Palatine girl's uncle questions investigation of her murder
Editor's note: This article was originally published in the Daily Herald on June 28, 1998.
Little can comfort the family of a former Northwest suburban girl who found out the runaway had been murdered in Wisconsin more than a year ago.
But what does make the pain more bearable is knowing there were kind people to bid her farewell.
At least 100 strangers from Racine, Wis., attended a September memorial service for someone they knew only as Jane Doe on the day the rest of the world watched the funeral of Princess Diana.
A local man donated the coffin for that unknown victim, now identified as Amber Gail Creek, a 14-year-old girl who had been found months before sexually assaulted and murdered in February 1997 in Burlington, Wis., a western Racine County town.
Amber's uncle, Anthony Mowers, of Palatine, is thankful the strangers were there for his niece, whom he described as naive and confused, but also a joy to be around. But he also wants answers from the police.
At the top of his list of questions is why it took Racine police more than a year to realize the body they found was his niece.
Racine police said about a week ago they received several new potential names, including Amber's, from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children Internet site. The Web site lists the girl as an endangered runaway who may have been using the alias "Amy."
Mowers alleges Amber's father contacted Racine police in March after seeing an episode of "America's Most Wanted," which described the murder and mentioned the girl had a price sticker on her body from a store in Schaumburg.
Sgt. Bob Kacmarcek, of the Racine County sheriff's department, said the police did a thorough investigation. He said the exploited children's Web site was regularly checked for possible leads.
A press release from the police stated "investigators have used every tool we could think of to identify her for the last year and five months."
"America's Most Wanted" had planned to rebroadcast the episode Saturday night in hopes of soliciting witnesses for the police.
Perhaps the most useful information is a bed of evergreen that was found in August, six months after the murder, at the exact spot where Amber was found.
A news crew from WISN-TV, in Milwaukee, was revisiting the site with police for a six-month update when they found the memorial.
Mowers believes the evergreen is key. He is hoping a florist will recall selling it to someone, since it is an uncommon plant to be found in the summer and was not part of the tree life in the woods where Amber was found.
Amber ran away from a Chicago shelter while she was in the custody of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, Chicago police said Saturday. Additional information about the length of time she was a ward of the state or the circumstances that led a judge to remove Amber from her family were not available Saturday.
She would have turned 16 on Thursday.
Although Amber ran away, she called her mother and grandmother every day, refusing to tell them where she was, Mowers said.
Amber's last phone call to them was Jan. 23, 1997. Her body -sexually assaulted and beaten - was found by two hunters Feb. 9. Until Friday she had been known only as Jane Doe.
Amber played the violin, Mowers said, laughing when he recalled how she used to eat worms on their fishing outings together.
She spent the first six years of her life living with her mother in Lake Zurich before moving in with her father in Rolling Meadows.
She starting running away when she was about 12 years old, Mowers said.
A spokesman from the Chicago police department said Saturday they were still awaiting details from Racine.
Amber's father and stepmother identified her Friday through photographs and dental records.
Racine police say they will continue to investigate the case.