Benefit will aid family of missing woman
09/01/2005
By Tim Rowden
Of the Post-Dispatch
Friends of Amanda Jones, the pregnant woman who has been missing for nearly three weeks, are planning a benefit at the Hillsboro Civic Center, the last place she was seen.
The dinner and silent auction will be at 7 p.m. Sept. 15, just over a month from the day the Pevely woman disappeared.
Karen Fink, a longtime friend, says proceeds will benefit Jones' parents, Hubert and Bertha Propst of Festus, who are paying both their own and their daughter's bills while they wait for some word about what happened to her.
Bertha Propst remains hopeful that her daughter and new grandson will be found but worries that their story will fade from the spotlight.
"Right now, we're not only looking for Amanda, but also the baby," Propst said, adding that she believes her daughter is being held somewhere against her will.
"Amanda and her baby could be out there somewhere, waiting for somebody to find her," Propst said.
Lt. Tommy Wright, chief of detectives for the Jefferson County sheriff's office, says investigators are hoping for the best but preparing for the worst.
Wright says police have received nearly 250 tips about Jones' disappearance but still do not know what happened to her.
"We have no physical evidence to lead us to believe that she is dead," Wright said. "We don't have anything to indicate that she walked away. We just don't have anything substantial to put our fingers on."
Jones, 26, was nine months pregnant when she was last seen Aug. 14 at the Civic Center. She was due to deliver a baby boy last week.
A loan administrator at Eagle Bank in Festus and a divorced mother of a 4-year-old daughter, Jones had gone to Hillsboro to meet with Bryan Lee Westfall, the man her family says is the father of her baby.
Police have described Westfall, 36, a farmer and former instructor at Jefferson College in Hillsboro, as a "person of interest" but say they have neither identified nor eliminated anyone as a suspect.
A Philadelphia businessman and philanthropist who saw a news story about the case has posted a $100,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction in Jones' disappearance.
For information on the benefit dinner and auction, call Fink at 314-605-9410.
A fund also has been set up for Jones at Eagle Bank. Contributions to the Amanda Jones Benefit Account can be made at any Eagle Bank location.
Anyone with information about Jones' disappearance is asked to call police at 636-797-5515.
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/13ADEE133748F3CF86257070001041C5?OpenDocument