As time passed, Amber’s case went cold as the DNA samples came back negative and no one came forward with any new information. It wasn’t until 2014 that an investigator in Oklahoma ran a set of fingerprints from Amber’s case through a federal database and found a match. They linked back to a man named James Eaton, a man from Palatine who had been charged with minor drug infractions in 2000 that led to his prints being added to the system.

Since the case was so cold, investigators didn’t want to jump to conclusions, so instead, they tailed Eaton until a couple days later they were successfully able to collect cigarette butts discarded at a Chicago-area Metra station. The DNA from these butts matched that of the semen found on Amber’s underwear on that fateful night.