Amber and her father, Blair Carter (Image: Jam Press/Amber Adele Carter)
A woman returning home from her exhausting night shift was immediately concerned when she saw police cars directly outside the house she shared with her dad: “I really wasn’t sure what was going on,” recalled healthcare marketing professional Amber Carter from Dallas, Texas, USA. “I was messaging and calling my dad, and he wasn’t answering, but I could see that his car was still in the driveway. That was my first big clue that something might have happened to him, but I didn’t want to think that yet.”
After Amber told a police officer that she lived in the property, they told her that a body had been discovered inside and asked her who might be at home that day: “That’s when I was asked to turn my car off, step out of it, and sit on the kerb.” As the realisation gradually dawned that her father was almost certainly the victim, police questioned Amber about any “disgruntled relationships.”
Amber and her ex-boyfriend, Jeremy Harris (Image: Jam Press/Amber Adele Carter)
Amber did indeed have an unhappy previous relationship. She had moved in with her dad to get away from former boyfriend Jeremy Harris
Amber had met Harris in 2013 and the pair instantly clicked. She thought he was was “funny, charming and a great conversationalist” was left shocked to subsequently discover he was a serial killer.
The couple were together for six years, welcoming their first child in 2015, but Amber says he grew increasingly aggressive as their relationship developed, with Harris reportedly battling mental health and addiction problems.
She finally called time on the relationship in 2018, later moving in with her father for extra support with her four children. Amber said: “He was the best dad ever. I grew up an only child, so I was his world, and he was my best friend. Many people say I was a daddy’s girl.”
Amber was very close to her dad (Image: Jam Press/Amber Adele Carter)
Amber was still living with her father on November 18 2020 when her world was turned upside down.
She said: “They asked if I could think of anyone that might want to harm my dad, or me. That’s what made me think of Jeremy – which I told them.”
Amber concedes that she always anticipated Harris would eventually find himself in trouble, yet had no idea how far he would go: “I never imagined Jeremy doing something to this extreme. I was horrified and heartbroken that someone I loved so much at a time in my life could do something so awful.”
Yet Amber’s devastation didn’t stop there. She subsequently discovered that he had also gunned down three other strangers in a bizarre sequence of killings in the weeks prior to her father’s murder.
Amber had cut contact with Harris and moved in with her dad (Image: Jam Press/Amber Adele Carter)
“I feel like he is dealing with a lot of mental illness, and I’m glad he’s in a place where he can’t harm innocent people – or come find me and my kids.
“I thought something would inevitably happen to him first, like maybe he would get into a bad fight with the wrong people, or into a drunken car accident.”
Yet Harris had murdered three complete strangers in the days preceding the killing of Amber’s father. He shot 19-year-old student Jaden Urrea in late October 2020.
A fortnight later, in two separate incidents, he shot 36-year-old Adam Gautreau and 57-year-old Kenneth Jerome Hamilton.
Harris pleaded guilty to committing the four murders and is serving life in prison without parole (Image: Jam Press/Collin County Jail)
Amber responded: “I’m shocked and sad for the other victims and families. I think life in prison is the worst punishment for him.”
Having severed all ties with Harris and still unable to explain how he managed to locate her, Amber said: “It has been stressful and overwhelming,” she said.
“It made it even harder to trust people. I’m definitely more aware of who I let in and around my life.”
