GUILTY TX - Alanna Gallagher, 6, Saginaw, 1 July 2013 - #5

[JaimeInLA]

The girls only similarity is that they have dark hair and a fringe. :moo:

Either way, it doesn't feel like the same perp to me. Opal was well hidden enough that she wasn't found for months, and Amber has never been found.

Whoever dumped/dropped Alanna was disorganised and in one heck of a hurry. The crime was perpetuated locally not in some far off corner - he/she has to have murdered her locally, but where? :cow:

I totally agree that its someone who lived with someone, or someone on some sort of timetable/schedule who had limited time for some reason. There's that workplace thing again.

ETA: painter, decorator, someone doing work in the area, Alanna said hello, he was in uniform and seemed safe maybe.

Amber was found 4 days after she was abducted, laying in a drainage ditch.

 

[JaimeInLA]

I thought I'd put this all in one place:

Amber Rene Hagerman:
Abducted January 13, 1996
Age 9, but tiny for her age
Abducted in Arlington, Texas by a man in a black pickup truck
Four days after the abduction, a man walking his dog found her in a drainage ditch next to the road.
Cause of death = cuts to the throat
Her killer was never found, and her homicide remains unsolved.

Opal Jo Jennings:
Abducted March 26, 1999, around 5:30pm
6 years old
Abducted while playing in front of her grandmother’s home in the 200 block of N. Hampshire St. in Saginaw.
Found In late December of 2003, in a field in Northwest Fort Worth, about 10 miles from Saginaw.
The cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head.
Nobody was ever charged with the murder, but Ricky Lee Franks was convicted of her kidnapping (many feel this was a wrongful conviction)

Alanna Gallagher:
Abducted July 1, 2013 (late afternoon)
6 years old
Abducted in Saginaw while out playing, exact site unknown
Found the evening of July 1, 2013 at the intersection of Roundrock & Cindy Dr.
Cause of death unknown
Killer remains at large

Would love to hear thoughts/theories!!

 

[IBsleuthin]

Her body wasn't exposed to the elements, flies, birds (some small birds can be carnivorous), rodents, dogs, raccoons, or other animals that would eat her flesh. Her body was protected by the tarp.

In addition, her body was found at the curbside (not in the path of most cars that drive feet away from the curb).

This is a good point.

BBM

 

[IBsleuthin]

I thought I'd put this all in one place:

Amber Rene Hagerman:
Abducted January 13, 1996
Age 9, but tiny for her age
Abducted in Arlington, Texas by a man in a black pickup truck
Four days after the abduction, a man walking his dog found her in a drainage ditch next to the road.
Cause of death = cuts to the throat
Her killer was never found, and her homicide remains unsolved.

Opal Jo Jennings:
Abducted March 26, 1999, around 5:30pm
6 years old
Abducted while playing in front of her grandmother’s home in the 200 block of N. Hampshire St. in Saginaw.
Found In late December of 2003, in a field in Northwest Fort Worth, about 10 miles from Saginaw.
The cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head.
Nobody was ever charged with the murder, but Ricky Lee Franks was convicted of her kidnapping (many feel this was a wrongful conviction)

Alanna Gallagher:
Abducted July 1, 2013 (late afternoon)
6 years old
Abducted in Saginaw while out playing, exact site unknown
Found the evening of July 1, 2013 at the intersection of Roundrock & Cindy Dr.
Cause of death unknown
Killer remains at large

Would love to hear thoughts/theories!!

THANK YOU so much for doing this. WOW do they ever look a lot alike huh? And if your brain was twisting around in your skull like a snake in gasoline I'm betting these girls ALL look JUST like what you have playing in your head right?

Amazing.

For some reason I DO get the feeling that in this case the FBI has a handle on it.

 

[Dora the Explorer]

Does anyone wonder if a kid did this? We JUST had this murder not far away: http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/484621/20130629/sida-osman-five-beaten-death-bowling-ball.htm Maybe a CSI-loving kid was inspired by this murder and put a bunch of different styles together they picked up on CSI or one of the other crime shows?

eta: of course, surveillance cameras would have caught someone on foot. :/ Surely there is something we are not being told that was in those recordings.

 

[IBsleuthin]

January is most definitely not spring here. Just thought I'd add that.

**To add, January is actually our coldest month of the year.

Frog's hairs.

I'm grouping for the larger picture here. March is closer to January than it is to say...OCTOBER.

 

[Pensfan]

The 911 calls and comments by the boys and the mother showed that Alanna was found with a tarp over her, in a black garbage bag, with a plastic bag over her head, from what I can tell.



Well, I think there's more in common than just brown hair and a "fringe".

Similarities?:
1. Dark hair.
2. Heavy bangs.
3. Female.
4. Somewhat close in age.
5. All went missing within half an hour drive of one another.
6. Went missing outside of a home.

To me Alanna and Amber have very similar smiles. These kids are all a "type". Do I think they are all victims of the same killer? I have no idea. I think it's clear LE is heavily focused on Alanna's home and I don;t blame them. Also, I always thought Opal's murder was solved.

But it's not a silly theory, IMO.



I'm not sure that lack of cases of suffocation with a specific brand of shopping bag logically eliminates the possibility that Alanna, with no obvious COD, found dead with a bag on her head, was not suffocated by that bag.

Plastic shopping bags suffocate pretty easily. I use walmart bags for my cat litter. Yeah, sometimes they leak. Mostly they don't.
There is a reason every single plastic bag has a warning on it about keeping it away from children and pets:

One hundred and ten cases of suicidal suffocation using a plastic bag were identified in the files of the Office of the Chief Coroner of Ontario, Canada, between 1993 and 1997.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10855966

Methodology. A total 2178 case summaries from the US Consumer Product Safety Commission's Death Certificate File were reviewed. A computerized database was created for information about the infants, products, and patterns of suffocation. Mortality rates were calculated based on the US population younger than 1 year old.

Results. The most frequent causes of suffocation were 1) wedging between a bed or mattress and a wall and 2) oronasal obstruction by plastic bag.http://www.pediatricsdigest.mobi/content/103/5/e59.full

Dozens of children (mostly infants) die every year because of plastic bags:
Dry cleaning bags, because they are large and extremely thin, are the most dangerous bags around the house. Gargage bags and thin plastic grocery bags are also dangerous around infants. http://www.marshallbrain.com/cp/plastic.htm

Sachs, 33, whose last known address was in Parkland, was taken into custody Wednesday on the count of first-degree murder in the death of Jeffrey Blaugrund, according to the Broward Sheriff’s Office. Blaugrund was found dead with a plastic bag covering his face, Hurley said, and the Broward County Medical Examiner’s Office determined Blaugrund died of asphyxia.http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/...ling-Ordered-Held-Without-Bond-185546912.html

The mother, Vivian Miranda, 39, was arraigned here today in the death of her daughter Charity Miranda Martin, who prosecutors said was suffocated with a plastic bag. Mrs. Miranda's 20-year-old daughter, Serena Miranda Martin, was also arraigned today and has been charged with holding Charity down while their mother suffocated her.http://www.nytimes.com/1998/01/21/n...er-offers-account-of-killing-in-exorcism.html

It wasn't until the following day that the family learned Travis had been killed. He had been suffocated, found with a plastic bag covering his head, officials told his parents. Who killed him, and why, are still under investigation. http://www.mydeathspace.com/article...a_plastic_bag_and_an_investigation_is_ongoing

Further details of her frenzied rampage were revealed on Tuesday. Police said she shot her estranged husband, a 44-year-old carpenter, with two rounds fired into his head and neck and murdered her son by first knocking him unconscious and then putting the bag on his head. The father and son were found lying next to each other on a bed in her apartment, police said.
"The child was found to have suffered massive trauma to the head from blows with an unknown object," the Lörrach police department said in a statement. "The child lost consciousness as a result. He was then asphyxiated with a plastic bag."http://www.spiegel.de/international...suffocated-son-with-plastic-bag-a-718728.html


Police say Hatcher was suffocated in his sleep with a plastic shopping bag. Police found him lying in bed with a plastic shopping bag next to his head.
Scratches on his face, and marks from the department store shopping bag were evidence to police that foul play was involved.
Charged with first degree murder is Hatcher's daughter-in-law 32-year-old Rebecca Lynn Hatcher. She lived with Hatcher while his son, her husband, is in prison.http://www.wvva.com/story/19126851/...s-strangled-with-plastic?clienttype=printable


Beata Slomiana's body was discovered 10 days after her death
A man who suffocated his girlfriend by putting a plastic bag over her head has been jailed for 10 years.
The body of Beata Slomiana, 33, was found at her home in Ballards Lane, Finchley, north London, in September last year, 10 days after she died.http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-16220256

Thanks for doing all that research. Yes, some types of plastic bags (especially dry cleaning bags) are well known to be dangerous suffocation hazards. Walmart bags in particular appear to be extremely cheaply made. I haven't found any without small holes along the seam. I assumed that they were designed this way (with small holes) to prevent suffocation lawsuits. ?

 

[IBsleuthin]

Does anyone wonder if a kid did this? We JUST had this murder not far away: http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/484621/20130629/sida-osman-five-beaten-death-bowling-ball.htm Maybe a CSI-loving kid was inspired by this murder and put a bunch of different styles together they picked up on CSI or one of the other crime shows?

eta: of course, surveillance cameras would have caught someone on foot. :/ Surely there is something we are not being told that was in those recordings.

Anything is possible at this point.

And, we are out here in LaLa land without the benefit of inside information so anything we have really is just a GUESS.

 

[gitana1]

Amber was found 4 days after she was abducted, laying in a drainage ditch.

Oh, I missed that assertion. She sure was found.

I will note that each child though, was killed differently: Amber stabbed, Opal from blunt force trauma and Alanna in a manner not readily apparent. I'm not sure if that is significant in ruling a common killer in or out.

 

[human]

THANK YOU so much for doing this. WOW do they ever look a lot alike huh? And if your brain was twisting around in your skull like a snake in gasoline I'm betting these girls ALL look JUST like what you have playing in your head right?

Amazing.

For some reason I DO get the feeling that in this case the FBI has a handle on it.

Why do you feel FBI has a handle on it?

Even with the billboards and stopping cars?

I do not remember who posted the article on the geographies of where a child is killed, but in the article it talked about how the media is actually a help.

It also talks about the importance of knowing a time for the crime.

And even though people who listened to scanners know what time the father said she was last seen, it is not general knowledge. He also stated what she was wearing which is also not general knowledge.

So why does LE not release this info?????

 

[blue22]

Frog's hairs.

I'm grouping for the larger picture here. March is closer to January than it is to say...OCTOBER.

Yes, but weather wise March is actually closer to October in temperature. What I'm saying is, although not far apart in time, it's actually vastly different seasons and temperatures. There are only 12 months in a year. A 3 month seperation is one fourth of the year. I guess, I just don't find that very remarkable. Not trying to offend. JMO.

 

[Confusion]

Franks confessed to kidnapping Opal, and sounds like he probably assaulted her sexually, but denies murdering her. Is it possible that he may have grabbed her, assaulted her and dropped her off at the store as he said he did, and someone else picked her up there when she asked for help? I'm not sure if anybody could be as unlucky as that poor little girl would have to be to be attacked twice in such a short period of time, but I guess stranger things have happened.

I've seen a couple pictures of Amber when she was younger and see a bigger resemblance. That leads me to think that one improbable theory is that someone had been obsessed with Amber for a few years before eventually killing her, and later also abducted and killed others who reminded him of her. It wouldn't have to be just physical resemblance, it's possible they also say or do something that brings back her memory.

 

[gitana1]

Thanks for doing all that research. Yes, some types of plastic bags (especially dry cleaning bags) are well known to be dangerous suffocation hazards. Walmart bags in particular appear to be extremely cheaply made. I haven't found any without small holes along the seam. I assumed that they were designed this way (with small holes) to prevent suffocation lawsuits. ?

I don't think so. Like I said, I used them all the time for my cats litter. I use a wheat-based litter that is made of smaller grains than regular clay litter. Only occasionally do I have leaks. In fact, the Walmart bags have been better quality than my other supermarket bags although recently they did start using a cheaper variety. I still find them to be sturdier than most supermarket bags.

 

[IBsleuthin]

The dad didn't mention the tarp in the beginning of the 911 call. He was referring to the tarp as a bag. In an interview with the mother on some news station's site, the mom only mentioned the tarp and the Walmart bag over the head. The mom was the first parent to go out to the curb after telling her son to bring that tarp over and put it in the trash.

I also got the sense that the story was changing as it was being told. Common for someone in a lot of stress. Finding this could certainly leave you in a state of shock.

 

[Dora the Explorer]

I don't think so. Like I said, I used them all the time for my cats litter. I use a wheat-based litter that is made of smaller grains than regular clay litter. Only occasionally do I have leaks. In fact, the Walmart bags have been better quality than my other supermarket bags although recently they did start using a cheaper variety. I still find them to be sturdier than most supermarket bags.

Maybe it depends on who made them. I am in Saginaw(ish), use the Walmart bags for litter, and have to double up and pray it stays in.

 

[Jovi Girl]

I noticed something a bit interesting about the dates the three girls went missing. Although they are years apart, they sort of fall in line with when colleges and universities have breaks. Not exactly for all schools, but my oldest is in college and is usually home most of January, toward the end of March and all summer. It was just something that stood out to me. Maybe someone who works at a university and does some other work near Saginaw during breaks has been lurking around.

 

[IBsleuthin]

Yes, but weather wise March is actually closer to October in temperature. What I'm saying is, although not far apart in time, it's actually vastly different seasons and temperatures. There are only 12 months in a year. A 3 month seperation is one fourth of the year. I guess, I just don't find that very remarkable. Not trying to offend. JMO.

Absolutely NO offense taken! 2 heads are far better than one and I would never be so ridiculous to think I had the only good opinion.:blushing:

I see what you are saying as far as temperature.

In my mind what I was thinking more of was the mental state of the person. Sometimes there are certain times of the year that trigger someone.

I also was thinking in groups of 1/4's of the year as well. To me, two children killed in this close of a proximity within 2 months of each other, (even though separated by 2 years).. is worth taking note of. Maybe gives us a glimpse into the mind of the person doing this.

In Texas is March REALLY the same as October in temperature?

I don't remember.

 

[IBsleuthin]

Why do you feel FBI has a handle on it?

Even with the billboards and stopping cars?

I do not remember who posted the article on the geographies of where a child is killed, but in the article it talked about how the media is actually a help.

It also talks about the importance of knowing a time for the crime.

And even though people who listened to scanners know what time the father said she was last seen, it is not general knowledge. He also stated what she was wearing which is also not general knowledge.

So why does LE not release this info?????

~
That was me that posted the articles about geographic profiling.


I cannot speak for LE, I'm not with them.

 

[blue22]

I wonder how common it is (as far as serial killers go) for there to be a different cause of death, for each known victim. I'm really not seeing the similarities in these cases, aside from area and brown hair. Not to be morbid, but that age range is a common one for this type of crime.

 

[JaimeInLA]

I noticed something a bit interesting about the dates the three girls went missing. Although they are years apart, they sort of fall in line with when colleges and universities have breaks. Not exactly for all schools, but my oldest is in college and is usually home most of January, toward the end of March and all summer. It was just something that stood out to me. Maybe someone who works at a university and does some other work near Saginaw during breaks has been lurking around.

Great thought! I noticed they all took place while the girls were playing outside around 5:30 in the afternoon. And the 2 cases for which we know the abductor's vehicle - it was a pickup truck.