HomeAMBER GAIL CREEK - 14 yo (1-1997) - / Charged: James Eaton - Palatine/Burlington, IL
AMBER GAIL CREEK - 14 yo (1-1997) - / Charged: James Eaton - Palatine/Burlington, IL
by twinkletoes Tue Apr 08, 2014 3:37 am
Arrest made 17 years after Amber Gail Creek found dead in Racine County
Associated Press files
Amber Gail Creek of Palatine, Ill., is shown on her 13th birthday. Her body was found in 1997 in a Racine County marsh.
By Gitte Laasby of the Journal Sentinel
April 6, 2014
Racine County sheriff's officials think they finally have solved the mystery of who killed a 14-year-old Illinois girl and dumped her body in a marsh in the town of Burlington in 1997.
Racine County Sheriff Christopher Schmaling told the Racine Journal Times in an email Saturday night that his deputies had arrested a 36-year-old Illinois man in the brutal slaying 17 years ago of the runaway teenager, Amber Gail Creek of Palatine, Ill.
The sheriff's office has scheduled a news conference for 11 a.m. Tuesday in Racine County to reveal the suspect's identity and details of the arrest.
Two men looking for hunting sites found Amber's body in a marsh at the Karcher Wildlife Refuge in Burlington on Feb. 9, 1997. According to Journal Sentinel archives, the perpetrator had posed her body with an upraised hand and the greeting "HI" written on the back of her hand. She was found with a $5 price tag on her arm from a bookstore in the Schaumburg, Ill., area. Investigators determined Amber had been sexually assaulted and suffocated with a black plastic bag.
Amber was a ward of the state of Illinois when she disappeared. Her body was found three weeks later, but investigators spent more than a year and a half examining more than 1,300 missing persons files before they identified her, according to Journal Sentinel archives.
Schmaling told the Journal Times he thinks he has "solid, clear and overwhelming evidence" to prove the man who has been arrested is responsible.
"My investigators and I sifted through thousands of reports and spent thousands of hours over the years trying to solve this senseless murder of a child. Today was by far the best moment for my investigative team as we informed Amber's dad that we caught her killer," Schmaling wrote in his email. "It was an emotional exchange for everyone in the room."
Amber's family asked not to be contacted by media.
Her case drew national attention at the time, including a profile on "America's Most Wanted." The episode featuring Amber Creek aired Dec. 12, 1998, and can be found on the show's website.
http://www.jsonline.com/news/crime/arrest-made-17-years-after-amber-gail-creek-found-dead-in-racine-county-b99241720z1-254098771.html#ixzz2yETzVUqi
Associated Press files
Amber Gail Creek of Palatine, Ill., is shown on her 13th birthday. Her body was found in 1997 in a Racine County marsh.
By Gitte Laasby of the Journal Sentinel
April 6, 2014
Racine County sheriff's officials think they finally have solved the mystery of who killed a 14-year-old Illinois girl and dumped her body in a marsh in the town of Burlington in 1997.
Racine County Sheriff Christopher Schmaling told the Racine Journal Times in an email Saturday night that his deputies had arrested a 36-year-old Illinois man in the brutal slaying 17 years ago of the runaway teenager, Amber Gail Creek of Palatine, Ill.
The sheriff's office has scheduled a news conference for 11 a.m. Tuesday in Racine County to reveal the suspect's identity and details of the arrest.
Two men looking for hunting sites found Amber's body in a marsh at the Karcher Wildlife Refuge in Burlington on Feb. 9, 1997. According to Journal Sentinel archives, the perpetrator had posed her body with an upraised hand and the greeting "HI" written on the back of her hand. She was found with a $5 price tag on her arm from a bookstore in the Schaumburg, Ill., area. Investigators determined Amber had been sexually assaulted and suffocated with a black plastic bag.
Amber was a ward of the state of Illinois when she disappeared. Her body was found three weeks later, but investigators spent more than a year and a half examining more than 1,300 missing persons files before they identified her, according to Journal Sentinel archives.
Schmaling told the Journal Times he thinks he has "solid, clear and overwhelming evidence" to prove the man who has been arrested is responsible.
"My investigators and I sifted through thousands of reports and spent thousands of hours over the years trying to solve this senseless murder of a child. Today was by far the best moment for my investigative team as we informed Amber's dad that we caught her killer," Schmaling wrote in his email. "It was an emotional exchange for everyone in the room."
Amber's family asked not to be contacted by media.
Her case drew national attention at the time, including a profile on "America's Most Wanted." The episode featuring Amber Creek aired Dec. 12, 1998, and can be found on the show's website.
http://www.jsonline.com/news/crime/arrest-made-17-years-after-amber-gail-creek-found-dead-in-racine-county-b99241720z1-254098771.html#ixzz2yETzVUqi
twinkletoes- Supreme Commander of the Universe With Cape AND Tights AND Fancy Headgear
- Job/hobbies : Trying to keep my sanity. Trying to accept that which I cannot change. It's hard.
Re: AMBER GAIL CREEK - 14 yo (1-1997) - / Charged: James Eaton - Palatine/Burlington, IL
by twinkletoes Tue Apr 08, 2014 10:38 pm
Sheriff: Fingerprints tie man to Amber Creek's '97 slaying
Posted: Apr 08, 2014 12:29 PM EDT Updated: Apr 08, 2014 2:06 PM EDT
James Eaton.
Amber Creek.
RACINE, Wis. (AP) - Authorities in Wisconsin and Oklahoma used DNA and fingerprint analysis to connect an Illinois man to the cold-case slaying of a teenage runaway whose battered body was found in a Wisconsin marsh in 1997, the Racine County sheriff said Tuesday.
James P. Eaton of Palatine, Ill., was arrested Saturday in Chicago. He was being held in Racine County Jail on $1 million bail on charges of first-degree intentional homicide and hiding a corpse, Sheriff Chris Schmaling said. No court date was scheduled for Tuesday. Schmaling didn't know whether Eaton has an attorney.
"This is a day that we have been waiting more than 17 years to arrive," Schmaling said at a news conference.
Eaton is suspected in connection with the slaying of Amber Creek, a 14-year-old from Palatine, Ill. She had run away from a state-operated juvenile shelter in Chicago on Jan. 23, 1997. She then attended a party at a motel in Rolling Meadows, Ill., the week of her death. She was last seen leaving the party and getting into a luxury car that had a placard reading "mayor," and was driven by a man described as being white and in his 30s.
Two weeks later, a pair of hunters found Creek's corpse in a marsh in the Town of Burlington. She'd been beaten, sexually assaulted and suffocated with a plastic bag.
Her body was left posed with an upraised hand that had the word "Hi" written on her palm. Investigators referred to her as Jane Doe for 16 months until they could determine her name.
Schmaling said there was no indication that Eaton, who would have been 19 at the time of her disappearance, and Creek knew each other.
"Eaton had not previously been a suspect or mentioned during the course of this investigation," he said.
Investigators recovered DNA from Creek's body and fingerprints from the bag used to suffocate her. The evidence was sent to the FBI and crime labs in every other state, but there were no matches.
Then on Feb. 28, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation informed the Wisconsin Department of Justice that the fingerprint evidence matched the prints of Eaton, who'd previously been fingerprinted for what Schmaling described as relatively minor offenses.
Once the Wisconsin Crime Laboratory confirmed the match, Racine County deputies launched an in-depth investigation that involved surveillance of Eaton.
After tailing him for several days they were able to recover a partially used cigarette that Eaton discarded at a Chicago-area train station. DNA from the cigarette matched the sample recovered from Creek's body, Schmaling said.
The sheriff said the investigation is still going on. He called on people who might have knowledge of Eaton and his alleged involvement in the crime to "do the right thing for Amber and her family and come forward."
Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
http://www.myfoxchicago.com/story/25193026/james-eaton-charged-1997-slaying-amber-creek-fingerprints-match#ixzz2yK1xUwA3
Posted: Apr 08, 2014 12:29 PM EDT Updated: Apr 08, 2014 2:06 PM EDT
James Eaton.
Amber Creek.
RACINE, Wis. (AP) - Authorities in Wisconsin and Oklahoma used DNA and fingerprint analysis to connect an Illinois man to the cold-case slaying of a teenage runaway whose battered body was found in a Wisconsin marsh in 1997, the Racine County sheriff said Tuesday.
James P. Eaton of Palatine, Ill., was arrested Saturday in Chicago. He was being held in Racine County Jail on $1 million bail on charges of first-degree intentional homicide and hiding a corpse, Sheriff Chris Schmaling said. No court date was scheduled for Tuesday. Schmaling didn't know whether Eaton has an attorney.
"This is a day that we have been waiting more than 17 years to arrive," Schmaling said at a news conference.
Eaton is suspected in connection with the slaying of Amber Creek, a 14-year-old from Palatine, Ill. She had run away from a state-operated juvenile shelter in Chicago on Jan. 23, 1997. She then attended a party at a motel in Rolling Meadows, Ill., the week of her death. She was last seen leaving the party and getting into a luxury car that had a placard reading "mayor," and was driven by a man described as being white and in his 30s.
Two weeks later, a pair of hunters found Creek's corpse in a marsh in the Town of Burlington. She'd been beaten, sexually assaulted and suffocated with a plastic bag.
Her body was left posed with an upraised hand that had the word "Hi" written on her palm. Investigators referred to her as Jane Doe for 16 months until they could determine her name.
Schmaling said there was no indication that Eaton, who would have been 19 at the time of her disappearance, and Creek knew each other.
"Eaton had not previously been a suspect or mentioned during the course of this investigation," he said.
Investigators recovered DNA from Creek's body and fingerprints from the bag used to suffocate her. The evidence was sent to the FBI and crime labs in every other state, but there were no matches.
Then on Feb. 28, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation informed the Wisconsin Department of Justice that the fingerprint evidence matched the prints of Eaton, who'd previously been fingerprinted for what Schmaling described as relatively minor offenses.
Once the Wisconsin Crime Laboratory confirmed the match, Racine County deputies launched an in-depth investigation that involved surveillance of Eaton.
After tailing him for several days they were able to recover a partially used cigarette that Eaton discarded at a Chicago-area train station. DNA from the cigarette matched the sample recovered from Creek's body, Schmaling said.
The sheriff said the investigation is still going on. He called on people who might have knowledge of Eaton and his alleged involvement in the crime to "do the right thing for Amber and her family and come forward."
Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
http://www.myfoxchicago.com/story/25193026/james-eaton-charged-1997-slaying-amber-creek-fingerprints-match#ixzz2yK1xUwA3
twinkletoes- Supreme Commander of the Universe With Cape AND Tights AND Fancy Headgear
- Job/hobbies : Trying to keep my sanity. Trying to accept that which I cannot change. It's hard.
Re: AMBER GAIL CREEK - 14 yo (1-1997) - / Charged: James Eaton - Palatine/Burlington, IL
by twinkletoes Wed Apr 09, 2014 4:48 am
Article posted: 4/8/2014 1:01 AM
DCFS examined after Palatine girl found murdered
By Teresa Mask
Editor's note: This article was originally published in the Daily Herald on July 1, 1998.
While police continue to search for the killer of a former Palatine girl, a state inspector will investigate whether the agency charged with her welfare failed to properly report her missing the last time she ran away.
The Office of Inspector General of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services is examining all state documents on 14-year-old Amber Gail Creek, who became a ward of the state Dec. 13, 1996 and was found murdered in Wisconsin nearly two months later.
Inspector general investigations are routine when a child dies while a ward of the state. But because of discrepancies between the state's records and police accounts of when Amber was last reported missing, the inspector also will zoom in on case workers, said Maudlyne Ihejirika, a DCFS spokeswoman.
The office will pay close attention to see if staff members from DCFS or Chicago's Columbus-Maryville Center, where Amber last lived, violated policy about reporting runaways, she said.
"They will determine what, if any, appropriate action will be taken," Ihejirika said.
Meanwhile, Wisconsin police are expected today to announce the members of a task force that will investigate Amber's murder.
Press conferences will be held at 11 a.m. at the Palatine village hall, 200 E. Wood St., and at 3 p.m. in Racine, Wis.
The task force will be comprised of local, state and federal police, according to a press release from the Racine County Sheriff's Department.
While the police group tries to find Amber's killer, the inspector general's investigation will focus on whether DCFS followed proper procedure in notifying police each time Amber ran away.
Amber ran away from Columbus-Maryville six times between Dec. 13 and Jan. 23, 1997 - the last time she was seen alive.
The state's child welfare agency has said that when a staff member called Chicago police to report Amber missing on Jan. 23, police said a new report wasn't necessary since Amber had run away two days prior. The DCFS case worker said that police indicated the previous report would be good for 30 days. So the case worker did not file another report on Amber until Feb. 28, 1997.
But the Chicago Police Department has no record of a DCFS attempt to file a report on Jan. 23, nor does the department have a 30-day policy on reporting runaways, according to Pat Camden, a police spokesman. Prior to Feb. 28, the police's last record of a report on Amber was Jan. 19, 1997.
Ihejirika said her agency's policy is clear: Whenever a ward of the state, on runaway status, does not return to their foster home facility within 24 hours, the case worker must contact the police "in every case, no exceptions."
Another snag in the Amber murder case involves the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, whose Web site photo of the girl was crucial in her identification last week.
Center officials say it took DCFS nearly nine months to complete paperwork to get Amber's picture on the Internet.
All the center needed to put the picture on the Internet was a signature from an authority in the child's case - whether it was the police, the state or one of her parents, who had relinquished custody of her in December 1996, said Ben Ermini, the center's director of case management.
"This is the kind of case that leaves all of us with many questions," Ihejirika said. "It starts from the father who put her out of the house, to the mother who didn't want her...
"The bottom line is we will be combing through this case with a fine-toothed comb."
http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20140408/news/140408777/
DCFS examined after Palatine girl found murdered
By Teresa Mask
Editor's note: This article was originally published in the Daily Herald on July 1, 1998.
While police continue to search for the killer of a former Palatine girl, a state inspector will investigate whether the agency charged with her welfare failed to properly report her missing the last time she ran away.
The Office of Inspector General of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services is examining all state documents on 14-year-old Amber Gail Creek, who became a ward of the state Dec. 13, 1996 and was found murdered in Wisconsin nearly two months later.
Inspector general investigations are routine when a child dies while a ward of the state. But because of discrepancies between the state's records and police accounts of when Amber was last reported missing, the inspector also will zoom in on case workers, said Maudlyne Ihejirika, a DCFS spokeswoman.
The office will pay close attention to see if staff members from DCFS or Chicago's Columbus-Maryville Center, where Amber last lived, violated policy about reporting runaways, she said.
"They will determine what, if any, appropriate action will be taken," Ihejirika said.
Meanwhile, Wisconsin police are expected today to announce the members of a task force that will investigate Amber's murder.
Press conferences will be held at 11 a.m. at the Palatine village hall, 200 E. Wood St., and at 3 p.m. in Racine, Wis.
The task force will be comprised of local, state and federal police, according to a press release from the Racine County Sheriff's Department.
While the police group tries to find Amber's killer, the inspector general's investigation will focus on whether DCFS followed proper procedure in notifying police each time Amber ran away.
Amber ran away from Columbus-Maryville six times between Dec. 13 and Jan. 23, 1997 - the last time she was seen alive.
The state's child welfare agency has said that when a staff member called Chicago police to report Amber missing on Jan. 23, police said a new report wasn't necessary since Amber had run away two days prior. The DCFS case worker said that police indicated the previous report would be good for 30 days. So the case worker did not file another report on Amber until Feb. 28, 1997.
But the Chicago Police Department has no record of a DCFS attempt to file a report on Jan. 23, nor does the department have a 30-day policy on reporting runaways, according to Pat Camden, a police spokesman. Prior to Feb. 28, the police's last record of a report on Amber was Jan. 19, 1997.
Ihejirika said her agency's policy is clear: Whenever a ward of the state, on runaway status, does not return to their foster home facility within 24 hours, the case worker must contact the police "in every case, no exceptions."
Another snag in the Amber murder case involves the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, whose Web site photo of the girl was crucial in her identification last week.
Center officials say it took DCFS nearly nine months to complete paperwork to get Amber's picture on the Internet.
All the center needed to put the picture on the Internet was a signature from an authority in the child's case - whether it was the police, the state or one of her parents, who had relinquished custody of her in December 1996, said Ben Ermini, the center's director of case management.
"This is the kind of case that leaves all of us with many questions," Ihejirika said. "It starts from the father who put her out of the house, to the mother who didn't want her...
"The bottom line is we will be combing through this case with a fine-toothed comb."
http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20140408/news/140408777/
twinkletoes- Supreme Commander of the Universe With Cape AND Tights AND Fancy Headgear
- Job/hobbies : Trying to keep my sanity. Trying to accept that which I cannot change. It's hard.
Re: AMBER GAIL CREEK - 14 yo (1-1997) - / Charged: James Eaton - Palatine/Burlington, IL
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