✝️ Amber Gail Creek, age 14 – January 31 1997, Burlington, Wisconsin, USA 💔
Initially Amber lived with her mother, whose new boyfriend sexually abused her. When Amber revealed the abuse at age six, the state removed her from her mother’s care and sent her to live with her father, Robert, in nearby Palatine. Amber struggled with drug and alcohol abuse and depression and was a repeat runaway who was under state custody. “It’s easier to be high, homeless and on the run, than to be sober” admitted fourteen year old runaway Amber in a phone call to her step mother.
Although she filled her time with various hobbies, including cheerleading, playing the violin and singing, she could not erase the memories of what happened to her and fell into depression in her teens. She had never received the relevant therapy or counseling following her ordeal and Amber had begun acting out as a result- running away from home and using drugs and alcohol to numb the pain. She revealed to her cousins that she’d sneak at out the family home at nighttime and go to the woods where she’d planned to meet older boys. Although they displayed concern, there were no words that would make an impact on the depressed young girl, who cried herself to sleep almost every night.
Amber had disappeared after running away from a state-run shelter in Chicago and was last seen leaving a party.
Her body was found that year in a remote area but wasn’t identified for three months. Her body was discovered half-dressed, naked from the waist down. She was almost frozen, lying in the snow.She had a black plastic bag wrapped around her head concealing her cut up and beaten face beneath. Asphyxiation would be listed as the official cause of death on the autopsy report.
The attacker had left a bite mark on her neck and had also posed her body so that her arm was positioned up into what I assume was supposed to be a waving pose as the word “Hi” was written in black marker on her open palm. It was a twisted gag aimed at whoever stumbled across the body first. Examination revealed that she had been raped as well as abused.
James Eaton, age 19 in 1997, was convicted to a 40-year prison sentence in 2017, 20 years after the murder.
