Amy Billig

[James T]

Originally Posted by Killarney Rose

I believe that it gives the family a glimmer of hope that their loved one is still alive and might someday come home if they were trafficked. It’s very unlikely but it’s all they have and they hang on to that hope.

I kind of get it from the family perspective, but that now large swathes if not the majority of the public believe it & shout sex trafficking every time a white woman goes missing. When the reality is that is very rare & it is far more likely to be non-white women that happens to.

[Killarney Rose]

Originally Posted by James T

I kind of get it from the family perspective, but that now large swathes if not the majority of the public believe it & shout sex trafficking every time a white woman goes missing. When the reality is that is very rare & it is far more likely to be non-white women that happens to.

This is true. Just like every white work van in the WM parking lot is full of sex traffickers looking for victims.

[WishfulDreamer]

Originally Posted by dynoguy88

I’m 99% sure whoever picked her up at that intersection killed her. It’s just such a shame that Susan had to go multiple decades thinking Amy was a sex slave living in captivity.

I'm confident of this, too. I think she was picked up, killed, and dumped somewhere where her body was not recoverable (in Florida, this could be many places). Most of Amy's possessions were probably dumped in the same spot, with the exception of her camera, which the killer flung out of the car while driving.

I don't fault Susan for her believing her daughter was still alive, as I have read her account of the many red herrings leading her to believe it. The reality is, there were probably many girls among the bikers who fit Amy's description. Amy's scar from an appendectomy wouldn't even be that uncommon (plenty of people have had their appendixes out, speaking as someone who had theirs out years ago). Plenty of other young girls would have been vegetarians around the same time buying vegetable soup. And of course, there were people who wanted to fleece money from Susan and fed her information she wanted to hear. It's a sad situation all around.

In Susan's place, I'm sure if I was hearing all this hopeful information I'd have wanted to keep running around chasing every lead, too.

As for Henry Blair, I know an increasingly popular theory is that he is responsible (the Hank in the diary and the owner of the car in one of Amy's photographs from her recovered camera), but I think he is also a red herring and that Amy was the victim of a random killer who picked her up while she hitchhiked. I think the killer may have convinced her to go elsewhere with him (so she didn't put up a big fight in the car) and promised her she could call her friends/father from that place to apologize for standing them up. Then, in a more remote location, he attacked. Or he may have simply threatened her from the start once she got in the car or the car had multiple assailants in it. I think this is more likely than Henry Blair happening upon her while she hitchhiked and then embarking on the telephone harassment. Anything is possible, but I'm betting on a random killer unknown to Amy.

[jets4life]

This case is probably one of the saddest episodes I had ever seen, when I first watched it as a teen in 1994. UM did not even mention the 20 years of harassing phone calls by Blair when it aired. From all accounts, Amy was a free spirit, who was head strong, and intelligent, which adds credibility to the theory that she was killed the night she was abducted. I am convinced that if she was kept alive as a slave, she would ahve escaped eventually.

It's been 50 years, and in the remote chance Amy was alive, she would be 67 today. Both of her parents passed away. Susan died in 2005 at the age of 80, never getting over the loss of her daughter. Henry J Blair also passed away in 2006, in his late 50s. I doubt Blair had anything to do with the disappearance, as the Police would have grilled him for the harassing calls, but it is possible that they came in contact before Amy's disappearance, as he was local to the area, and his job required him to travel to places like South America.

Finally, one poster mentioned Amy was "entrenched in the drug culture," suggesting she was somehow to blame for her kidnapping. She smoked marijuana on occasion, for Christ sakes. Millions of teens have used marijuana or alcohol at one time. It's completely irrelevant to the case.

[dynoguy88]

Originally Posted by jets4life

Finally, one poster mentioned Amy was "entrenched in the drug culture," suggesting she was somehow to blame for her kidnapping. She smoked marijuana on occasion, for Christ sakes. Millions of teens have used marijuana or alcohol at one time. It's completely irrelevant to the case.

It's sad that some people have this bonkers mindset. It almost gives off a "who cares," attitude to a tragedy because the person was not perfect. The problem with this thinking is that NOBODY is perfect.

I remember feeling this in the Kurt Sova thread a couple years back when a poster had a blase comment trying to downgrade the seriousness of his death because "he was on a path to nowhere," and such wouldn't have been much of a functional and well-rounded adult. So, because he skipped school one day and attended a party, he was forever doomed character-wise and should be remembered that way...which is incredibly stupid. Imagine someone holding every dumb thing you did as a 17-year-old as justification for not respecting you today.

[diesteldorf]

Originally Posted by jets4life

This case is probably one of the saddest episodes I had ever seen, when I first watched it as a teen in 1994. UM did not even mention the 20 years of harassing phone calls by Blair when it aired......

It's been 40 years, and in the remote chance Amy was alive, she would be 57 today.

I enjoyed your post and also remember watching this as a teen in 1994.
Not trying to be pedantic, but your post also reminds me how time can truly fly by....especially when I think of my parents, who were also teens in the '70s.

It's actually been 50 years! Amy Billig would be approaching 70 and
Tammy Lynn Leppert will be 60 next year!

I hope both are resolved eventually, but I think both are no longer on this earth.

[TheCars1986]

I watched this segment yesterday and the update at the end basically says what this article says: Amy was picked up and taken to a party by the bikers who raped her and eventually forced her to do too many drugs and she overdosed. Case closed.

But something about this theory is...off. I have not read the book referenced several times in this thread, but Susan Billig made it a point to mention that Amy would call and check in with her parents for everything. Going off to grab something for lunch and then deciding to go party with a bunch of bikers without telling anyone would be so far out of left field for someone like her to have done. The "biker theory" has never really felt right to me. This is where construction workers observed her hitchhiking. Not some major highway or anything. Someone local (or visiting someone local) had to have been involved.

[WishfulDreamer]

Originally Posted by TheCars1986

I watched this segment yesterday and the update at the end basically says what this article says: Amy was picked up and taken to a party by the bikers who raped her and eventually forced her to do too many drugs and she overdosed. Case closed.

But something about this theory is...off. I have not read the book referenced several times in this thread, but Susan Billig made it a point to mention that Amy would call and check in with her parents for everything. Going off to grab something for lunch and then deciding to go party with a bunch of bikers without telling anyone would be so far out of left field for someone like her to have done. The "biker theory" has never really felt right to me. This is where construction workers observed her hitchhiking. Not some major highway or anything. Someone local (or visiting someone local) had to have been involved.

Having read the book, I don't believe the update at all. Paul Branch was a liar who manipulated and fleeced Susan for many years. While there were many leads that I don't blame Susan for thinking sounded like Amy, I believe it was an act of opportunity by a predator driving through the area, not a biker gang who was responsible for the crime. Paul Branch simply was not credible and--you guessed it--his widow wasn't either. She was paid for the interview and confession.

[Dogface82]

Originally Posted by WishfulDreamer

Having read the book, I don't believe the update at all. Paul Branch was a liar who manipulated and fleeced Susan for many years. While there were many leads that I don't blame Susan for thinking sounded like Amy, I believe it was an act of opportunity by a predator driving through the area, not a biker gang who was responsible for the crime. Paul Branch simply was not credible and--you guessed it--his widow wasn't either. She was paid for the interview and confession.

I have not read the book. I have read other information. I knew a few guys who had been bikers on the east coast during that time. They left that life but would occasionly talk about it. First they refer to their organization as a club or by name. The Outlaws and the Pagans are rival organizations. Membership includes diverse people and personalities.

Amy's mother allegedly contacted The Outlaws through her lawyer. They are supposed to have told her Amy would be returned if she was found in Outlaw territory. Then she was contacted and told to forget it. They must have found out Amy was dead and not recoverable.
Paul Branch a member of the Pagans fleeced Susan for over a decade. His deathbed confession is the only thing he said that sounds credible. He knew Amy was dead all along.

Hitch hiking was common and relatively safe in 1974. A mile on a flat road could take 20 minutes at a leisure amble. Amy was wearing platform cork soled sandals. Fashionable but impracticle footwear. In my opinion she was overconfident and willing accepted a ride with a Pagan and obviously things didn't go her way.

[The_King]

Her story is pretty crazy. I think she was likely abducted, assaulted and killed within a short time period. It's bad enough that they killed her, but leading her mom for years on was just as bad.

The show didn't say it, but I bet her being missing as opposed to confirmed dead also caused additional problems. They probably could have done more, charged some people and so forth had she been confirmed dead.

[DALLASTEXAN!!]

There are many other segments like this one where the families get taken by scammers. Another Amy comes to mind, Amy Bradley.

[James T]

Originally Posted by Dogface82

I have not read the book. I have read other information. I knew a few guys who had been bikers on the east coast during that time. They left that life but would occasionly talk about it. First they refer to their organization as a club or by name. The Outlaws and the Pagans are rival organizations. Membership includes diverse people and personalities.

Amy's mother allegedly contacted The Outlaws through her lawyer. They are supposed to have told her Amy would be returned if she was found in Outlaw territory. Then she was contacted and told to forget it. They must have found out Amy was dead and not recoverable.
Paul Branch a member of the Pagans fleeced Susan for over a decade. His deathbed confession is the only thing he said that sounds credible. He knew Amy was dead all along.

Hitch hiking was common and relatively safe in 1974. A mile on a flat road could take 20 minutes at a leisure amble. Amy was wearing platform cork soled sandals. Fashionable but impracticle footwear. In my opinion she was overconfident and willing accepted a ride with a Pagan and obviously things didn't go her way.

The bikers knew she was dead like anybody else impartial-she got into a strangers car, it was the wrong guy & she was never seen again. At least one gang had no interest in stringing her along for cash or kicks, unlike the other gang, the crazy guy who stalked her with the hoax calls for 20 odd years, the psychic phonies, the guy over here in the UK etc.

[James T]

Originally Posted by DALLASTEXAN!!

There are many other segments like this one where the families get taken by scammers. Another Amy comes to mind, Amy Bradley.

So sad that these families would rather believe horrible scenarios where their daughters have been sex trafficked & kept in captivity for years & eventually decades, than face the far more palatable reality-daughter hitched, guy raped & killed her quickly & inebriated daughter falls overboard on a cruise ship in the early hours & these ludicrous James Bond like global plots the scammers come up with to part them from their cash.

[Cori aka ChrisSCrush]

I've only just heard the update. Sounds like people generally don't buy it.

[Allierain]

Originally Posted by dynoguy88

It's sad that some people have this bonkers mindset. It almost gives off a "who cares," attitude to a tragedy because the person was not perfect. The problem with this thinking is that NOBODY is perfect.

I remember feeling this in the Kurt Sova thread a couple years back when a poster had a blase comment trying to downgrade the seriousness of his death because "he was on a path to nowhere," and such wouldn't have been much of a functional and well-rounded adult. So, because he skipped school one day and attended a party, he was forever doomed character-wise and should be remembered that way...which is incredibly stupid. Imagine someone holding every dumb thing you did as a 17-year-old as justification for not respecting you today.

Your comment reminded me of the Ohio prostitute murders. Michael Berens made the comment that (paraphrasing) a missing prostitute wouldn’t be pursued like a missing housewife. Some have called his comment cold, and it is, but it’s not because he is a cold person. It’s cold because it’s the truth. He’s absolutely right and I think some people don’t like hearing it. Deny it or not, victims are negatively judged constantly. That’s why even to this day women are still afraid to come forward after being raped.