Amber Creek

Eaton's original charges consisted of first-degree murder and concealing a body, which carried a sentence of life in prison. He pleaded not guilty to both charges at his October 2014 arraignment. The trial itself was scheduled to begin in November 2015. His defense attorney has stated that they had not been given all of the evidence available in the case, despite strong indication that he played some role in Creek's death. However, the final pretrial conference and trial were later delayed to May 31 and June 6, 2016, respectively, as the defense was attempting to locate an individual to examine the bite mark on Creek's neck as well as the DNA from the scene.

On October 25, 2016, Eaton plead no contest to a reduced charge of first-degree reckless homicide. Another unnamed man is also under investigation for suspected involvement in the murder. Eaton was sentenced to 40 years with eligibility for parole after serving ten years.

A judge, convinced by Eaton's attorney, eventually ruled that information that was obtained through interrogation of Eaton after his arrest, including his reaction to Amber's photographs, could not be used in court, as police had continued to interrogate him after he requested getting a lawyer, which they did not acknowledge until his third request, on April 5, 2014. However, it was ruled that information obtained by police the next day could still be used.

In October 2013, an Oklahoma crime lab began re-examining fingerprints taken from scenes of unsolved murders. In February 2014, Creek's case was reopened; examiners in an Oklahoma crime lab were able to match a thumbprint on the garbage bag concealing the body to James Paul Eaton, a 36-year-old divorced man. Eaton was nineteen at the time of the murder and lived in Palatine, Illinois, the same town as Creek. One of the men seen with Amber in early February 1997 bore a strong resemblance to Eaton. Eaton's fingerprints were not on record at the time of the murder, recorded only in 2000 after his arrest for possession of drug paraphernalia. Investigators located the suspect in Chicago, and on March 22 collected discarded cigarette butts to match his DNA to that found at the crime scene. Eaton was subsequently arrested in early April and is currently incarcerated in Racine, Wisconsin. Authorities also looked through his computer, Facebook profile and phone, as well as searching his residence for possible souvenirs from the scene, as some of Amber's belongings had been suspected to have been taken by her killer.

Police reportedly spent thousands of hours comparing DNA, dental records and fingerprints to many different missing person cases. Consequently, it was not until June 26, 1998 when her body was positively identified, through DNA and dental comparison over a year after her death. After viewing the television show America's Most Wanted that aired in December 1998, which documented the case, Creek's father had notified police that he suspected that the body belonged to his daughter. When Creek had first vanished, she was not reported missing for five weeks, as her history of running away had prevented investigation. After the identification, laws in the state were changed to prevent an issue like this from happening again.

Amber Gail "Aimee" Creek was an American teenage girl from Palatine, Illinois, who was murdered in February 1997. Creek's body was found in Burlington, Wisconsin not long after she ran away from a youth shelter. Creek remained unidentified for approximately one year, and it was not until April 2014 that police arrested a suspect, James Eaton, a native of Palatine. Eaton pled guilty to a reduced charge of reckless homicide in late 2016.

Creek ran away from a juvenile shelter for abused and neglected children in Chicago on January 23, 1997, and was reported missing. She was last seen alive in February 1997, attending a hotel party with a group of men in Rolling Meadows, Illinois. She was seen leaving the party with an unidentified man.

On February 9, 1997, Creek's frozen body was discovered by hunters in Karcher Springs State Natural Area, a nature reserve near Burlington, Wisconsin. It had been around two weeks after she had been reported missing, and it was believed she had been murdered at a different location, which has never been identified, and then disposed of at the nature reserve.

Amber Gail Creek was born on July 2, 1982, in Park Ridge, Illinois, and was raised in Palatine, Illinois. She was sexually abused at a young age and so taken from her mother's care and placed with her father, Robert Creek. She was described as a normal girl by friends and family until mid-1996, at around age 14/15, when her behavior drastically changed shortly after graduating from eighth grade at junior high school. Creek began to suffer from long periods of depression that had resulted in her using drugs and alcohol, and was described as a frequent runaway. Creek's father had taken her to a local police station and requested that she be removed from his custody, and be made a ward of the state. Subsequently, after unsuccessful attempts to place her in foster care, she was placed in a group home. It is also believed that Creek turned to prostitution for an income. Although she did not disclose her location, she did regularly speak with family members by telephone.