241 - The Disappearance of Amber Barker

June 16, 2024·1 hr 11 min·5 clips

Ten-year-old Amber Barker left a friend's house for a half-mile bike ride home in December 1997—within 24 hours, 35 FBI agents were on the scene and the only suspect was found hanging from a tree.

Amber Barker had just over half a mile to ride. The ten-year-old left a friend's house on her blue ten-speed bike and was supposed to be back in ten to fifteen minutes. She was riding through her northwestern Oklahoma City neighborhood. She never arrived. When her mother could not find her, police began searching. Within twenty-four hours, dozens of officers and more than thirty FBI agents were involved. Investigators feared she had been abducted. Over the next seventy-two hours, Amber's bicycle and pieces of her clothing turned up along the main roadway she had been riding. That trail pulled the investigation tighter. Police began looking closely at Daniel John Smith, a man connected to Amber's family whose history and location put him near the center of the case. Smith had parole conditions. He was supposed to attend weekly AA meetings, go to counseling, keep part-time work, and report to his parole officer every month. He had already missed one report. According to the Oklahoman, Smith had been removed from his biological mother at six, grew up in foster care, and later struggled with drugs and alcohol. Police released specific details: his last known address on Butler Place, two miles east of Amber's house, plus his height, weight, hair, eyes, truck, plates, dents, smoky exhaust, and tinted windows. Still, the case did not break open. Late Sunday night, officers found Smith's silver Mitsubishi pickup at a gas station convenience store on South Sunny Lane Road. The next morning, searchers gathered at Ray Trent Park. At approximately 11:30 a.m., police found Smith dead, hanging from a tree above Crutchcoe Creek, twelve miles south of Amber's home. His death hurt the investigation. The medical examiner ruled it suicide by hanging, and antidepressants and methamphetamines were later found in Smith's blood. Years passed with no match. Detectives eventually said they had a partial DNA profile from Amber's clothing, leaving the case painful, unfinished, and, as the host put it, solvable.

As heard by us

A steady account of a child's disappearance and the investigation that followed.

Trace Evidence treats Amber Barker's disappearance with a steady, almost clinical patience. It follows the path from a 10-year-old leaving a friend's house on a blue 10-speed bike, to the missing arrival window of 10 to 15 minutes, to the search that followed.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You want an abduction case told with grim patience and a family-linked man who vanishes.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Trace Evidence