Amber Hagerman Part 3: Found

Gone Cold - Texas True Crime

Vincent Strange

True Crime

4.4 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 26 January 2026

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On the evening of Wednesday, January 17th, 1996, a cold front in North Texas brought in a major thunderstorm system. Arlington, Texas got drenched. At about 11:30 PM, when the rain stopped, a Forest Ridge Apartments resident took his small terrier out for a walk. When the dog became agitated at the creek near the complex, the man walked down to check it out. To his horror, a small, female body was in the water facedown. He knew who it was. The next couple days, the Arlington Police and the Amber Hagerman Taskforce scrambled to find out how the body got there and who might be responsible.

If you have any information about the abduction and murder of Amber Rene Hagerman, please call the Arlington Police at (817)459-5772. 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 (817)469-8477

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The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, The Dallas Morning News, and the docuseries Amber: the Girl Behind the Alert were used as sources for this episode.

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

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Transcript

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0:00.0	The Gone Cold Podcasts may contain violent or graphic subject matter.
0:05.2	Listener discretion is advised.
0:08.5	A cold front came through North Texas on the evening of Wednesday, January 17th, 1996,
0:15.5	in the form of an almost spring-like thunderstorm that brought light rain at first, followed by a heavy
0:23.2	downpour, and then cooler temperatures to the Arlington area. The temperature drop felt especially
0:31.4	cold to residents since they'd been enjoying one of the most unseasonably warm winters for some time.
0:39.4	The rain had abruptly paused any ongoing search efforts in the case that was
0:44.4	relentlessly occupying the minds of many area children and absolutely every area parent,
0:52.4	the abduction of nine-year-old Amber Renee Hagerman. It had been more than four
0:58.1	days since an unknown man, almost certainly a stranger, snatched the third grader right off her
1:05.4	brand new pink bicycle, carried her kicking and screaming, and threw her into his late model, model black pickup truck and then drove off toward the center of town.
1:16.6	A little before midnight on the 17th at the Forest Ridge Apartments located in Northeast Arlington off Forest Hollow Lane,
1:25.6	tenant Jerry Worst was standing on the balcony of his second-floor unit, taking in the change of weather.
1:33.8	Spiratic large drops pattered against the building's roof and windows, the remnants of the preceding storm.
1:41.9	It was calming, peaceful, but it wouldn't last. As Jerry stared off into the line of trees near the creek that ran alongside the complex, about 100 yards to the west, frantic screams coming from that area interrupted his leisure. What's going going on?' Jerry yelled down as he recognized that the origin of the panicked
2:06.0	screams was his neighbor. He wasn't expecting the response he got.
2:11.7	"'There's a body in the creek.'
2:14.2	Jerry immediately called 911.
2:20.2	The time was 1141 p.m.
2:27.2	He told the emergency operator what his neighbors were saying, that the body was the little girl everyone had been looking for, meaning, of course, Amber Hagerman.
2:32.7	Being a criminal attorney, Jerry already knew not to go near the body when the 911 operator
2:39.7	asked him not to.
	...

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