ALC's sister admits that she too has posted her services on Craigslist and introduced Amber to the scene.
http://nymag.com/news/features/long-island-serial-killer-families-2011-6/
From a previous article (
link ), Overstreet seems to be trying to characterize Amber's struggle from an observer's pov. That is, the helpless family watches their loved one fall apart... even tries to help them, but to no avail...
The sisters, who grew up in North Carolina, were close. Overstreet says that Amber was sexually molested by a neighbor when she was 6 years old, an incident that caused their mother to have a breakdown. Amber was a promising student but became involved with drugs as a teenager. "She was beaten down," says Overstreet. "We didn't live the American [Dream] childhood. We watched our family struggle through alcohol addiction and sickness." It was after Amber got into debt in Florida that Overstreet bought her a plane ticket and brought her to New York, where she again spent a short time in rehab before falling back into drug use and prostitution.
And yet, from the NY Magazine article (
link, h/t [ame=http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?p=6579401#post6579401]internetgirl101[/ame] ), the picture painted is quite the opposite.
Her sister, Kimberly Overstreet, makes no effort to sugar coat her story. Amber was a basket case, she says. She struggled most of her adult life with drugs. She was addicted to heroin. That was the biggest strike against her. Secondly, I was involved in this. Trim, toned, and dimple-chinned, Overstreet has been escorting on and off since she was 18, and shes the one who brought Amber into the profession.
Also, from the same NY Magazine article (
link, h/t [ame=http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?p=6579401#post6579401]internetgirl101[/ame] ) this bit is interesting.
Maureen Brainard-Barnes was the first of the girls to disappear; she went missing on July 9, 2007, three years before Shannan Gilbert.
[...]
For three years, the NYPD had reported no trace of herexcept, in 2008, for one cell-phone-signal ping off a Long Island tower, just a few miles from Gilgo Beach. Someone was trying to access Maureens cell-phone voice-mail, Cann says.
If they have the dates right, then Maureen's killer used her cell phone months after she went missing. And recall, he taunted Melissa's sisters for at least three months after she went missing. Things that make you go, hmmm...
But, yes. That article is full of information. Definitely well-written and worth a read.