Amy had a hard start in life. Born
premature April 26, 1975, to proud parents Mary and Terry. She had to
struggle, it was touch and go, and the doctors were not sure she was going to
make it. But, being the fighter she was, she finally made it home. It was hard
for her to gain weight, no matter how hard Mary tried, Amy seemed to always
have one health problem or another. As time went by, Amy grew healthier, and
soon grew into a blond haired, brown eyed, beautiful teenager.
Amy was as sweet a child as anyone could hope for, at 14 years of age she still
called her mother "Mommy". (She had made me very happy one day, when she told
me I was her "favorite aunt" which meant something to me, because she has
several of us) And my daughters were
very
close to her. She did all she could to help around the house. She was
learning how to cook and sew, and all the things a young girl needed to know.
She babysat her younger brothers Damon and Allen ( at the time 10 and 8, a
handful for anyone) after school, so that her mother could work. And all Amy
asked for in return, was the money she needed for basketball. She was growing
tall, and was showing promise of being a star player. She kept her grades up so
that there would be
no
chance of getting cut from the team! Amy had talked of joining the Air Force
when she got older, with the intension of getting a degree in Areal
Photography.
She also had hopes of modeling.
Being tall was a bit of a problem, as she was one of the tallest in her age
group. Some of the other students that rode her bus, teased her unmercifully
about it. She had told her mother about the problem. And after talking to the
school, but not getting anywhere with it, they decided she would be allowed to
walk to school.
But
with an understanding that she was
never to walk alone
. So she started walking to school with some of her friends that lived close
by. This went along fine for months.
On Sept.15, 1989, Amy and her friends were on their way to school, it was
only a few blocks from home. Her friends were having problems with a dog, so
they told her to go ahead to school without them. They were not far from the
school at this point. And that they would be there as soon as they found
someone to help them with the dog.
Amy never made it there.
Walking to school she had to pass a parol office.
Having walked by it daily, to and from school, she must have thought nothing of
it. But evidentally
she should have. A man, by the name of Kenneth Reed Smith,
was on parol after having spent a short time in prison for armed robbery and
other assorted crimes. He had been on his way to report to his parol officer,
but he changed his plan. Seeing Amy by herself, (though her friends were
close enough to see it happen) he pulled his car up to the curb, and grabbed
Amy and pulled her into his car. The last Amy's friends ever saw of her, was
with a scared look on her face as she was trying franticly to get away from her
captor, as he drove past, with her screaming!!
Her friends left the dog where it was and ran to the school to report what they
had seen. For some unknown reason the school "liaison" waited 30minutes before
calling Mary to tell her that Amy hadn't made it to school. (Why they waited
the 30 minutes we'll never know.) And what the boys (her friends) had told
them. But they
never
reported her missing to the authorities. Possibly not wanting the school to
take "responsibility" for her, because she had not made it to the school
grounds. (as far as the school is concerned, it
never
did happen because,
to this day
, it is not in the school records. Though the school did plant a Red-leaf Maple
tree, in honor of her memory, 3 years later.) Mary then called the police to
report it to them. The police arrived shortly there after to investigate. They
had found several people that had seen, Amy get kidnapped but, nobody wanted
to get "involved", except for one older woman who had also called the police,
she was able to give a description that matched what the two young boys had
given, and a license plate number. At this point in time anything was helpful.
There was a massive hunt, and the television stations had shown up to do their
pieces on it. That was when the rest of the family found out about Amy missing.
My daughter was watching T.V. and said, "Look, that looks like Amy" (they were
showing a picture of her on the news) Of course I thought 'she had to be
mistaken', I went to take go look, and to our horror, found out my daughter
was correct. My sister (Mary) was
understandably
upset, and didn't want to worry us needlessly, she was still in hopes that
they would find her soon, unharmed. So hadn't called to tell us about it yet.
We all prayed we would find her safe. The search for Amy was not going too
well, there had been several reports there after, of people seeing her in the
car with her kidnaper going down roads. The search ended the following day
when, Kenneth Reed Smith's sister told police he was the one that had done it,
and where he was hiding out.
This next part is very hard to deal with for me, it breaks my heart to think of
what sweet, innocent Amy's last hour of her life must have been like. It had
to have seemed like an eternity to her.
They soon had him in custody, his face was scratched badly from when Amy, had
tried to fight him off. Amy had been fighting for her life. But she was not
strong enough to fight off this evil man!! He confessed to all of it. He had
taken her to a secluded area just a couple miles from where he had kidnapped
her. Beat her, raped her then as a finality he strangled her to death with her
own shoelaces.
We miss Amy badly, but I'm not sure I would have wanted her to have lived
through that. She may have been strong enough to handle it. Amy was a fighter,
but I could not imagine her having to have lived with that memory for the rest
of her life. Even though there are help groups, you can never forget something
like that. We know Amy is in Heaven, with her Grandfather who loved her dearly.
In one way I was glad that he had passed before she had, I'm not sure he would
have survived losing
any
of his children or grandchildren. I know the Angel Amy is watching over us.
If I had one wish for Amy, it would have been that she could have been here to
watch her precious little sister,Theresa grow up. Amy had always wanted a
little sister. Tessie will never really know what a wonderful big sister she
had.
press button
|
