passed since that monster took my baby and it is time for justice. I truly believe that this is the year it will finally happen." states Donna Norris

In 1996, Amber Hagerman was kidnapped and murdered and now her death is remembered nationwide through the Amber Alert program. Amber's image became so widely known during the investigation following her abduction that the local police chief would later call her "Arlington's child."

The AMBER Alert program began in Texas in 1996 when Dallas-Fort Worth broadcasters teamed up with local police to develop an early warning system to help find abducted children. It has had a significant impact in bringing abducted children home.

For more information please contact:

Angie Camp
Email: Angie@amberchildsafety.com

or

Donna Norris
Email: DonnaNorrisACSS@gmail.com
http://www.amberchildsafety.com (http://www.amberchildsafety.com/)

[LiveLaughLuv]

"My sweet Amber - What a beautiful difference one single life has made. Fourteen years have passed since that monster took my baby and it is time for justice. I truly believe that this is the year it will finally happen." states Donna Norris

I hope you are correct, Donna...you and your daughter deserve justice..

What a compassionate child Jakes seems to be...just think if he can do this at 14, what will he accomplish by the time this boy is 24? Kudos to him :give_rose:

For Donna....

I need to say goodbye although you're with me.
I stand beside your grave, yet you are here.
I miss you terribly and hope you miss me,
But when I turn to you, you're always near.
I talk to you as though you lived within me,
Not changed but simply moved in from outside.
I know each day you must a little leave me,
But here, as always, you must be my guide.
You were and are and will be, just as ever,
In many minds and hearts, not only mine.
No physical event can such love sever;
Death is a dimension, not a line.
And so goodbye does not mean you are gone:
So long as I still love you, you live on.

http://www.poemsforfree.com/ineedt.html


Anniversay in Heaven Amber...
You should know you did not die in vain. Every abducted child has YOU to thank for this new tool...

God Rest your Soul, Amber...you are gone but never will be forgotten....:1222423:

[Faith]

Amber’s mom is in business to help officials find missing kids

Posted Monday, Jan. 04, 2010

The mother of Amber Hagerman, whose 1996 kidnapping and murder led to the Amber Alert system, is a partner in a new business that is designed to help authorities find missing children, according to a company news release.
Amber Child Safety Systems helps parents store their child’s identifying characteristics, as well as the names of adults they have contact with, the company says.
"No parent should ever know the pain of losing a child the way I did," Donna Norris, Hagerman’s mother, said in a statement released by the company. "That’s why I am so proud to be a part of this. I know it will help save children."
Parents who use the system fill out a lengthy questionnaire and provide their children’s general information like height, weight, hair color and scars, said Tad Camp, the company founder and a private investigator in Florida. They can also upload photographs and videos of the children, images they are encouraged to update often.
"The main purpose is to provide law enforcement access to the information they actually need," Camp said.
Camp said he has worked on the system more than a year. He teamed with Norris after they were introduced by a mutual acquaintance and eventually decided to name the system after Amber, who was 9 when she was killed.
Camp said that what sets the system apart from companies offering similar services is the feature that allows parents to register the names of adults in their children’s lives.
Most child abductions labeled "stranger abductions" aren’t really committed by strangers but by people with access to the child, he said. The system is designed to identify those people.
"It can be information on every adult [a child] has contact with," he said. "It could be their bus driver, schoolteacher, a piano teacher, a Sunday school teacher or anyone."
When a child goes missing, parents can quickly access their child’s information and give it to authorities, Camp said.
"The first few hours after a child abduction are critical, and authorities have to identify and eliminate suspects immediately," he said.
When a parent enters an adult’s name into the system, the name is automatically run through a national sex offender registry, Camp added.
Accounts for a family of up to five children cost $15 a month, he said.
Amber, who was riding her bicycle Jan. 14, 1996, was abducted by a man in a black pickup in Arlington.



http://www.star-telegram.com/local/story/1868027.html

[Nut44x4]

THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS
January 5, 2010 Tuesday

Amber's mom joins child-find firm

The mother of Amber Hagerman - the 9-year-old whose abduction and murder inspired creation of the Amber Alert system - is partnering in a new business that parents can use to collect and store information about their children for use in finding them if they go missing.

Besides descriptions and fingerprints, the business, Amber Child Safety Systems, collects details on a child's relationships with teachers, coaches and other adults, according to a company news release.

The system is designed for law enforcement, said Florida-based private investigator Tad Camp, who started the business and is the CEO. "It's designed so that they can begin their investigation and quickly identify or eliminate suspects."

Camp has been working on the idea for about a year and brought aboard Donna Norris, Amber's mother, as it progressed, he said. They were introduced by a mutual acquaintance.

"We really wanted to do something and get Donna involved in something," Camp said. "That's actually when we started considering calling it Amber Child Safety Systems."

In an interview Monday, Camp said he was a sheriff's deputy in Florida before being injured in a car crash while on duty in 2004. In his private investigation business, he specializes in missing children, he said.

Later, after The Dallas Morning News reviewed his background, Camp confirmed a Florida newspaper report that the sheriff's office fired him in 2004 after he was arrested and accused of battering his wife. The battery charge was dismissed when he completed a family violence program.

Asked about his firing, Camp said the assault happened while he was on pain medication after the crash. "There is no excuse for it," he said.

He said that the crash, not the firing, is the reason he is no longer in law enforcement and that his state certification remained intact.

Norris said Camp called her Monday to explain the circumstances of his domestic violence arrest, though she said he had previously told her about it.

"He explained that to me, and I'm OK with that," she said. "It's just a shame that someone has to bring it up, because all we're about is saving children's lives."

The information collected by Amber Child Safety Systems would be available for the parents to share with police if their child were to disappear, Camp said. He said having the information ready could help speed an investigation during its critical initial stages. The service costs about $15 a month for a family of up to five children. Its Web site is amberchild safety.com.

Amber was kidnapped in 1996 in Arlington and murdered. Her killer has not been caught.
http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publisher/EndUser?Action=UserDisplayFullDocument&orgId=574&topicId=100020825&docId=l:1102724875&start=4