Detectives from Wisconsin look for clues to murder in suburbs
Editor's note: This article was originally published in the Daily Herald on June 30, 1998.
Detective Joyce Singer never gave up hope she'd one day find the real name of a Jane Doe discovered murdered in the Wisconsin county where she works.
It took nearly 1½ years to identify her as Amber Gail Creek, formerly of Palatine.
But Singer, the lead investigator for the Racine County Sheriff's Department, knew the day would come.
She yearned for it.
"I really wanted to know who she was. I knew she had family out there," Singer said. "Now that I know her dad and her mom ... they are really nice people, and I'm glad they can find closure now."
But the case is far from closed for Singer. She now is working with Chicago police and the FBI to find Amber's killer.
Singer traveled to Chicago Monday looking for clues about Amber's mysterious, short life.
She spent the day talking to Department of Children and Family Services officials and visiting the Chicago facility at 1810 W. Montrose Ave. where Amber was last seen alive Jan. 23, 1997.
Because Amber grew up here and a price sticker on her body was from a Schaumburg store, Singer said Illinois was a natural place for them to start looking for more clues as to who killed her.
"We'll be going a lot of different places," Singer said.
She said there is a list of people the police plan to talk to about Amber. She was reluctant to call them all suspects.
"We have been looking at a number of people for some time," said Investigator John Hanrahan, of the Racine County Sheriff's Department. "We are excited and are looking forward to the follow-up investigation."
Amber's body was discovered Feb. 9, 1997, in the Karcher Wildlife Refuge located in Burlington, Wis., in western Racine County. She positively identified Friday by her parents after Racine police contacted them to see dental records and crime scene photos.
The Wisconsin sheriff's department had continued to investigate the case, even though Amber had been buried more than a year. Last week they found a picture of her on the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children Internet site, which resembled a composite sketch they had posted about a year earlier. The center had posted Amber's real picture May 1, 1998.
Amber, a chronic runaway, would have been 16 Thursday. She was a ward of the state at the time of her disappearance.
She spent the first six years of her life living with her mother in Lake Zurich. Her mother, Elizabeth Mowers, then took her to live with her father, Robert Creek in Palatine. The couple never married.
On Dec. 11, 1996, Robert Creek took his daughter to the Palatine police station and told them he didn't want her living with him anymore, said Maudlyne Ihejirika, spokeswoman for DCFS.
According to Ihejirika, Creek told police, "She is quite a rebellious teenager, had some problems and was a handful."
DCFS took custody and when they couldn't find a foster home for her, placed her in the Columbus-Maryville Center.
"We looked at foster homes, and tried to work with relatives but neither the mother nor the father would take her," Ihejirika said.
Between Dec. 13 and Jan. 23, 1997, Amber ran away six times.