What do you guys think.

1. Do you believe in the biker kidnap theory or do you think something else happened to Amy.

I voted yes, even though I think it's possible she OD'd at a party that day. There are so many connections with the bikers, and they went on for so many years....it's hard to believe that could be a hoax.

I do think it's interesting that Amy's friend would have been irate that she had missed lunch....I would have been worried about a friend that missed a lunch date. However, I wonder if Amy used this friend as a cover when she'd go get high or something.

My guess....drug party, and Amy may have been taken by a biker there.

I think Amy was kidnapped.

Yeah she was kidnapped, but unfortunately her parents have both passed on and will never know. The sad truth is Amy likely passed on long before them.

this is a case where i wish we had more information than what UM gives us.

THe key person in the investigation is henry blair or hank. her missing camera has a photo of his car and she mentioned him in her diary.

If he is tormented enough to put all tehse calls, he clearly is a person of interest. Any investigation would have to start with him. I wonder how much of those calls gave information/tips to mrs. billig.

none of the other sightings can be substantiated.

also what do her friends know of hank?

another question is, why did her parents allow her to hitchhike? thats like asking for trouble.

now suppose lets say the biker theory is valid. lets even suppose she had her tongue cut out. i am very sure there are ways to escape or even lay clues to your disappearance along the way. COuld she have not put a note to a bartender...a trucker.....anything? Also, i am under the impression that what keeps them around is that they are runaways who do not want to come home or they are drug addicts. DId she have problems with her parents, it did not seem so. SO lets ask the question, did they make her a druggie? It takes some time to become depedent on a drug, before getting addicted, she could have still wanted to come back home and would have made attempts to?

another thing to examine are the photographs. when you take photos on a roll of film you can distinguish the likely timeline...at least chronologically.

there is too much information that we do not know about here. but i would need more reason to believe the abduction theory. there is no body...no trace beyond the original date of disappearance.

I'm not sure. I always wondered if Amy went willingly with the bikers. In my mind, I keep thinking that maybe Amy was on her way to meet her friends for a lunch date and was propositioned by a biker on the way, thought the biker party sounded more fun and said to hell with lunch. I also read remember reading that Amy was very trusting and believed that people were inherently good, saying something about how she "could get a vibe from somebody as to whether they were good or had ulterior motives".

I'm not sure. I always wondered if Amy went willingly with the bikers. In my mind, I keep thinking that maybe Amy was on her way to meet her friends for a lunch date and was propositioned by a biker on the way, thought the biker party sounded more fun and said to hell with lunch. I also read remember reading that Amy was very trusting and believed that people were inherently good, saying something about how she "could get a vibe from somebody as to whether they were good or had ulterior motives".

If you joined someone willingly why would your camera be tossed on the road you were walking to get to your father's area. This would support the abduction theory more.

However, the troubling thing is that henry blair is lying i nthe fact that he didnt know her. her diary and camera link her to him. and why is he calling the mom. He his a high person of interest because he is obviously linked and his story doesn't fit the evidence.

this is a case where i wish we had more information than what UM gives us.

THe key person in the investigation is henry blair or hank. her missing camera has a photo of his car and she mentioned him in her diary.



Amy mentioned a "Hank" in her diary, it was never determined that it was Henry Blair. Likewise, there was a picture in Amy's camera of a vehicle that was similar to one that Blair owned at the time, but again, it was never conclusively linked to him.

(Sadly, that photograph and other evidence from early on in the case has since been lost or destroyed. )

Suspicious? Certainly. But nothing concrete. This at least according to the book written by Amy's mother.

I remember when I first heard about Amy's disappearance thanks to Unsolved Mysteries, I was probably about ten or eleven years old. It has always stuck with me and I think of her often.

I've read Without a Trace: The Disappearance of Amy Billig several times over the past few years, and it definitely seems that there was a biker connection with her vanishing. However, at the end of the day you have to remember that Susan (her mom) never received solid proof that it was really Amy she was following around the country. Could it have been a look-alike? deliberate misinformation fed to her by the bikers? We just can't know for sure.

Maybe a local pervert snatched her, Henry Blair lived not too far from her and devoted years of his life to harassing her poor mother. But from my understanding they never found evidence that he harmed her, at least nothing that could hold up in court.

This case is definitely one of the ones I'd most like to see solved, Susan Billig became a personal hero of mine after reading all that she went through in her search for her daughter. Truly an amazing woman, I like to believe she is at peace and has her answers now.

Blair's nickname was hank. she mentioned going to south america with him. he was about to move to south america. Also, are you sure the photograph was destroyed.

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/b/billig_amy.html

that link implies it is not.

If I was a investigator I'd take a harder look at Blair. It was harder earlier in the investigation because they didn't know who hank was. I"m sure they were looking for a hank.

If I am not correct, Blair is some sort of cop himself. I wouldn't be surprised if he orchestrated the phone calls and the biker references to throw susan billig off the trail and drive her nuts. He clearly has a thing for doing that. Another thing is to reinterrogate her friends. they musta have said something that can be linked back to hank. Also, since he is so compulsive why not get a warrant. the guy is compulsive and obseessed with amy, he has to have kept some memory or token of her. why not search.

Whatever it is, there are too many coincidences for him NOT to be linked towards her. So he almost certainly had to have known her...but since he is the most solid lead ...take it from there.

Also, are you sure the photograph was destroyed.

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/b/billig_amy.html

that link implies it is not.



I'm not sure it was destroyed, I'm going on what was stated in the book put out by her mother and a co-author. Which reads: When Amy's camera had been found just weeks after she vanished, the one photograph it contained was of a white pickup truck parked in front of a brick wall. One of Blair's old neighbors said the agent owned such a truck at that time. Unfortunately, much of the early evidence in the case had been disposed of in the police property room years earlier, when a bumbling new police chief attempted to clean house. So the old photograph was no longer available.

Regarding the mention of "Hank" in Amy's diary, it says: Many reporters and detectives secretly hoped that Blair could be tied to Amy's disappearance, as it would be an amazing end to this long case. And there was some intriguing clues that whet their appetites. When a Miami Herald reporter Meg Laughlin thumbed through some of Amy's old diary pages, she found a sentence reading "Hank wants me to go to South America with him. I told him he's crazy" At the time, Hank Blair was a sky marshal on the South American route, and no one can remember any other friend of Amy's named Hank.

I can't vouch for this information all being 100% accurate, I'm just sharing what was stated in the book, Without A Trace: The Disappearance Of Amy Billig which was published in 2001.

http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24506

post 3. said they had found hair from a brush from a biker den. DNA would help...if they still had it? Gosh i wish they had dna back then.

I am pretty sure if this guy did it he has momentos and gets off on them.

What you said makes me even feel more strongly blair is behind this.

I think one link worth pursuing is blair's connection to biker people. maybe he paid them off to drive amy's mom nuts. you can search phone records for that. witnesses...that would put those people together. or were the biker dudes just doing it for profit...promising something for cash and not coming through.

I don't believe in the "kidnapped by bikers theory", mainly because I don't think she lived long enough to be kidnapped. I do think she may well have gone off with a biker or bikers, but that she OD'd or otherwise died the same day. I think the other party goers panicked and dumped her body, likely into an area where the gators took care of it.

I think Henry Blair was stringing Susan along for whatever he could get and any coincidences between what Amy had in her diary and what he said were just that.

I feel bad for Amy's family, especially her brother, who had to grow up and live in the shadow of his mother's all-consuming search for Amy.

I find it hard to believe she was transported to the U.K but I believe that she was probably killed in the U.S when she was of no use to any of the bikers anymore.

another question is, why did her parents allow her to hitchhike? thats like asking for trouble.

Keep in mind this was back in the 70s & many people hitchiked back then & thought nothing of it. Back then many people thought it was safe to do. Nowadays anyone who hitchikes is asking for trouble.

The sad thing with this case is for all those years, Amy's parents had no definate answer as to what happened to there daughter. They could not even have a decent buriel for her. They had to pass on themselves to finally find out what happened. :(

I feel Paul Branch (the biker who claimed he'd owned Amy for a time) did play a part in her disappearance, although it's impossible to know what became of her. It mentions in the book that Branch wasn't a full patch member of the gang he hung out with and he was trying to impress them. If she wasn't killed right away, by a certain point she would have been so abused and strung out on drugs that she wouldn't have had the ability to help herself.

I don't hold a lot of credence with the information from the U.K nor Hank Blair being involved. Unfortunately some individuals enjoy making false claims and harassing the families of missing persons, especially when they think they can profit from it.

This case is so maddening, I can't imagine how hellish it was/is for her family. If we're frustrated by this case, God only knows how they felt. I will say that there are so many possibilities, that it's really hard to pinpoint just one. You have the Blair angle, and there are a ton of coincidences, but I feel that the police investigating him and finding no evidence eliminates him as the murderer. Then there's the biker angle, which is more plausible, but still leaves questions.

I never understood why one of the bikers who "owned" Amy would have gone out of his way to try and help the mother. If he was capable of owning a girl, and he knew he could get in trouble for ratting people out, why help her? I almost feel like it was an extortion attempt gone wrong, but then again, he knew about the scar. It's so hard to tell. I don't think the UK sighting was credible, as it was based on "oyster bay" and "mute." Remember, this was 19 years after she disappeared, and it could have been almost anybody.

If she did survive, she was probably drugged out, abused, and died after a few years tops. On the other hand, theres the possibility she hitchhiked, got in the car with the wrong person, and was killed and it had nothing to do with bikers.

All I know is this is a horrible story.

its the blair guy...the guy making phone calls. that guy is the missing link in my opinion. that is our definite lead. you can read my earlier posts on the matter.

its one of those cases that nowadays law enforcement has the tools to solve.

the only real hope of this case being solved seems to be a body.

its the blair guy...the guy making phone calls. that guy is the missing link in my opinion. that is our definite lead. you can read my earlier posts on the matter.

its one of those cases that nowadays law enforcement has the tools to solve.

the only real hope of this case being solved seems to be a body.

The body has probably been disposed of a long time ago. It would be a near miracle IMHO for her body to be found.

The key to this case is in my reason for starting this poll. Is the biker theory corrrect?

This is important because I really feel that the biker angle might be an a red herring in this case. I really feel there hasn;t been a proactive investigation into other possibilities, such as a sexual predator, jealous lover or a random psychopath.

The body has probably been disposed of a long time ago. It would be a near miracle IMHO for her body to be found.

The key to this case is in my reason for starting this poll. Is the biker theory corrrect?

This is important because I really feel that the biker angle might be an a red herring in this case. I really feel there hasn;t been a proactive investigation into other possibilities, such as a sexual predator, jealous lover or a random psychopath.

i am with you 100 percent on this mastermind. read my earlier posts in this thread. the whole "mute" thing in britian was odd. coincidental? I think not. I think its part of that "hank/blair" dude's twisted game. thing is, he knew certain things that no one else could. Again, this is our guy. you just dont have enough to prosecute him. I believe law enforcment believes that too.

I think there's too much circumstancial evidence to discount this theory at all.

I've often wondered if the police ever had a real suspect in this case.

another question is, why did her parents allow her to hitchhike? thats like asking for trouble.



This was in 1974. Different times perhaps. People trusted each other a lot more in those days

This was in 1974. Different times perhaps. People trusted each other a lot more in those days
I lived in Miami when Amy disappeared. I came to know and respect her mother Susan as well in our joint work. Miami was in the middle of growing from a rather small sized city to a metropolis. People were very trusting in those years, Coconut Grove (near Amy's home) was full of artists, street people, old hippies and relatively safe. Sadly, however, S Fla was also home to many drug cartels, serial killers, home invasions etc. The possibilities are wide open with Amy since the evidence is very very scant and nothing is remotely conclusive, including the photographs, the biker story etc. The only thing proven was that Blair tormented Susan for years with phone calls and stories...none of which could ever be confimed.

There are several old articles about Amy here
http://z10.invisionfree.com/usedtobedoe/index.php?showtopic=1200

Regarding the hitchhiking, others have already stated that it was a different era, and hitchhiking was much more common, and I suppose, a whole lot safer than it is today.

I'm about a third of the way through Sue Billig's book. I got the impression that they felt very safe in their community (having moved there from NY).

Both Sue and Ned Billig come across as sort of older hippies, very interested in the peace movement of the times. In fact, when friends were calling the Billgs to offer their emotional support for the family, Ned told one lady, "Thanks, that's really groovy of you." That just made me smile when I read it, picturing middle aged Ned living blissed out in the age of aquarius. :)

Mrs. Billig mentioned that during the early part of the search for Amy, she and Ned were driving down a road when they saw a beautiful young hitchhiker.

They picked her up and drove her to town, with Sue pretty much giving her What For on the dangers of hitchhiking. She asked her "haven't you seen the missing posters of my daughter all over town?" The girl said something like she always hitched safely and never got into a car if she got a bad vibe.

During the ride, Mrs. Billig told her Amy's story and the girl seemed fairly convinced by the end. Years later, she met Sue Billig again and told her that she was certain that the Billigs had saved her life that night.

I do not believe in the biker theory as they were too wishy washy with sue to begin with! Amy was a hippy and i doubt she would event try an effort to fit in with bikers when thats in a different direction then the hippy movement of coconut grove in that time. This case bugs me and i will continue to search for her on my sparetime. Sue deserves that much as well as amy to be burried by her mom if in fact she is alive..

Eh, it could go either way - for some reason I have a hard time believing the biker theory...she could have had many chances to escape if she was kidnapped by the bikers.

What do you guys think.

1. Do you believe in the biker kidnap theory or do you think something else happened to Amy.

This case has always intrigued me and I bought the Without a Trace book and read it several times.
Hank seemed like a very likely abductor. The thing that pulls at me and says maybe it's not him, is that I never read anything about Amy's friends bringing him up. When I was a teen, if I would have been dating a guy, especially an older guy, my friends would have known. Enough time has passed in my opinion, where if the friends knew a secret and were afraid to tell, as adults I think they would finally admit what they know.
The way that they found Amy's camera on the road randomly, points to a kidnapping, or some sort of force, whether it was a kidnapping, or she got in a car with a friend and things turned wrong.
The biker theory seems reasonable. However, in the end, I feel like the parties involved were trying to milk Amy's mother in some way.
I just really wish that Amy's friends would be re-interviewed. I know her brother still wants to know the truth.

I grew up in central FL at the same time as Amy. I was 17 in 74 and graduated that year.

At that time Fl was in a sort of transition. It was going from close knit, small town areas like her community to big city tourist areas and drawing lots of transient types.

it was a different time. Kids thought nothing if "hitching" or "thumbing" a ride.Especially the hippies types like Amy. I knew girls like that. They were a little too trusting of strangers and liked to get high with people even if it was someone they just met. They really did believe the vibe thing. We were trusting and accepting of strangers.

I think she was kidnapped whether it was by hank and then murdered, or by someone she accepted a ride from and was later murdered or overdosed.

I am not sure if I believe the biker theory or not. And her being in the UK is really stretching it.

I don't think we'll ever know. Too much time has gone by and not enough evidence.

I grew up in central FL at the same time as Amy. I was 17 in 74 and graduated that year.

At that time Fl was in a sort of transition. It was going from close knit, small town areas like her community to big city tourist areas and drawing lots of transient types.

it was a different time. Kids thought nothing if "hitching" or "thumbing" a ride.Especially the hippies types like Amy. I knew girls like that. They were a little too trusting of strangers and liked to get high with people even if it was someone they just met. They really did believe the vibe thing. We were trusting and accepting of strangers.

I think she was kidnapped whether it was by hank and then murdered, or by someone she accepted a ride from and was later murdered or overdosed.

I am not sure if I believe the biker theory or not. And her being in the UK is really stretching it.

I don't think we'll ever know. Too much time has gone by and not enough evidence.
I have heard those things about that part of FL during that time period. However, if they can solve the Martha Moxley murder after all those years and all those connections, I believe this could be solved too.