How could a thirteen year old get to the Cities? Did you find the numerous runaway reports?
What "numerous runaway reports"? The family has said that this was unusual behavior for her. Is there some other source you are using? I think I remember seeing one mention in an article about how Amy was away from home without her parent's permission, and packed clothes and whatnot, but it sounded like a typical "kid wants to go somewhere, and parents didn't give permission, and kid went anyway" sort of thing. If I recall correctly, the article said that Amy was home the next day on her own.
That's really not that unusual. I recall a few times in my own teenaged years where I stayed in town with friends rather than take the bus home just because I wanted to dodge parental supervision. Not to do anything bad, mind you. I was just sick of them knowing my every move sometimes, and regulating my schedule, and it was worth the grounding or whatever to get to hang out with friends or go to an event. My parents didn't report me as a runaway, but then again, if Amy's parents were worried about health problems that caused disorientation, they might have been a little more concerned and actually called police if their child were absent without letting them know where she was.
Just a thought, but if there were multiple runaway reports, I'd be interested to know where that information came from.
It seems like there could be more exploration in this thread, and a willingness to entertain different theories. Especially since it's likely that with all the activity on this case over the decades, and the MGPD making the statement that the family has cooperated all along with them that if there was any "there" there, a suspect would have been named and/or arrests made by now.
Just before the police went through the house and dug on the properties, I was at a BCA training on Missing Persons. I remember looking through the list of attendees and seeing that there were folks from MGPD there. One of the speakers was an FBI agent who talked about rejuvenating old cases, and one of the things he said it was important to do was to start back at the beginning and move forward as if it were a fresh case. This means starting with the people and places closest to the victim.
So when I heard that they were at the family's home, I wasn't surprised. After all, they seemed to be doing exactly what the FBI guy had recommended.
So, given that the family has cooperated fully all along, and there was an extensive exploration of everything that is still available (clearly, you can't go back and recover surveillance video that wasn't collected from the scene, and you can't go back and correct the missed opportunity to interview potential witnesses - remember the police told Marshall to go home, and the report was taken at the home, not at the scene. So the "fact" that there were no witnesses isn't exactly telling. We don't actually know if anyone saw Amy because nobody who was there around the time she disappeared was interviewed by police. It's unlikely that anyone would even remember if they were there at that gas station that day...so anyone who falls into the category of "unknowing witness" is lost to investigators at this point.), it seems like a reasonable thing to look at what else might have been going on in the area at the time and see if there are possible indications in the public record where there might be a related incident.
That's why I'd like to know more about the guy in his 50's who disappeared and was at first presumed dead in Weaver Lake. Just fifteen days after Amy disappeared, we have another random and apparently unexplained disappearance of an individual. That seems like something worth looking at and thinking about.
We have a series of armed robberies of local businesses going on and the perpetrators caught within a week of Amy's disappearance.. Which means that people were most likely casing those businesses. If they thought Amy was a witness and could be trouble for them and they had a weapon, could they get a 13-year-old girl to go quietly with the threat of violence and not raise alarm?
We have a kid bringing a weapon and ammunition to the school where Amy attended. Doesn't that give indications that there might have been the kind of trouble at the school described by Amy's parents, bullying, etc? It doesn't prove bullying and violence against Amy, but it also doesn't discount the idea that there were kids in the area who could make Amy feel unsafe and who could be a threat to her.
One story I didn't get a photo of (kicking myself now) was a story about a boy who was found hanging in his garage of apparent suicide. Also within months of Amy's disappearance. That also could be seen to support that there was intense bullying at the school.
There's lots of reasons to look into alternative theories. Getting fixated just doesn't seem that useful.
