KIDNAPPED GIRL'S BODY FOUND FLOATING IN CREEK.

Byline: Associated Press 

Less than a week after Amber Hagerman was dragged screaming off her bicycle in the middle of the afternoon by a man in a pickup, her body was found floating face-down in a creek, her throat cut.

The gruesome discovery Thursday hit hard in the neighborhood where the 9-year-old Girl Scout was kidnapped Saturday.

Balloons and ribbons hanging from homes and cars in Amber's favorite color, pink, blew in a cold, stiff wind.

"It's just so overwhelming to think that somebody could do something like that to a small child," said Archie Price, 71, who lives down the street from the home of Amber's grandparents, where the girl had been playing before her disappearance. "I hope whoever has done it is caught quickly."

The body was found late Wednesday by a man walking his dog outside an apartment complex. The area was about eight miles from the middle-class neighborhood where a witness saw a man drag Amber as she fought and screamed.

Investigators believe the body was dumped upstream and washed north as strong thunderstorms swelled the creek.

"We are all a little numb," police spokesman Dee Anderson said. "We certainly didn't want this outcome. I'm not going to say we are shocked or amazed, but we are really disappointed."

Anderson would not confirm published reports that the body was nude. But a source told The Associated Press the body was nude when it was found.

The body was identified by way of a fingerprint card that her parents had filled out in the event of such a tragedy, said family friend Coy Carlton.

The cause of death was believed to be a cut to the neck, said Tom Gaylor, an investigator at the Tarrant County Medical Examiner's office. He said he didn't know whether the girl was raped.

In the search for the girl's kidnapper, police got help from up to 30 federal agents, and prison officials scoured records for recently released child-sex offenders.

Police also plan to talk to a witness who reported seeing a man drive slowly through the neighborhood in a black truck the day Amber disappeared, and several clues were found near the creek, Anderson said.

The girl's parents went into seclusion Thursday.

"They are hurting. They need your prayers more than ever right now," said another family friend, Phyllis Stephens.

It was the second time the family has gone through a kidnapping ordeal. Richard Hagerman's newborn granddaughter was taken from a Fort Worth hospital 4-1/2 years ago and returned about 11 hours later. Police said they don't see a connection because the kidnapper in that case, a woman, is institutionalized.

Amber's mother, Donna Whitson, and her children took part in a Dallas TV station's documentary about people who are trying to get off welfare.

Nann Goplerud, WFAA executive producer of special projects, said there was no reason to believe there was a connection between the abduction and the documentary.

CAPTION(S):

PHOTO

Photo Amber Hagerman was dragged from bike