Amy Billig-Missing 39 Years

Amy Billig was 17 years old when she went missing from Coconut Grove, Florida on March 5, 1974. She came home from school, changed clothes and headed out. According to a 2013 article from MSVN.com, Amy was last seen getting into a van by the Main Highway in town to get to her father's gallery office. The tipsters insinuated that the people who picked her up were members of the Pagan motorcycle gang. She called him before hand and he agreed to lend her some money so she could hang out with her friends later that day. Amy never arrived at her father's office and she never met up with her friends that day.
Amy's camera was located at the Wildwood exit at Florida's Turnpike after Amy vanished. Most of the pictures on the camera were over exposed. It is unknown when the camera itself went missing.

After her disappearance, Amy's journal was investigated. She wrote that she considered running away to South America with a guy named Hank, which would later feed into other coincidences down the road.

Susan Billig, Amy's mother, heroically took on the search for her daughter until the day she died in 2005. She wrote a book about it called Without a Trace. In her investigation, many tips turned up, all saying that Amy was abducted by one of the motorcycle gangs that was passing through town that day. It was believed she was being held captive by The Pagans or The Outlaws. All these tips led Susan across the nation and even overseas in the search for her daughter. It always seemed she was so close, yet so far from finding Amy.

Amy was 5'5' and weighed 110 lbs. at the time of her disappearance. She had brown hair and brown eyes. Amy also has a 2-inch scar on her abdomen from an appendectomy. She also had a high stepping gait and may have a tattoo. Amy was last seen wearing cork platform sandals and a denim mini skirt. She may use the aliases Mellow Cheryl, Mute, Sunshine, or Little Bits.


Susan Billig, Amy's mother, traveled the country searching for her daughter until her death in 2008.

Now, Amy's disappearance is one that has always fascinated me. I check her case often every week. I have always pondered why it has stuck with me for years like it does, and sometimes I am still not sure. I know reading her mother's story about searching for her daughter touched me deeply. I can't get out of my head all the dead ends that woman hit, all the leads that turned into a wild goose chase all over the country...and she followed up every one of them, not matter how far away. She did her own investigation-she went to the homes of the bikers, went to their bars and even rode on the back of their bikes to their "secret" houses all in hopes of finding her daughter. The danger that cloaked all these areas was second to finding Amy. I think that is what is so inspiring, yet sad at the same time. This story is a beautiful example of a mother's love for her child, and all a mother will go through for her child.
Amy herself is also part of why this story sticks to me. She is a perfect example of a flower child. According to Without a Trace by Greg Aunapu and Susan Billig, Amy loved art and all things nature. Mosquitoes would not even bite her because she loved them too. She just had so much to give the world, so kind. Words that come to mind after reading her story to describe her are talented, compassionate, kind and beautiful. It is just so unfair, as it is in many of these cases.
The third reason I am s interested is because of all the possible theories. This is a pretty open case, meaning we have nothing that points to one theory being more probable than the others. We have the word of Paul Branch, a Pagan biker, but how legit is that? Below are four theories I have read about, and drawn up. Any four are possible-we just don't know.

The first one is a theory we all probably know. This is the theory that Amy got abducted off the streets on March 5, 1974 by bikers riding through. The tipster who claimed Amy got into a van believed the people who picked her up were part of a biker gang called the Pagans. Bikers often abducted women, who were nothing more than property. I've read about some girls being exchanged for a leather jacket. In their minds one "object" for "another". All women possessed by bikers were used as property for many harrowing things, whether it be for sex or trading. Similar to human trafficking today, girls would end up all over the country, constantly being traded from one biker to the next. Susan chased this theory down for awhile. After all, it was Biker's Week and the Pagans were coincidentally driving through when Amy vanished. They had chapters in the Miami-Dade area and the Tampa-St.Petersburg area, where they would push drugs and prostitution. Amy's mother, Susan, began to follow up all tips that Amy was abducted by bikers. She visited a little Orlando grocery store, where the clerk claimed a girl matching Amy's description kept coming in for soup. The clerk noted she was with bikers and also mentioned the girl was very quiet. From the physical description and the fact Amy was a vegetarian, Susan believed this sighting to be legit. The quiet girl with willowy dark hair being held by bikers would prove to be a consistent sighting and description, with other bikers Susan interviewed saying they called the girl "Mute" and "Mellow Cheryl" because she was so quiet-almost forcibly drugged up. 

One of the first missing persons flyer made for Amy. (Image Credit: findamybillig.webs.com)

According to Sun Sentential, in 1975, Susan would get  phone call from The Pagan's enforcer, Paul Branch, who said Amy was his "Old Lady" who lived with him in Orlando before he went to prison. He claimed she was beaten and drugged up to the point where she did not know who she was, or where she was half of the time. He claimed he lost track of her after he went to jail. For years, he gave Susan dead-end leads that lead her to Oklahoma and Seattle, Washington, where she spent her holidays with bikers in hopes of discovering Amy there, who Paul claimed was working as a prostitute. In 1998, Branch died of cancer, and his wife claimed he made a deathbed confession that Amy was drugged, raped and killed at a trailer where the Pagans were having a party. He claimed they dumped her in the Everglades. Susan never believed this confession. In fact, she never believed there was a confession. Previously, author of Without a Trace Greg Aunapu spoke to Branch's friend, Pompano Red. He said he drove Amy from Florida to Virginia, where he handed her off to another biker. He never saw her again. Susan believes this to be the truth, stating it would not make sense for him to falsely admit to driving a kidnapped 17 year-old over state lines, making this an FBI case? It is believed Amy could have ultimately ended up on the West Coast.
I agree with Susan, in the sense that I don't believe there was even a "Paul Branch Deathbed Confession". I think this was made up for money. I do wonder why Paul would continue to call Susan over the years, trying to help find Amy. Was it for the money? For the fame, to be newsworthy? I do believe their could have been truth to what Paul has said. This could have happened to Amy, but how long she could last being traded between bikers is anyone's guess. I am curious about other missing women and girls' cases involving bikers. Why haven' we heard of other Amys out there? Where they never reported missing? If this theory holds some truth, I would like to hear the story of the girls who have been in the biker trade, especially from Florida. Their accounts would shed a lot of light on this theory. Susan has said in countless newspaper interviews and in her book, that she never believed Amy was killed the night of her disappearance. She always believed Amy was kept alive for quite some time afterwards, and there is no greater connection to a child than with their mother. I would like to say I trust Susan's instincts, although it's sad to think if this is what happened to Amy, she was always just a few footprints behind her.

Amy was known for her kindness and love of nature and art. (Image Credit: z10.invisionfree.com)

Another theory is based on the most likely fake Paul Branch confession, although I have also heard that it may have not involved bikers at all. The next theory is that Amy willingly or unwillingly attended a party, where she unwillingly took drugs and overdosed. The party-goers panicked, and tossed her into the Everglades instead of getting her help. I don't know what to think about this theory. I feel this is a spin-off of the deathbed confession. From the Sun Sentential article written in 1998, I think investigators used this theory to feel like this was a done case. I was surprised when an investigator mentioned they know Amy was murdered that night, and they know this to be true. Well, in Susan's book, she mentioned the search for Amy was delayed-they could not even get fingerprints off of anything in her room because they waited to long. With that in mind, I think this may have been a scapegoat to help give closure to a case that was troubled from the start due to the delay. Cases were worked differently back then. If a teen would go missing, they would wait a day or two to see if they would come home in case they happened to be a runaway.

The next theory is centered around a man who may link back to Amy's diary. His name is Henry "Hank" J. Blair, who called Susan for decades, terrorizing her and torturing her by saying Amy was his sex slave. He would continue to taunt Susan for 21 years, until October 1995, when a phone call was traced to him. According to the New York Times, Blair was a veteran of US Customs Service, who oversaw drug interdiction between Miami and South America. He was married and had kids of his own, yet would constantly harass Susan, yet would never ask for ransom. The FBI was looking into Blair as a suspect in Amy's disappearance, but I have never heard a confirmation of him being cleared as a suspect. Sometimes I think the biker theory may have overshadowed the possibility that Blair could have taken Amy. In Amy's diary, she wrote about wanting to meet with a man named Hank who promised to take her with to South America. Hank is Blair's nickname, and he traveled to South America for his job. Is this coincidence? I don't know how Amy could have met him, or if he may have even been stalking Amy before, but this is a theory I still consider. After all, why would he continue to verbally torture Susan about Amy for 21 years? And not even demand a ransom? If money was not a motive for his actions, why did he do it? Is he mentally ill? I would like further clarification on why he did it and why he was ruled out as a suspect, or not further investigated. There is unfinished business here.

This is the book Amy's mother Susan wrote about the search for her daughter.

The last theory is one I have patched up myself. Digging through old cases week by week all from all over the country, I see patterns in some states. And Florida has a large amount of missing girls that vanished when Amy did. I have always wondered if the biker theory overshadowed other theories to the point that they weren't as thoroughly considered. Not to mention, Florida has harbored it's fair share of criminals, especially serial killers. Ted Bundy, "The Railway Killer" Angel Resendiz, "The Boxcar Serial Killer" Robert Silveria, "The Gainesville Ripper" Danny Rolling, Christopher Wilder, Otis Toole, just to name a few. And then we have Gerald Eugene Stano, a convicted serial killer who was executed in the electric chair in 1998. He has confessed to killing 41 women, some of which he never told police about. He started killing in the early '70s, late '60s in his early 20s. I read the book written on him called I Would Find a Girl Walking by Kathy Kelly and Diane Montane. All I could remember thinking was, did they check to see if this guy took Amy? Stano was a serial killer who killed all across Florida. He would often pick up girls hitch hiking or offer girls rides. Once in his car, they had no way out. Stano was obsessed with disco music, and admitted to killing one girl because she said she did not like his taste in music. Stano would continue his killing spree up to 1980, when he tried to kill a prostitute in a motel, who escaped and went to police.

Gerald Stano was a serial killer in Florida who abducted and murdered girls from the early '70s to 1980. Was he in Coconut Grove when Amy vanished? (Photo Credit: charleyproject.org)

My question is this: where was Gerald Stano on Mach 5, 1974? Stano did have a history of attending Biker's Week events held in March to scope for a victim. In 1981, police questioned Stano about an unidentified female found off I-95 in Volusia County in November 1980. Stano claimed he picked her up during Biker's Week in March off of Main Street in Daytona Beach. Amy vanished in March during Biker's Week as well in 1974. Is it possible everyone got so caught up in other theories, Amy was never considered a victim? I believe there is a possibility Amy could have been one of Stano's early victims. Stano said he would start his search for a victim by finding a girl walking. Well, Amy was a girl walking that day trying to hitch a ride.

Amy's disappearance is one that I will always carry with me. I wish there was more information to help push us down the path of one of these theories. Until then, that is all these will be: theories. The chance that Amy could still be out there somewhere is one that is undeniable. We can't cancel anything out. Please pray for Amy and all who love her. Please look at her pictures and remember her smiling face.


An age progression of Amy made July10, 2013 to represent what she may look like at 56 years old.

If anyone knows absolutely ANYTHING about Amy's disappearance, please call:

Miami Police Department 
 305-579-6530. 

Please Click Here for a 2013 Video Update of Amy's Case From Detectives.

A memorial built in Amy's favorite park by her brother, Josh Billig.

She could very well still be out there somewhere. For more pictures, please go to:

http://www.findamybillig.webs.com/

Sources:
Amy Billig

www.charleyproject.org
http://wn.wsvn.com/story/22945707/amy-billig
Without a Trace by Susan Billig and Greg Aunapu
I Would Find a Girl Walking by Katy Kelly and Diane Montane
Excerpt Link for I Would Find a Girl Walking
http://books.google.com/books?id=A6FQywvBORoC&pg=PT54&lpg=PT54&dq=gerald+stano+bikers+week&source=bl&ots=8OeCHD-fGn&sig=23nfLAHZamAYZJC9o3wzELDOQOY&hl=en&sa=X&ei=L1TwUa6kOYK9qwHX6oBA&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=gerald%20stano%20bikers%20week&f=false
NY TIMES Night Caller

http://www.nytimes.com/1995/12/03/us/the-night-caller-21-years-of-unspeakable-grief.html
Sun Sentential

http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2001-10-04/lifestyle/0110030367_1_bikers-susan-billig-cancer/2

http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1998-02-26/news/9802250754_1_confession-paul-branch-disappearance