Bad Day At Work Gets Worse

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Amanda's eyebrow ring can be seen in this picture.

Amanda Berry started working at the Burger King a few blocks from her Cleveland home because she liked having her own money. Family members say she liked to shop, and enjoyed being able to buy things for herself.

But it was as she was leaving work one evening that she mysteriously disappeared. Amanda was working a shift the evening before her seventeenth birthday, after spending the day planning her birthday party with her older sister.

Shortly after Amanda got to work, something made her upset, and she called her mother to talk about it. Her mother was able to calm her down enough to stay at work and finish her shift. When her shift was over, around 7 p.m., Amanda left the fast-food restaurant still wearing her work uniform.

When Amanda's mother called to see if she needed a ride home from work, Amanda told her she already had a ride, and that she would call her back. When Amanda hung up her cell phone, that was the last time anyone heard from her.

The Search Begins

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Investigators can find no reason to explain Amanda's disappearance.

When Amanda didn't arrive home from work at her normal time, her mother assumed that she was still upset about the events of the day, and had gone to a friend's house to calm down. But when Amanda still hadn't returned home by early the next morning, her mother became very concerned and reported her missing to the police.

Police initially had very few leads to follow. They tried to retrace the missing girl's steps, but they found nothing that gave them any clues. A tip was reported to the police that Amanda had been seen getting into a white sedan with three men, but the tip was not from a reliable source, and was never substantiated.

Authorities thought they had received their first solid lead in the case about a week later, when Amanda's mother received some interesting phone calls. The calls were from a man, who police say claimed Amanda was with him now, and that she was safe. He called two times, one right after the other, and told Amanda's mom that he was married to her daughter, but that she would see her again in a few days.

Investigators were even more intrigued by these two phone calls after they traced the calls and discovered that they had been made from Amanda's cell phone. That information led them to believe that whoever had spoken with Amanda's mother had knowledge concerning Amanda's disappearance.

Unfortunately, nothing else was ever learned about these phone calls. Agents were not able to find anything else to help them solve Amanda's case.

Are Two Disappearances Connected?

Police and FBI looked into the possibility that Gina's mysterious disappearance could be related to the disappearance of another teenage girl almost exactly a year before.

Amanda Berry was 17-years-old when she went missing, and there had been very few leads in her case. When Gina also went missing, almost exactly a year afterwards, and just a few blocks away from where Amanda vanished, officials could not ignore the fact that the cases could be related.

Although no concrete evidence has of yet been discovered to definitively link the two cases, a connection also cannot be completely ruled out. Agents say too many similarities exist that keep them from determining that the cases are unrelated. Both girls were young, attractive teenagers walking home on the same street as it began to get dark. Both girls disappeared without anyone seeing anything, and both cases have had surprisingly few promising leads.

Clues Come In But Don't Pan Out

As time continued to pass, and Amanda had been missing for more and more time, agents in Cleveland kept waiting for the one tip that could solve their case for them. But the right tip didn't come in.

At one point, officials believed they might have found Amanda, after a tip led them to a girl who looked exactly like Amanda. Unfortunately, this turned out to be just another case of mistaken identity. There was also a brief period where it was a possibility that a Jane Doe body found in California could be Amanda, but that also turned into a dead end.

Second Tragedy For Amanda's Family

Almost three years after Amanda's mysterious disappearance, tragedy struck her family once again. Amanda's mother, Louwanna, had frequently been ill following her daughter's disappearance. Not knowing what had happened to her daughter wore heavily on her. In March 2006, Louwanna passed away from heart failure.

Amanda's family was devastated once again. It was even more heart-breaking that Louwanna died without ever knowing what happened to her daughter.

Will New Picture Bring New Leads?

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This age-progressed photograph by the FBI shows what Amanda might look like at age 21.

Shortly after the fourth anniversary of Amanda's disappearance, the FBI released an age-progressed photograph showing what Amanda might look like at the age of 21. The picture was heavily circulated in the Cleveland area, hoping to grab somebody's attention.

Agents are hoping that the presence of the picture in the national media could be the key to receiving some new information about Amanda's disappearance, and hopefully some clues as to where she is now.

Associated Persons:

Gina DeJesus
Gina went missing blocks away from where Amanda went missing, one year later.
Missing Child
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Television Airings:

• »March 25, 2006
• »April 2, 2005