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Amber Elizabeth Kates was last seen on
April eleventh of two thousand and four in

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Columbia, Tennessee. At the time
of her disappearance, she was just sixteen

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years old. She stood five foot
five inches tall and weighed about one hundred

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pounds. Amber was Caucasian, had
green eyes and long, light brown hair

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that she often dyed blonde. Amber
had a slight overbite in her two front

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teeth. Details about Amber and her
case are few and far between. Articles

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about her disappearance are generally vague.
It's hard to tell if this vagueness is

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because not much is known about her
case, if the police are holding back,

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or if the media just didn't find
a missing, troubled teenage girl all

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that interesting. Here's what we do
know about Amber and her family. Amber's

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older half sister, Brenda James,
has served as the family spokesperson in recent

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years. Brenda describes her baby sister
as funny, energetic, and a normal

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sixteen year old. Amber came from
a large, blended family, with Brenda

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and at least one other older sister
on her father's side. A family photo

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on the Bring Amber Elizabeth Kates home
Facebook page shows Amber as a baby with

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two brothers who looked to be only
a few years older than her. Brenda

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says that before their father passed away, he made Brenda promise to look after

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her little sister Amber. She says
that it says if he knew his youngest

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daughter was in danger, and according
to Brenda, Amber had gotten mixed up

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in the wrong crowd and had been
drinking and occasionally doing drugs prior to her

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disappearance. Amber Elizabeth Kates was born
in spring Hill, Tennessee, but her

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family moved around often grow up.
Amber lived in several different states before eventually

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returning home to Tennessee, and in
the six months prior to her disappearance,

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Amber lived in a foster home.
It's unclear why, but about a week

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before she disappeared, her sister Brenda
gained custody of Amber, and despite her

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time in foster care and her guardianship
with Brenda, Amber did keep in touch

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with her mother. In fact,
the day that Amber disappeared, she'd left

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Brenda's home to go stay with her
mother. According to Brenda, Amber was

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just anxious that day about going to
her mom's. She left from her mom's

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house and went to town with somebody
and never came back. Where exactly Amber

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was heading following her time with her
mother is confusing. An FBI agent on

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the case stated that she was on
her way to spring break with friends and

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family, but never made it.
A detective on the case said she was

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going to spend two days with a
relative, and while it seems as though

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she was spending spring break at her
mother's house, the FBI agent working the

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case makes it sound as though she
had a destination she was headed to after

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leaving her mother's We do know that
Amber left her mother's house with a friend,

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James Gordon. Brenda and some news
outlets say that Gordon was Amber's boyfriend

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and that they left her mother's house
that day in a gold Mazda. Gordon

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would eventually tell police that Amber left
with another male friend. Ronald and Zuriaga,

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also known as California and Ronald and
Zuriaga, had quite the troubled past.

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Ronald and Zuriaga was thirty nine years
old when Amber went missing. How

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he knew Amber or why he was
spending his time with a team age girl

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is unclear, but and Zuriaga had
been in prison in Tennessee from nineteen ninety

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two through nineteen ninety eight for the
rape of an adult female. While looking

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for Amber, authorities eventually located in
Zuriaga in a federal prison in Alabama,

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and Zuriaga would eventually tell investigators that
it was with Amber on the day of

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her disappearance. She purchased hair dye
and then he dropped her off at a

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garage in Columbia, Tennessee, and
a news report states that Amber was last

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seen visiting friends at a construction company's
office. That same report says that the

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Sheriff's department used cadaver dogs to search
this area in twenty seventeen, but nothing

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of note was ever found. Amber
was originally thought to have been a runaway.

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There was no evidence that she had
been taken against her will or that

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she had been harmed. Despite her
affiliate yation within, Zuriaga and one of

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her sisters had been holding out hope
that this was true, telling the press,

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we all thought she would show back
up when she turned eighteen, let

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us know that she was okay,
but that never happened. Police justified their

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assumption that Amber was a runaway by
stating that Amber had run away before,

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missed school often was involved with drugs, and hung around with older men.

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Even Brenda told the press in two
ten, at first I thought she just

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ran away, but I don't think
that now. Amber's mother, Trudy Kate's

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Currington, has never believed that Amber
ran away. She was close with her

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daughter and says Amber would never have
left without getting in touch. It's rather

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alarming that a missing teenage girl could
be so easily dismissed by authorities simply for

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being involved with drugs, hanging around
older men. Basically, what they're saying

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is Amber placed herself in harm's way
so we won't be going out of our

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way to look for her. And
while local investigators believed that Amber was a

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runaway following her disappearance, her social
Security number went unused, there was no

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activity on her cell phone, and
there were no driving in fractions listed on

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her record. And yet it took
several years with no sign of Amber before

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authorities finally took her disappearance seriously.
In around two thousand and ten, six

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years after Amber disappeared, the FBI
became involved and partnered with the Morey County

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Sheriff's Department on Amber's case. They
put up a billboard soliciting information on Amber's

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disappearance in Morey County. They took
DNA samples from Amber's hairbrush as wells from

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Amber's mother, which are now on
file and can be used for comparison,

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and they put together a reward of
twenty five thousand dollars for information on the

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case. A search of Duck River
between the Carpenter and Riverside bridges was planned

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in two thousand and ten. Brenda
said that two of her family members had

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eerie feelings whenever they went over those
bridges, and so she wanted them searched

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for peace of mind. A nonprofit
dive team offered to aid in the search.

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We couldn't find any updates on whether
that search ever took place or what

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was found. This show is sponsored
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That's better help help dot com slash
tcb. Despite Amber being seen with

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a convicted sex offender shortly before her
disappearance, the majority of public scrutiny has

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been placed on her mother, Trudy. In twenty fourteen, a petition titled

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give the Missing teen Amber Elizabeth Kate's
mother a lie detector test, requestion her,

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maybe hand this over to a bigger
department if necessary, was started on

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the website change dot org. The
body of the petition reads Amber has been

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missing for ten years, and our
community feels that maybe the mother knows a

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little more. She doesn't talk to
the media and doesn't attend the candlelight prayer

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vigils. We are not saying that
she is involved by any means. We

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just want her requestioned, maybe some
fresh set of eyes. Also, we

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feel like this isn't being taken seriously
and we would like something done. Please

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help us. We just want answer
and will not stop until she is found.

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She is missed beyond words by family
and friends. One of Amber's sisters

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signed the petition and wrote, this
is my little sister and I know her

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mom knows what happened to her.
The petition had just forty supporters. While

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it's impossible to know why Amber's mother
has distanced herself from publicity surrounding her daughter,

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it is reassuring that there are people
in the community who care that Amber

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is missing and want to see her
case resolved. But also it can't be

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overstated that a loved one withdrawing from
the media is not necessarily indicative of guilt.

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The media can be a marauding machine
and often exacerbates grief. As of

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twenty eighteen, Amber's case has been
in the hands of Lieutenant Jerry Williams of

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the Moray County Sheriff's Office. Despite
a complete lack of interest in investigating Amber's

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whereabouts upon her initial disappearance, it
seems as though Williams genuinely cares about solving

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her case now. He says,
I believe there are people that Amber stayed

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with, or hung with, or
so called friends that know where she's at

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or what happened to her. Lieutenant
Williams keeps Amber's missing poster tacked up on

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the wall in his office as a
constant reminder that Amber is still out there

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somewhere. He is personally followed up
on sightings of Amber all across the country,

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from New England to southern California and
even Mexico. Williams continues to be

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hopeful that one day Amber might call
him up and say, hey, you've

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been looking for me. Amber's sister, Brenda, remains dedicated to getting answers

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on what happened to her baby's sister. She says, there's times I just

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want to give up, but I
can't. I just keep pushing and pushing

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and it gets harder. You think
it be a lot easier after all this

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time, but it isn't. Family
and friends of Amber's hold a yearly vigil

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at Morey County Park to keep Amber's
memory alive. They also try to raise

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money, the proceeds of which all
go toward putting Amber's face on trucks,

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billboards, t shirts. Every year, Morey County holds a Mule Day Parade,

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which is the highlight of a multi
day festival event that has evolved over

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the years from a single day livestock
event in market. Mule Day is the

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biggest event the county holds, and
in recent years Brenda has organized parade floats

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to have photos of Amber as well
as other missing children from Tennessee. Morey

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County Sheriff Bucky Roland set in twenty
sixteen. It's amazing how the family and

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friends are keeping her memory alive and
not letting her be forgotten. For now,

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Brenda James is still asking where could
Amber be, who took her,

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what happened to her? When it
comes to Israel Keys as possible involvement,

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there are no easy answers. His
calendar was blank for the entire month of

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April two thousand and four. March
two thousand and four is when both Brianna

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Maitland and Giovanna Tyler disappeared. If
Keys was searching for disappearances in Spring of

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ou four, those two are the
closest to Amber's disappearance that we've looked into,

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and there are several April disappearances that
pop up amongst the name is forty

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five, albeit none in two thousand
and four. Other April disappearances are Ray

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Greekar Koidang Vous Shena, Ashley Kirkpatrick, Holly Bobo, and known Keys victim

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Deborah Feldman. Holly Bobo is interesting
because of her proximity to Amber Kates and

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the similarity in the dates both girls
disappeared. Holly disappeared on April thirteenth of

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two thousand eleven from Darden, Tennessee, which is only about seventy five miles

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from where Amber disappeared. It's pretty
much a straight shot down US Route four

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twelve between the two towns. Root
four twelve also runs through Jackson, Tennessee,

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where Bethany Markowski of the Name Is
forty five, disappeared in March of

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two thousand and one. As it
stands we can't make a strong case for

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Keys being involved in any of those
Tennessee disappearances, which has led us to

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believe he was looking for some other
crime or abduction near or a long Route

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four twelve. There's no reason,
in particular to believe Amber Kates was a

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Keys victim, save for her being
on his computer and the possibility that she

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was last seen at a construction office. It's certainly possible she is a Keys

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victim, but there's no reason to
think she's a probable Keys victim. Another

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possibility is that Amber is alive and
well and doesn't want to be found.

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However, nobody who knows her actually
believes this. Amber's family has long since

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accepted that she is most likely no
longer alive. With the precious little information

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we do have on Amber's case,
it seems like she spent time with dangerous

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people like sex offender Ronald and Zurriaga. The initial attitude regarding her disappearance was

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that Amber acted like an adult,
so the authorities treated her as one,

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virtually ignoring her disappearance. But here's
the thing. Amber wasn't an adult.

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She was only sixteen. She was
just a teenage girl who struggled through most

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of her teenage years. She likely
didn't realize the possible dangers of being alone

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with her friend, thirty nine year
old convicted rapist in Zuriaga. She likely

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didn't realize that men his age have
no business being friends with girls her age.

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It seems as though the reasons police
didn't look for her are the exact

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reasons they needed to be looking for
her. She was a vulnerable kid who

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had likely found herself in a very
dangerous situation, be it with a predatory

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older man, drugs, or something
else entirely, and she needed help.

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Unfortunately, help came looking for Amber
years too late. Be here and my

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shoulder, be he here in my
sigh, be here in the cold night

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fall, and in the more in
live, be here in the art when

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all the colors call, be the
burning New Marie of all the songs gone.

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This episode was written and researched by
Shana Wilenski and produced, edited,

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00:17:30,319 --> 00:17:36,759
and hosted by me Josh Hallmark.
Research resources included the Charlie Project, wukr

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N dot com, Tapa Talk dot
com, and the Columbia Daily Herald.

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This episode included music by Pacific Northwest
Open sky, Sunrise and Lowly, with

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featured music by Andrew Word. All
the days Army, be here to line

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me of all the goodness I know, be the hearted, hold on tired,

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don't let me let it go.
Mm hm m m. And I

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hope you never doubt it did.
I am here to stay, to give

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you all my love, for all
my day. Be here by the fire,

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be here in mynd even when the
embers die, we will keep shineing

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on. Be Here at my shoulder, be here in my side. Be

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here when the cold and night falls, and in the morning line. Be

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here in the cold, night fall
and in the morning line. M hm

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hm m m no