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Thursday, April 24, 1997

Amber task force seeks meeting with Friendswood investigators

By MELISSA WILLIAMS

Associated Press Writer

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) - Police trying to solve the abduction and murder of 9-year-old Amber Hagerman are eager to compare notes with investigators in the death of a 12-year-old Friendswood girl.

"Of all the out-of-town homicides we've examined, this one creates the most interest in us," Arlington Sgt. Mark Simpson said. "We're at the point where we feel compelled to go down and talk to these people."

Simpson spoke to Friendswood investigators again Wednesday to discuss meeting this week to try to determine if the same person killed both girls. Arlington police have been in touch with their counterparts in Southeast Texas since learning of Laura Kate Smither's disappearance and more frequently since her body was found Sunday.

Laura was last seen April 3 as she went for a jog near her rural home in the Houston suburb. Her body was found 17 days later in a Pasadena retention pond, about 10 miles northeast of Friendswood.

Amber was grabbed from her pink bicycle on Jan. 13, 1996, in the parking lot of a vacant grocery store. Her body was found four days later about 3-1/2 miles away in a creek.

"It's a collection of similarities," said Simpson, noting that the girls were close in age, white and had long brown hair and freckles. Their bodies were found nude, in water and dressed only in a sock.

The Harris County Medical Examiners Office has not yet determined how Laura died or if she was sexually assaulted, said Dr. Joye Carter, chief medical examiner.

"We're still examining the remains of this child," she said. "I'd rather be slow and steady than quick and wrong."

The lengthy examination may include returning to the pond where the child's remains were found, Ms. Carter said.

Simpson noted parallels in the location where the girls' bodies were found.

"The fact that the bodies were disposed of in relatively close proximity to the abduction site. The method of disposal - the girls were just cast out into a ditch with the exception of one sock."

Amber's throat was cut. Laura's body was not intact, with her head separated from her body, but police believe that may be from decomposition, animals and water flow.

Simpson said Arlington investigators want to discuss "relationships between evidence and individuals."

"We have several individuals that we're working in our case that have a direct relationship to the Houston area," he said.

The only known witness to Amber's kidnapping described her assailant as a white or Hispanic man driving a dark pickup.

Investigators looking for Laura released a composite sketch April 16 of a man they want to question as a possible witness. The sketch is of a man in his 30s, with a dark, possibly weathered complexion, and who was driving a blue 1993 to 1995 Ford extended-cab pickup.

The Arlington task force will share all of its findings from the 16-month investigation, Simpson said.

"I'm going to load my entire (computer) hard drive from the task force and take the whole shooting match down there," he said.

Police have received about 5,500 tips and leads since Amber's abduction. They found no connections between her case and 15 to 20 other slayings across the country and in Mexico.

A Florida man accused of killing two sisters last year turned out to be a former Arlington resident, raising hopes of a break in Amber's case. But police cleared him after learning he was not in Arlington when the blue-eyed Girl Scout was nabbed.

That disappointment is tempering hopes this time for Amber's mother, Donna Whitson.

"I brought myself up so high on that one - I thought, 'This could be my daughter's killer,' " Ms. Whitson said. "This one, I'm trying to be patient and not call anybody." Send a Letter to the Editor about This Story | Start or Join A Discussion about This Story
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