Kidnapping of Amber Swartz-Garcia
The kidnapping of Amber Swartz-Garcia occurred on June 3, 1988, in Pinole, California, when she was seven years old. She had been playing jump rope in her front yard when she was abducted. Curtis Dean Anderson, a convicted kidnapper, confessed to kidnapping and killing Swartz-Garcia shortly before his 2007 death, but doubts remain about his involvement.
Disappearance and possible killer
Amber was the daughter of Bernie Swartz, a police officer, and Kim Swartz. Her father was shot and killed four months before her birth, and her mother then lived with Al Garcia, and Amber took his last name. Over the years, the police announced that suspects, including a volunteer who helped search for missing children and a defrocked priest had been questioned intensively in the kidnapping.In 2009, Pinole police and the Federal [Bureau of Investigation|FBI] announced that her killer was convicted murderer Curtis Dean Anderson, who died in prison in 2007 one month after confessing to her kidnapping and murder. Anderson had a long criminal record and had been convicted of kidnapping and murdering Xiana Fairchild of Vallejo, California, who was also seven years old, and also of kidnapping and sexually assaulting another girl named Midsi Sanchez, who escaped. He had bragged about kidnapping eleven girls.