Body of Girl Who Was Dragged Screaming Off Bicycle Is Found

ARLINGTON, Texas —  The body of 9-year-old Amber Hagerman, who was dragged screaming off her bicycle last week by a man in a pickup, was found floating face-down in a creek, her throat cut.

The gruesome discovery Thursday hit hard in the neighborhood where Amber had been kidnapped Saturday afternoon.

Balloons and ribbons hanging from homes and cars in Amber’s favorite color, pink, blew in a cold, stiff wind.

“It’s just so overwhelming to think that somebody could do something like that to a small child,” said Archie Price, 71, who lives down the street from the home of Amber’s grandparents, where the girl had been playing before her disappearance. “I hope whoever has done it is caught quickly.”

The body was found late Wednesday by a man walking his dog outside an apartment complex. The area was about eight miles from the middle-class neighborhood where a witness saw a man drag Amber as she fought and screamed.

Tom Gaylor, an investigator at the Tarrant County medical examiner’s office, said he did not know whether the girl was raped. Published reports and another source said the body was found nude.

It was the second time the family has gone through a kidnapping ordeal. Richard Hagerman’s newborn granddaughter was taken from a Fort Worth hospital 4 1/2 years ago and returned about 11 hours later. Police said the kidnapper in that case, a woman, is institutionalized.