Transcript
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The views and opinions expressed in Cold and Missing are exclusively those of the hosts.
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All parties mentioned are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
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Cold and Missing also contains adult themes and languages.
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Listener discretion is advised.
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I'm your host, Ali McLaughlin-Sulkowski.
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And I'm your co-host, Eli Sulkowski.
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And this is Cold and Missing, where we cover cold cases and missing person cases.
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Hello everyone and welcome back to Cold and Missing.
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I'm your host, Ali, and it will just be me coming to you this week.
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Eli is feeling under the weather and a little sick at the moment, so he is taking the time
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to rest, which I always encourage for him because I love him and he's my husband.
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So he's resting, but I'm here recording the podcast.
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Of course, wanted to bring you a new episode.
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We are on a missing person case this week.
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And this case is a little bit different than cases we usually cover.
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And I think that will kind of be made clear, but we'll talk about it more at the end as
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we usually do.
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But yeah, we are on episode 118.
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Today we are talking about the missing person case of James Anthony Amp Reynolds.
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And this takes place in May of 1999 in Opp, Alabama.
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But first, a little bit about James Anthony Reynolds.
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James is 28 years old in 1999.
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He is known by family and friends as Amp, a nickname given to him as a child by an uncle.
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At this point in 1999, he lives in Webb, Alabama.
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He is very close with his family.
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He lives with them and his parents say that he is in constant communication with them.
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And now a timeline of events.
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Friday, May 7, 1999.
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It's unclear if there were plans ahead of time to hang out or if plans developed naturally.
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But here is what we know.
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Six friends ultimately get together for a night out.
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Tamara Monique Ward, who is 25 years old.
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Angela Roberts Young, who is 26.
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Eula Josette Lee, who is 27.
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Lamar Stackhouse, who is 26 years old.
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And then Valerie Jones McCoy, who is 26.
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And then of course, Amp Reynolds.
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The night starts out with Tamara, Angela, Eula , and Valerie getting together at Eula’s
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apartment that evening.
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The four friends often hung out together and tonight seemed no different.
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All of the girls were young mothers, so this was a chance for them to get out and have
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a girls night.
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At around 11pm, the girls decided to head over to Lamar's house.
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It appears that part of the fun that night was Lamar showing off his brand new souped
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up 1986 Chevrolet Caprice with an upgraded stereo system.
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The car was burgundy in color and had gold rims.
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Lamar had just gotten the car a few days before.
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Amp eventually joins them shortly after the girls arrive.
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While the night appears to be gearing up, Eula’s mother Josephine Farley says that
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Eula calls her boyfriend around 11pm to say that she would be home soon.
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But the night continues and at around 11.45, Tamara calls her babysitter to say that she
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would pick her baby up in the morning.
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The babysitter said that it was no problem at all.
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Eventually, all six hop in Lamar's new car and head to the hideaway club in nearby
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Opp, Alabama.
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The group arrives at the club just shortly after 1am on what is now Saturday, May 8.
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By all accounts, the group was having a great time at the club.
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Witnesses reported that they were drinking, laughing, and dancing the night away.
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The hideaway club closes around 3am.
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The security guard at the club, who goes by the name Mr., starts moving people towards
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the door as 3am creeps closer.
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Once the club is officially closed, in the parking lot, Mr. notices Lamar, who was very
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intoxicated and rubbing the engine of his brand new car.
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Mr. says, quote, I said, you better let someone else drive that car, end quote.
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It's believed that Tamara took over driving, but this has never been fully confirmed.
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Standing just outside of the car were two guys from the club that had been chatting
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up two of the girls.
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They saw the group pile into the car and all leave the parking lot.
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Several witnesses reported that the group left around 3.15am and headed out on Highway
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331.
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It was presumed that the group was headed back to Enterprise, Alabama, where they had
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all met, but no one knows for sure where the group was ultimately headed.
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The last time any of the six are seen is as they were pulling out of the parking lot of
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the club at around 3.15am.
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The group's disappearance is noticed immediately by loved ones.
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When folks fail to return home, especially to their children, which was out of the ordinary
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and out of character for all of them to just not show up, families start to raise the alarm.
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Amp specifically was very communicative with his family.
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Even though he was nearly 30 years old, he always told his parents when he was going
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to be out of the house all night long so that way they wouldn't worry.
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The fact that he hadn't told them was strange.
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Three days after they all vanished, by May 11th, all six of them had been reported missing
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to police.
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Police get to work trying to trace the adults, and because they all lived in different parts
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of Alabama, several different police agencies are ultimately involved in the search for
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them.
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Lamar did have a cell phone at this time, which was kind of rare for 1999, but he hadn't
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used it since the day before they all went missing.
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Police start looking every route that the friends could have taken when they left the
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club to see if they had gone off the road at any point.
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But they can't find anything.
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No evidence of them or the burgundy car.
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The police ask the public for help, quote, we have flown or driven every route possible
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in South Alabama.
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All we know is they left the club shortly after 3am and then disappeared.
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They have not been heard from since and there are no new leads, end quote.
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All of the families of the vanish stress that this is out of character for all of them.
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All of them had responsibilities and they have never abandoned them before.
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And there is no reason for any of them to start now.
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On Thursday, June 3, the group has been missing for almost a month at 27 days and the police
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launched a search of what was most likely the route that the group would have taken
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that night.
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Police bring cadaver dogs in to search.
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They also bring in a team of divers to search the many rivers and creeks that cross Highway
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134 from Opp to Enterprise, which is where the group was believed to be headed.
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Searchers let the cadaver dogs go through first and then searchers follow behind to
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double check areas that the dogs were interested in and the divers begin to search waterways.
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Investigators strongly believe that a car accident is most likely the cause of the disappearance,
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quote, the most plausible theory would be an accident.
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We've got a lot of water, a lot of greenery, some embankments.
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It could have happened in such a unique way that we haven't found them yet, end quote.
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Throughout the month of June, police continue to search the roads for any sign of the group.
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Police say that every waterway has been searched that intersects with Highway 134 from Opp to
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Enterprise.
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As July rolls around and it approaches two months that the six have been missing, the
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employees of the missing begin to organize their own searches and try to gather information
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on their own.
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They start by going door to door near the club and asking folks if they had seen anything.
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At the hideaway club, flyers hang all around the outside.
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The club owner, Edward Anderson, says, quote, we also have flyers up on the inside thinking
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that might help somebody who saw them to call the police department.
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I would like to know what happened to them myself.
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It's very strange, end quote.
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Amps father, who has the same name, so James Reynolds Senior, is hopeful that more resources
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will be brought in to search for them.
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He says, quote, because at this point we are at a dead end.
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We're hoping this will turn up some sort of lead.
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If not, I'm hoping the state will send their helicopter down.
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We already have enough volunteers from the Coffey County Sheriff's Department to go
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them to go in extended area search because we don't believe the car ever made it back
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to Enterprise.
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Whatever happened, happened within a 20 mile radius, end quote.
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The families are baffled that there has been no sign and no one has come forward with information
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saying that they saw them.
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Angela's mother says, quote, we're talking about six people here.
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Even if they went somewhere, six people are not going to agree to something like that.
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If they had an accident, we should have found the car.
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And if someone is holding them for whatever reason, we want them released.
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They all came down here just to party.
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After that, it's a mystery, end quote.
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Despite the family's plea for help, still no leads come forward.
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In August of 1999, so it's been about three months now that the six have been missing,
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while there is no evidence of foul play, there is also no evidence ruling out foul
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play, according to police.
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The governor of Alabama establishes a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest
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in the event a crime has taken place in the disappearance of these six people.
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This reward does generate a lot of interest in the case and publicity, and that does get
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a new tip.
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A truck driver believes that he saw the group the night they went missing, about three hours
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after they left the club.
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So that would have been around 6 15 a.m.
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The truck driver told police he may have seen the car head west towards Andalusia.
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Police begin to focus on the roads and waterways in this direction, hoping for a sign of the
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group.
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By the end of August, police make the call to bring divers back out to search.
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The summer of 1999 had been very dry, and the water levels were a lot lower than they
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were during May and June when police first started to search.
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Police focus on different waterways based off of the tip from the trucker.
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Police do end up finding two cars in their search, but neither one of them is the one
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that they're looking for.
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In September of 1999, the governor increases the reward for information from $10,000 to
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$20,000.
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It's also around this time that the NAACP also publicly asks for the FBI to get involved
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in the case.
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The president says, quote, An investigation by the FBI is certainly warranted because
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of the circumstances surrounding this case and Alabama's history of civil rights violations,
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end quote.
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The pressure begins to build on police to provide answers in this case.
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And the decision is made to research the waterways that they searched in the beginning, trying
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to use the lower water levels to their advantage.
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With this new plan in mind, on Wednesday, September 29th, police get to work searching
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the P River that runs under Ballard's Bridge, a bridge that the group would have crossed
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if they took the most direct path home.
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Ballard's Bridge in 1999 is a dangerous spot to drive.
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The bridge is narrow, only 22 feet wide, so there is little to no room for error when
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you pass a car going the opposite way.
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For reference, the code in 1999 said that any new bridge built would have had to have
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been at least 40 feet, so almost double the size of the bridge.
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Police begin to search the P River.
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The water is only nine feet deep at this point.
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Earlier in the summer, it would have been around 17 to 18 feet.
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Within 20 minutes of searching, police find the car.
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The car was found at the bottom of the river, upside down, about 50 feet from the bridge.
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It takes investigators about three hours for them to pull the car from the river.
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When they do, they find the hood of the car was smashed and the roof was dented and caved
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in toward the front seat.
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The windshield and two windows were missing from the car.
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It's still very early in the investigation on how the car ended up in the river.
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Police do not know if the car ran off the highway before plunging into the river or
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if the car was driven down a dirt road that leads to the riverbank under the bridge and
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then driven into the water.
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Authorities do know for certain that the car did not run off the bridge.
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There had been no damage to the guardrails on either side of the bridge.
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Family had started to gather at the bridge to watch investigators as news spread that
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a car had been found.
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As those watching realize it's the missing car, emotions are high.
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It's the answer that people had expected, but that nobody wanted.
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Lamar's father is heartbroken to see his son's car pulled from the river.
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He had stood near the banks of the river just a few days after the six went missing and
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pointed out tire tracks to the police.
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Police told him the area had already been searched.
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He says, quote, I stood right there over that spot and I told police that the tire tracks
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were like four feet from the water.
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Four months later, they went to the same spot where the tracks were and found them, end
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quote.
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When the car is fully pulled from the water, police do see bodies in the car, most of them
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in the back seat.
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But due to the level of decomposition, they don't attempt to pull any bodies out at the
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scene.
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They seal the car up and send it to the Alabama Department of Forensic Science to begin the
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process of IDing the victims and completing the autopsies.
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Police do believe that all six are in the car and it's reported at that time that they
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all had been found.
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Divers will return to the river several more times to search where the vehicle had been
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found for additional evidence.
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They do find additional skeletal remains that are brought up and taken to the lab.
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In the days following, crowds gather as people watch the divers work and offer theories to
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how the car could end up there.
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A friend of the group told a reporter, quote, the whole town is saying these folks were
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dead before they got there, end quote.
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By October 1st, so it's approaching five months since they had all vanished, and police
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are working with the theory that the driver of the car had failed to negotiate a turn
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right before the bridge and ran off of the highway down a steep embankment and into the
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river, killing everyone inside.
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Inside the vehicle, police find a watch that had been stopped at 3 39, approximately 24
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minutes after they were last seen leaving the club.
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Sergeant Walter Bowers says, quote, considering the time the victims were last seen in opp,
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this would have given them approximately 20 minutes to drive from the club to where the
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crash happened.
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At this point, everything we have found is consistent with that of a traffic crash.
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We still have some questions that are unanswered.
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At this point, we are not sure exactly where the car went off the roadway, but we are believing
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this is indeed a traffic accident based on what we have gathered at the scene.
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The investigation has not been completed and we will piece together what we have to get
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a complete picture of what happened from the time they left the club up until the crash
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itself, end quote.
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Families of Valerie and Eula's loved ones questioned the crash theory.
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They started looking for the missing group at 4 30 a.m. when they failed to return from
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the club.
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Valerie's husband says, quote, when Valerie wasn't home at the time, I knew something
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was wrong.
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We were at that bridge where they found them.
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We checked the guardrails, looked for tire tracks and checked to see if there were any
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broken tree limbs leading to the river.
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We didn't see anything, end quote.
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On the evening of Monday, October 25th, almost a month after the car was found, the autopsy
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and ID process had finished.
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Investigators have never officially released a cause of death.
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They do, however, say that there were no gunshot wounds, no stab wounds and no broken bones
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on the victims.
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Investigators call the families in one by one to confirm that they were able to ID their
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loved ones and release the bodies to them for burial.
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The last one called in was Amps father.
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It's here that they reveal that there was no sign that Amp was in the car.
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They could not find any evidence of him.
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The family is shattered.
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They were in the process of making funeral arrangements and now all of that was on hold
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and they were back in limbo.
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His father says, quote, if they all left together, they should be together.
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I just want to know what happened.
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My son was strong, so maybe he got out, tried to save his friends and got swept down the
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river.
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He was the kind of person who would fight for his friends, end quote.
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Police send divers back into the river to try to find any sign of Amp or his remains.
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They're also looking for a tire and a rim that was not on the car but was not recovered
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from the river either.
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Nothing is found.
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As Amp's friends are all laid to rest, the case goes cold.
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At the one year anniversary of the friends missing, so this would be May of 2000, there
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was still no real answers in the cause of the crash.
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Families of the other victims say that they got a crash report but it didn't say anything.
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It only mentioned that the car was only going about five miles per hour when it entered
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the water.
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There is still no real progress in finding Amp.
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The Alabama Bureau of Investigation searched the river eight more times after the rest
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of the bodies were found, but they didn't end up recovering any sign of Amp.
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They did find the missing windshield of the car that was buried about eight feet deep
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in mud.
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By July of 2000, so this would be just over a year since Amp vanished, the search is officially
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called off for him.
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Police believe that his body is somewhere in the river or that it could have possibly
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been attacked by alligators.
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Police also readily admit that they do not know how the crash occurred and that they
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may never know.
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In May of 2001, so two years since Amp vanished, and a friend of his family's is a Navy reserve
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with a unit that specializes in detecting underwater mines.
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The friend thought that he and his unit could search the river for a sign of Amp.
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The ABI agrees to let the unit search the area, and within 10 minutes of being in the
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water, the team finds a black jacket embedded in the bottom of the river.
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The team works to bring the jacket up.
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They say they have a difficult time because the river bottom is hard sand.
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It would have been easier for items to sink if it was soft sand, they say.
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The ABI has the jacket sent for testing.
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However, just looking at it, no one could visually ID it as Amp's, and no one is sure
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exactly what he was wearing the night he vanished.
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But to date, there has been no updates about this jacket.
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But I believe that had they been able to confirm that this jacket belonged to Amp, he wouldn't
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be listed as a missing person.
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But that is really all we know about the disappearance of James Anthony Amp Reynolds.
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So if you know anything about Amp's disappearance in May of 1999, or his whereabouts today,
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please call Sergeant Simon Benson at 251-578-1315.
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So that is the case of James Anthony Amp Reynolds.
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And this is a case, like I mentioned at the top, that is a little bit different than ones
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we've covered in the past, and one that I kind of wrestled with if it's one I should
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cover here.
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Because it does seem like there is an answer to this case, that Amp's body got lost in
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the river somehow, whether it just got washed away, or if there was animal interference,
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that that's ultimately what happened to him.
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But then there are just some things about his story and the story of the other five
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as well that just left a lot of questions for me.
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And you know, ultimately, Amp's family would still like closure and would still like to
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be able to put him to rest.
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And I'm sure the rest of the families would also like answers in exactly what happened
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in this crash.
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The police have said that they may never know, and it seems like it's not a case that they
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are actively working or trying to get answers in.
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But I wonder if with advances in technology that we have, if this might be something they
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can look at again and look to see how this crash could have occurred.
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Why, this case just like really surprised me in a lot of ways.
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It was really surprising to hear about six missing people.
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Vanishing without a trace, that nobody would see anything.
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But then, you know, when they find the car in the river, I can kind of, you know, rationalize
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it like, okay, it was, you know, 3am in the morning, a little bit after, country roads,
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not a lot of people out at that time.
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So I guess it is possible that a car could go off the road and nobody would see or hear
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anything.
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But then just more questions started to kind of creep into my head.
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Like, what they seem to know about the crash, or what they theorize, I guess, about the
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crash.
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I don't understand how the car, for one, ends up flipped on the bottom of the river.
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Like police say it was upside down when they found it.
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So maybe like if the river current is strong enough, it could, you know, flip it as it
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was sinking.
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Like, maybe that's possible.
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But if the car only entered at five miles per hour, that doesn't seem like it's going
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to like, have the oomph, you know, the momentum behind it to kind of flip on its own accord.
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So I just like, how did it get upside down?
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Was the river that strong?
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Maybe.
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But then it sounds like family of the six were at that bridge and kind of looked for
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signs that evening, you know, within hours of what time the crash is theorized based
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off of the watch that was found, you know, in the car.
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And they're saying they didn't see any broken limbs.
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They didn't see tire tracks.
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They didn't, they didn't see any signs that a crash had occurred.
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So that was like interesting to me.
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And then, you know, the fact that that area had been searched and like police had felt
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pretty confidently that they had searched that area and it had been cleared.
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So there's just like some elements where I'm like, I don't know if that fits or this fits
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or if it all did just like work out in a very strange way where it did just really the car
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just like kind of disappeared into the river.
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It's very, it just, it leaves me with a lot of questions of how this car ended up there.
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Like, yes, they had been out at the club.
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Yes, it was late.
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Like, yes, all of them had been reported to be drinking.
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I do believe toxology reports were taken, but those results were never released to the
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public as far as I could find.
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So we don't know, you know, were they all, you know, over legal limits and drunk or,
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you know, was somebody truly sober enough to drive.
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So, you know, it's, there's a lot of questions in this case, which is ultimately why I decided
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to bring it to Cold and Missing.
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I think for missing people, there doesn't always have to be a criminal element in the
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case that sometimes folks go missing just because of horrible circumstances and they
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deserve to be covered and talked about just as much as, you know, if they're, if somebody
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disappears under suspicious circumstances.
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So ultimately I made the decision to bring it to the podcast and to you all.
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So yeah, I, I hope that this case can ultimately get answers.
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You know, maybe I don't know if there's any evidence left in this case that could be tested
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again, you know, with advances in DNA.
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Maybe now they could find traces of AMP and give his family the answers that they're looking
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for.
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It just, it seems strange to me.
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And also the fact that none of them had broken bones, like they kind of specifically mentioned
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like no broken bones.
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And to me, six people, well, five people dying in a car crash, potentially six.
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To me, it seems like broken bones would play an element in the crash at some point, but
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then again, if they entered the water at five miles per hour, would it have been a strong
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enough impact?
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And if not, how did they die?
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Just raises questions.
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And then it also appears that a lot of rumors circulated quickly in this case, which when
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police are unable to provide answers, it leaves a lot of room open for the rumor mill and
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for people to try to make sense of it on their own and maybe state things as fact that maybe
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aren't, but just lots of questions in this case.
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And I really hope we can get answers for six families.
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That's so many people that's affected.
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And a lot of them were young parents, so their children had to grow up without them and that's
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unfair and they deserve to know what took their parents away from them.
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They deserve answers in this case too, if they want them.
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So I really hope that maybe somebody can look at this case again with newer technology,
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smarter technology and really provide some answers.
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Do like crash reconstruction.
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Like I know these things are available and I don't know much about car crash or like
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physics to be frank, but hopefully we can find Amp and bring him home so that way he
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can be put to rest.
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But again, if you know anything about the disappearance of James Anthony Amp Reynolds
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in May of 1999 or his whereabouts today, please call Sergeant Simon Benson at 251-578-1315.
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Even though Eli is sick, he was still able to make the graphics for us this week.
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So if you head to our Instagram at Cold and Missing, you'll see pictures not only of Amp,
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but you'll also see pictures of all six who went missing that night with him.
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And then also a picture of the car being pulled from the river.
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So all of that will be on our Instagram at Cold and Missing.
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Also if you could take some time today to rate and review us if you haven't, I would
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appreciate it so much.
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00:28:58,400 --> 00:29:04,040
Also just as like a nerdy woo woo thing on Apple Podcast, we're like one review away
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00:29:04,040 --> 00:29:11,380
from 77 reviews, written reviews, or no, just general reviews, just general reviews, 77.
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So if you have Apple Podcast and you haven't reviewed us yet, if you could, I think it
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00:29:16,120 --> 00:29:18,520
would be so cool just to see 77.
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It's like an angel number thing and it's very woo woo, but you could totally make that happen.
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So you can rate and review us there.
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You could do it on Spotify, wherever your podcast player is.
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And you can also do it on our website at www.coldandmissing.com.
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We also have our official transcripts on there.
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So if you or a loved one is hard of hearing, you could follow along with the podcast there.
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But that is all I have for you.
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Thank you so much for listening to Cold and Missing.
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I'm your host, Allie.
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Have a good week and stay safe, y'all.
