Amber Elizabeth Kates was last seen on April eleventh of two thousand and four in
Columbia, Tennessee. At the time of her disappearance, she was just sixteen
years old. She stood five foot five inches tall and weighed about one hundred
pounds. Amber was Caucasian, had green eyes and long, light brown hair
that she often dyed blonde. Amber had a slight overbite in her two front
teeth. Details about Amber and her case are few and far between. Articles
about her disappearance are generally vague. It's hard to tell if this vagueness is
because not much is known about her case, if the police are holding back,
or if the media just didn't find a missing, troubled teenage girl all
that interesting. Here's what we do know about Amber and her family. Amber's
older half sister, Brenda James, has served as the family spokesperson in recent
years. Brenda describes her baby sister as funny, energetic, and a normal
sixteen year old. Amber came from a large, blended family, with Brenda
and at least one other older sister on her father's side. A family photo
on the Bring Amber Elizabeth Kates home Facebook page shows Amber as a baby with
two brothers who looked to be only a few years older than her. Brenda
says that before their father passed away, he made Brenda promise to look after
her little sister Amber. She says that it says if he knew his youngest
daughter was in danger, and according to Brenda, Amber had gotten mixed up
in the wrong crowd and had been drinking and occasionally doing drugs prior to her
disappearance. Amber Elizabeth Kates was born in spring Hill, Tennessee, but her
family moved around often grow up. Amber lived in several different states before eventually
returning home to Tennessee, and in the six months prior to her disappearance,
Amber lived in a foster home. It's unclear why, but about a week
before she disappeared, her sister Brenda gained custody of Amber, and despite her
time in foster care and her guardianship with Brenda, Amber did keep in touch
with her mother. In fact, the day that Amber disappeared, she'd left
Brenda's home to go stay with her mother. According to Brenda, Amber was
just anxious that day about going to her mom's. She left from her mom's
house and went to town with somebody and never came back. Where exactly Amber
was heading following her time with her mother is confusing. An FBI agent on
the case stated that she was on her way to spring break with friends and
family, but never made it. A detective on the case said she was
going to spend two days with a relative, and while it seems as though
she was spending spring break at her mother's house, the FBI agent working the
case makes it sound as though she had a destination she was headed to after
leaving her mother's We do know that Amber left her mother's house with a friend,
James Gordon. Brenda and some news outlets say that Gordon was Amber's boyfriend
and that they left her mother's house that day in a gold Mazda. Gordon
would eventually tell police that Amber left with another male friend. Ronald and Zuriaga,
also known as California and Ronald and Zuriaga, had quite the troubled past.
Ronald and Zuriaga was thirty nine years old when Amber went missing. How
he knew Amber or why he was spending his time with a team age girl
is unclear, but and Zuriaga had been in prison in Tennessee from nineteen ninety
two through nineteen ninety eight for the rape of an adult female. While looking
for Amber, authorities eventually located in Zuriaga in a federal prison in Alabama,
and Zuriaga would eventually tell investigators that it was with Amber on the day of
her disappearance. She purchased hair dye and then he dropped her off at a
garage in Columbia, Tennessee, and a news report states that Amber was last
seen visiting friends at a construction company's office. That same report says that the
Sheriff's department used cadaver dogs to search this area in twenty seventeen, but nothing
of note was ever found. Amber was originally thought to have been a runaway.
There was no evidence that she had been taken against her will or that
she had been harmed. Despite her affiliate yation within, Zuriaga and one of
her sisters had been holding out hope that this was true, telling the press,
we all thought she would show back up when she turned eighteen, let
us know that she was okay, but that never happened. Police justified their
assumption that Amber was a runaway by stating that Amber had run away before,
missed school often was involved with drugs, and hung around with older men.
Even Brenda told the press in two ten, at first I thought she just
ran away, but I don't think that now. Amber's mother, Trudy Kate's
Currington, has never believed that Amber ran away. She was close with her
daughter and says Amber would never have left without getting in touch. It's rather
alarming that a missing teenage girl could be so easily dismissed by authorities simply for
being involved with drugs, hanging around older men. Basically, what they're saying
is Amber placed herself in harm's way so we won't be going out of our
way to look for her. And while local investigators believed that Amber was a
runaway following her disappearance, her social Security number went unused, there was no
activity on her cell phone, and there were no driving in fractions listed on
her record. And yet it took several years with no sign of Amber before
authorities finally took her disappearance seriously. In around two thousand and ten, six
years after Amber disappeared, the FBI became involved and partnered with the Morey County
Sheriff's Department on Amber's case. They put up a billboard soliciting information on Amber's
disappearance in Morey County. They took DNA samples from Amber's hairbrush as wells from
Amber's mother, which are now on file and can be used for comparison,
and they put together a reward of twenty five thousand dollars for information on the
case. A search of Duck River between the Carpenter and Riverside bridges was planned
in two thousand and ten. Brenda said that two of her family members had
eerie feelings whenever they went over those bridges, and so she wanted them searched
for peace of mind. A nonprofit dive team offered to aid in the search.
We couldn't find any updates on whether that search ever took place or what
was found. This show is sponsored by Better Help, and speaking of Better
Help, I always feel my best after my sessions with Jane, after talking
through your feelings, your anxieties, and your obstacles each week, there's this
amazing clarity and drive, and it's my favorite way to head out into the
world and get stuff done while feeling my absolute best. Working with a therapist
can help get you closer to the best version of you, and when you
feel empowered you're more prepared to take in everything and anything that life has to
throw at you, which can be a lot. If you're thinking of giving
therapy a try, better Help is a really good option. It's convenient,
it's flexible, it's affordable, and it's entirely online, which I love.
Right now, I'm seeing my Better Help therapist Jane, just once a month,
and I really appreciate that. Better Help has given me a variety of
plans to accommodate my therapy needs. So whether you want to meet with your
therapist weekly or monthly, Better Help will have a plan for you. If
you want to live a more empowered life, therapy can get you there.
Visit betterhelp dot com slash tcb today to get ten percent off your first month.
That's better help help dot com slash tcb. Despite Amber being seen with
a convicted sex offender shortly before her disappearance, the majority of public scrutiny has
been placed on her mother, Trudy. In twenty fourteen, a petition titled
give the Missing teen Amber Elizabeth Kate's mother a lie detector test, requestion her,
maybe hand this over to a bigger department if necessary, was started on
the website change dot org. The body of the petition reads Amber has been
missing for ten years, and our community feels that maybe the mother knows a
little more. She doesn't talk to the media and doesn't attend the candlelight prayer
vigils. We are not saying that she is involved by any means. We
just want her requestioned, maybe some fresh set of eyes. Also, we
feel like this isn't being taken seriously and we would like something done. Please
help us. We just want answer and will not stop until she is found.
She is missed beyond words by family and friends. One of Amber's sisters
signed the petition and wrote, this is my little sister and I know her
mom knows what happened to her. The petition had just forty supporters. While
it's impossible to know why Amber's mother has distanced herself from publicity surrounding her daughter,
it is reassuring that there are people in the community who care that Amber
is missing and want to see her case resolved. But also it can't be
overstated that a loved one withdrawing from the media is not necessarily indicative of guilt.
The media can be a marauding machine and often exacerbates grief. As of
twenty eighteen, Amber's case has been in the hands of Lieutenant Jerry Williams of
the Moray County Sheriff's Office. Despite a complete lack of interest in investigating Amber's
whereabouts upon her initial disappearance, it seems as though Williams genuinely cares about solving
her case now. He says, I believe there are people that Amber stayed
with, or hung with, or so called friends that know where she's at
or what happened to her. Lieutenant Williams keeps Amber's missing poster tacked up on
the wall in his office as a constant reminder that Amber is still out there
somewhere. He is personally followed up on sightings of Amber all across the country,
from New England to southern California and even Mexico. Williams continues to be
hopeful that one day Amber might call him up and say, hey, you've
been looking for me. Amber's sister, Brenda, remains dedicated to getting answers
on what happened to her baby's sister. She says, there's times I just
want to give up, but I can't. I just keep pushing and pushing
and it gets harder. You think it be a lot easier after all this
time, but it isn't. Family and friends of Amber's hold a yearly vigil
at Morey County Park to keep Amber's memory alive. They also try to raise
money, the proceeds of which all go toward putting Amber's face on trucks,
billboards, t shirts. Every year, Morey County holds a Mule Day Parade,
which is the highlight of a multi day festival event that has evolved over
the years from a single day livestock event in market. Mule Day is the
biggest event the county holds, and in recent years Brenda has organized parade floats
to have photos of Amber as well as other missing children from Tennessee. Morey
County Sheriff Bucky Roland set in twenty sixteen. It's amazing how the family and
friends are keeping her memory alive and not letting her be forgotten. For now,
Brenda James is still asking where could Amber be, who took her,
what happened to her? When it comes to Israel Keys as possible involvement,
there are no easy answers. His calendar was blank for the entire month of
April two thousand and four. March two thousand and four is when both Brianna
Maitland and Giovanna Tyler disappeared. If Keys was searching for disappearances in Spring of
ou four, those two are the closest to Amber's disappearance that we've looked into,
and there are several April disappearances that pop up amongst the name is forty
five, albeit none in two thousand and four. Other April disappearances are Ray
Greekar Koidang Vous Shena, Ashley Kirkpatrick, Holly Bobo, and known Keys victim
Deborah Feldman. Holly Bobo is interesting because of her proximity to Amber Kates and
the similarity in the dates both girls disappeared. Holly disappeared on April thirteenth of
two thousand eleven from Darden, Tennessee, which is only about seventy five miles
from where Amber disappeared. It's pretty much a straight shot down US Route four
twelve between the two towns. Root four twelve also runs through Jackson, Tennessee,
where Bethany Markowski of the Name Is forty five, disappeared in March of
two thousand and one. As it stands we can't make a strong case for
Keys being involved in any of those Tennessee disappearances, which has led us to
believe he was looking for some other crime or abduction near or a long Route
four twelve. There's no reason, in particular to believe Amber Kates was a
Keys victim, save for her being on his computer and the possibility that she
was last seen at a construction office. It's certainly possible she is a Keys
victim, but there's no reason to think she's a probable Keys victim. Another
possibility is that Amber is alive and well and doesn't want to be found.
However, nobody who knows her actually believes this. Amber's family has long since
accepted that she is most likely no longer alive. With the precious little information
we do have on Amber's case, it seems like she spent time with dangerous
people like sex offender Ronald and Zurriaga. The initial attitude regarding her disappearance was
that Amber acted like an adult, so the authorities treated her as one,
virtually ignoring her disappearance. But here's the thing. Amber wasn't an adult.
She was only sixteen. She was just a teenage girl who struggled through most
of her teenage years. She likely didn't realize the possible dangers of being alone
with her friend, thirty nine year old convicted rapist in Zuriaga. She likely
didn't realize that men his age have no business being friends with girls her age.
It seems as though the reasons police didn't look for her are the exact
reasons they needed to be looking for her. She was a vulnerable kid who
had likely found herself in a very dangerous situation, be it with a predatory
older man, drugs, or something else entirely, and she needed help.
Unfortunately, help came looking for Amber years too late. Be here and my
shoulder, be he here in my sigh, be here in the cold night
fall, and in the more in live, be here in the art when
all the colors call, be the burning New Marie of all the songs gone.
This episode was written and researched by Shana Wilenski and produced, edited,
and hosted by me Josh Hallmark. Research resources included the Charlie Project, wukr
N dot com, Tapa Talk dot com, and the Columbia Daily Herald.
This episode included music by Pacific Northwest Open sky, Sunrise and Lowly, with
featured music by Andrew Word. All the days Army, be here to line
me of all the goodness I know, be the hearted, hold on tired,
don't let me let it go. Mm hm m m. And I
hope you never doubt it did. I am here to stay, to give
you all my love, for all my day. Be here by the fire,
be here in mynd even when the embers die, we will keep shineing
on. Be Here at my shoulder, be here in my side. Be
here when the cold and night falls, and in the morning line. Be
here in the cold, night fall and in the morning line. M hm
hm m m no