ID ID - Amber Hoopes, 20, Idaho Falls, 14 Sept 2001

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More people than you may think vanish every year in and around Idaho

[snip]

Some families never get their loved one back.

Amber Hoopes’ family hasn’t seen the 20-year-old since she disappeared from her grandparents’ Idaho Falls home one night in 2001.

The primary suspect in Hoopes’ disappearance committed suicide in 2002 after kidnapping a 14-year-old girl and exchanging gunfire with police.

He had once worked at the Hoopes family’s automotive detailing shop.

Hoopes’ family held a memorial service in 2002 and pushed for the creation of Missing Persons Day in Idaho (observed on Sept. 14, the day Hoopes went missing).
 
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DaisyBill said:
I have been reading this forum for awhile and when I saw this post I decided to register to try and clear up a bit of confusion in regards to this post. Thus my first post:

The 14 year girl kidnapped in June 2002 by Hescock is a member of my husband's family. She's the one who got away. When she talks of the other girl being there she is not speaking of it in the physical sense she is referring to it in the spiritual sense. She said that Amber was there in spirit helping her to get free. Hescock told her he was going to kill her and that he had killed before. Also, after getting free she able to find the address of the cabin (from mail) of where she was.

There is so much more to this story that hasn't been told. Thanks for letting me clear up this little bit.
Click to expand...

bumping this post
 
Idaho Missing Person's Day Recognized in Idaho Falls

It has been six years since the Idaho legislature passed the Idaho Missing Person’s Day. This is an event that’s very close to many people throughout the state, but in particular to the woman who worked hard to establish this day, she’s from Idaho Falls.

[snip]

11 years ago today, Amber Hoopes is still missing, but hope isn’t.

More: http://www.kpvi.com/content/news/lo...cognized-in-Idaho/SDj3KDlw7USnVJdYoP2KCA.cspx
 
SheWhoMustNotBeNamed said:
Keith Hescock has always been the main suspect police believe could have kidnapped Amber Hoopes.
Click to expand...

Hescock does look like a very good suspect but I read somewhere that he had an alibi for the time of Amber's disappearance which satisfied police enough that they discounted him as a POI. Does anyone know what that alibi was? If his mother or girlfriend gave it then it wouldn't be worth much but if he was in Chicago or at work then that really would pretty much eliminate him.
 
Amber's file on Idaho's Cold Case site:

http://eastidahocoldcasesinc.com/eastcentral-idaho-missing-persons/hoopes-amber-s-bonneville-county-idaho-2001/

Her page has a lot of older articles from the time she disappeared.

Hoopes1.jpg
 
We recently hit 17 years since Amber was taken.

Amber is my Cousin, I remember the day I learned what happened. Only a few days after 9/11, I was only 11 at the time. I was playing in our backyard and my brother came outside to tell me that Amber had gotten kidnapped.
I thought he was lying. One day she was there the next day not.
She was a very shy person, and my older sister's best friend. She had such a beautiful soul. She would go out and check her email frequently on the shop computer. It's believed she heard a noise and went to investigate and then was taken.
She was gorgeous and should have been able to have a life, get married and have kids. Someone took that from her.

Here's some info or tips that were given to us over the years of possibles.
A psychic once said she was barried in the lye fields in Ammon, Idaho Falls area. If that's the case there wouldn't be anything left of her as it is very corrosive.

Mark Hescock is who i grew up knowing the main suspect as. He had many names and alias's we found. He was a family friend for many years, but was slowly pushed away for his bad habits and activities. He was a poacher, looked sat child *advertiser censored* stuff and so forth. Not the kind of person my parents wanted to be associated with.
I have to say i feel lucky to not have been the young woman Mark kidnapped that got him caught of his activities. I don't want that to sound selfish but just hindsight of what could've happened, i was friends with his niece who lived with him and we'd been molested by Mark. I was too young to think anything of it at the time, but i kick myself for not saying anything to anyone when i think about him videoing me and his niece in the shower, or inappropriate touching. I'm just grateful for everyone that is safe, but sad about all who are lost.
The notion of him mentioning to the young girl who got away that he'd done it before. Something that we learned, can't recall where, but he would go to other states here and there thru-out the years and a girl would disappear while he was there and then he'd come home. Who knows who all were his victims.

I remember when they found Stafanie's body, who is my husbands cousin as well. Everyone was biting their nails over who it could be.

Another tip or possibility that was brought up was that she had pen-pals from over seas. Police wondered if they could have abducted her.
 

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FlowerGirl said:
Missing since 4 days after the horror of Sept. 11th. Amber had not been seen and none of her posessions were taken.
She was missing from her home.

A young girl told of being kidnapped and taken to a remote cabin where another girl was being held captive. She told of the girl telling her to escape and run get help. She managed to get out, but the other girl couldn't flee due to her restraints. Wandering the rugged mountains of Idaho, the girl eventually found help, but couldn't tell police where the cabin was. The girl was able to describe the man and as he was tracked into the canyon, and cornered by police...he committed suicide.

This summer a family returned to their mountain cabin, after a 4 year span of not going there. There they found the remains of Amber.

Amber died a hero as she saved the child, and I believe she is now in a better place. Her family now has the knowledge that she is with God and is at peace.

There can never be closure for anyone who looses a loved one to a violent crime! There is only knowledge...and hopefully some peace.

FlowerGirl
Click to expand...
Hello I live in Idaho Falls. Amber Hoopes body has never been found. see link posted in 2019
If you have any information regarding the whereabouts of Amber Hoopes, please contact the Bonneville County Sheriff's Office at 208-529-1200.
 
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Idahofriend89 said:
We recently hit 17 years since Amber was taken.

Amber is my Cousin, I remember the day I learned what happened. Only a few days after 9/11, I was only 11 at the time. I was playing in our backyard and my brother came outside to tell me that Amber had gotten kidnapped.
I thought he was lying. One day she was there the next day not.
She was a very shy person, and my older sister's best friend. She had such a beautiful soul. She would go out and check her email frequently on the shop computer. It's believed she heard a noise and went to investigate and then was taken.
She was gorgeous and should have been able to have a life, get married and have kids. Someone took that from her.

Here's some info or tips that were given to us over the years of possibles.
A psychic once said she was barried in the lye fields in Ammon, Idaho Falls area. If that's the case there wouldn't be anything left of her as it is very corrosive.

Mark Hescock is who i grew up knowing the main suspect as. He had many names and alias's we found. He was a family friend for many years, but was slowly pushed away for his bad habits and activities. He was a poacher, looked sat child *advertiser censored* stuff and so forth. Not the kind of person my parents wanted to be associated with.
I have to say i feel lucky to not have been the young woman Mark kidnapped that got him caught of his activities. I don't want that to sound selfish but just hindsight of what could've happened, i was friends with his niece who lived with him and we'd been molested by Mark. I was too young to think anything of it at the time, but i kick myself for not saying anything to anyone when i think about him videoing me and his niece in the shower, or inappropriate touching. I'm just grateful for everyone that is safe, but sad about all who are lost.
The notion of him mentioning to the young girl who got away that he'd done it before. Something that we learned, can't recall where, but he would go to other states here and there thru-out the years and a girl would disappear while he was there and then he'd come home. Who knows who all were his victims.

I remember when they found Stafanie's body, who is my husbands cousin as well. Everyone was biting their nails over who it could be.

Another tip or possibility that was brought up was that she had pen-pals from over seas. Police wondered if they could have abducted her.
Click to expand...
Hi, I have always felt she was buried near the old sugar factory Lincoln road, is that the lye field you are referring to?
thanks
 
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  • amber_shawnell_hoopes_1.jpg
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Hoopes, circa 2001; Body shop's pickup truck
  • Missing Since 09/14/2001
  • Missing From Idaho Falls, Idaho
  • Classification Endangered Missing
  • Sex Female
  • Race White
  • Date of Birth 12/27/1980 (42)
  • Age 20 years old
  • Height and Weight 5'5, 140 pounds

  • Clothing/Jewelry Description A white t-shirt, gray and white boxer shorts, a knee-length gray terrycloth robe and a small diamond stud earring in her upper left ear.

  • Medical Conditions Hoopes has been diagnosed with vitaligo, a skin condition that causes white-colored spots; she has spots on her upper left arm and on her left leg extending from her thigh to her ankle.

  • Associated Vehicle(s) Red and white pickup truck owned by body shop (accounted for)

  • Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Brown hair, brown eyes. Hoopes's left ear is pierced in the upper cartilage. She may have a crooked toe.

Details of Disappearance​

Hoopes resided with her grandparents, Noris and Kathleen Burgener, in the 2700 block of east Lincoln Road in Idaho Falls, Idaho. She was last seen on September 14, 2001. That evening she spoke on the phone with her sister until 10:00 p.m. Her grandparents went to bed at 10:30; at that time, Hoopes was in her bedroom.

Kathleen woke up at approximately 1:00 a.m. and noticed that, although Hoopes's television set and lights were turned on, she was not in her room. The back door was unlocked. Kathleen woke up Noris at this time and they looked for her together, but couldn't find her and called the police. She has never been heard from again.

Hoopes's grandparents owned Burgener's Classic Truck and Auto Body Shop, which adjoined their residence, and Hoopes occasionally used the business's computer to email her friends.

She used it on the night she went missing, and after her disappearance was discovered, the computer monitor was found turned on. There was no sign of Hoopes in the area, however.

One of the shop's pickup trucks vanished from their parking lot on the night she went missing. The vehicle was discovered abandoned in a nearby parking lot shortly afterwards. The keys were in the ignition, but there was no additional evidence at the scene.

An image of one of the shop's trucks is posted with this case summary. It's unclear whether any of the shop's vehicles were connected to Hoopes's disappearance.

Keith Glenn "Mark" Hescock has been investigated for possible involvement in Hoopes's case, and also the disappearance of Stephanie Crane. Hescock kidnapped a fourteen-year-old girl from outside her home in the early morning hours of June 5, 2002. He had known her family. The girl was able to escape that afternoon when he went to work, leaving her chained to a bed in his home.

When the police attempted to arrest him, Hescock fled in his vehicle and led them on a forty-mile high-speed chase, which ended at a dead-end road in the Big Hole Mountains. There he shot and killed a police dog, shot and wounded an officer, and then committed suicide.

Hescock was a friend of one of Hoopes's relatives and had previously worked for at the Burgeners' auto shop, but he quit his job about two years before Hoopes disappeared. Her grandparents claim he had a vendetta against them and had threatened Noris shortly before Hoopes went missing, and when she vanished they immediately believed he was involved.

The police investigated him at the time, but he had an alibi and the authorities didn't consider him as a serious suspect until after his death in 2002.

Hescock's neighbor says he was hunting in Challis, Idaho the weekend Stephanie disappeared from that location. He also owned a yellow pickup truck similar to the one that may be connected to Stephanie's case. Authorities have not been able to link him to either disappearance, however. His only criminal record in Idaho had been for poaching, but he had felony convictions in other states.

Hoopes left all of her personal belongings behind at her residence, including her paycheck. Her relatives described her as a socially withdrawn young woman who had few friends but was very close to her family, particularly her younger sister.

She was a regular churchgoer at the time of her disappearance, and her hobbies included creative writing, photography, piano playing and singing. Following her high school graduation, Hoopes took a job as a nanny for two children. She was considering enrolling in culinary school. It's highly uncharacteristic of her to leave without warning.

In 2007, in remembrance of Hoopes, September 14 was officially designated as Idaho Falls's Missing Persons Day. Authorities believe that she was abducted from her home. Her case remains unsolved.

Investigating Agency​

  • Bonneville County Sheriff's Office 208-529-1200

Source Information​

Updated 2 times since October 12, 2004. Last updated October 9, 2019; picture added.
 
www.eastidahonews.com

23 years after Amber Hoopes' disappearance, her family and officials commemorate 'Missing Persons Day' - East Idaho News

IDAHO FALLS — A somber crowd of 50 people gathered to honor Amber Hoopes at the Bonneville County Courthouse Saturday afternoon, raising awareness about her disappearance and the cases of dozens of other missing individuals in Idaho. “Twenty-three years ago today, Amber Hoopes went missing and...
www.eastidahonews.com www.eastidahonews.com
September 14, 2024
1726367803154.png
“All missing persons deserve to be searched for, regardless of their age,” Walker read.
The numbers are staggering. According to the declaration:
  • In 2001, “more than 840,000 missing person reports were logged by the federal government in the United States.
  • “At the end of 2023, 214 active missing person cases were open in Idaho.
  • “Idaho State Police reports that Idaho has 80 missing adults at any one time, and 47,842 missing adults are listed in the National Crime Information Center database.”
 
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