Amy Billig

Amy Billig with her mother, Susan

Real Name: Amy Billig
Nicknames: Last name sometimes misspelled "Billing"
Location: Coconut Grove, Florida
Date: March 5, 1974

Bio

Occupation: High School Student
Date of Birth: January 9, 1957
Height: 5' 5"
Weight: 110 lbs.
Marital Status: Single
Characteristics: Brown hair, brown eyes, possible tattoo.

Case

Details: At around 12 pm on March 5, 1974, seventeen-year-old Amy Billig came home from school for lunch. She planned to go out with friends later and called her father Ned, asking to borrow some money. She vanished while hitchhiking to her father's office. A few days later, sixteen-year-old twins Charles and Larry Glasser claimed to have kidnapped her and asked for a $30,000 ransom, but the police discovered this was a ruse and arrested them for extortion.
Investigators interviewed her family, friends, and neighbors, but could find no trace of her. They did not think that she vanished voluntarily. Shortly after Amy vanished, her camera was found at the Wildwood exit on the Florida Turnpike and surrendered to the police. Many of its photos were overexposed, and the few decent ones had no further clue to her whereabouts.
Twelve days later, her mother, Susan, received tips that Amy might have been kidnapped by a motorcycle gang called "The Outlaws' and taken cross-country. She learned that a chapter of the Outlaws had come through Coconut Grove at the time of Amy's disappearance.
A family friend who had done legal work for the Outlaws arranged a meeting between Susan, Ned, and two of the gang members. Although the men claimed to have not seen Amy personally, they confirmed that other gang members have kidnapped and sold young women in the past. Surprisingly, some women (called "old ladies") would be sold merely for a credit card or a bike. The men promised to ask other members about Amy, but they never were able to provide any information. Susan soon heard from a woman named Gina Andrew who had been abducted by a biker gang at the age of twelve; she escaped five years later. She claimed that she had been sold for money, motorcycles, and even leather chaps.
Three months after Amy's disappearance, Susan tracked the Outlaws to Orlando, 160 miles away. She questioned dozens of people in the area. A convenience store manager remembered seeing Amy being escorted by at least two bikers. The manager remembered that she always bought vegetarian vegetable soup. This was important because Amy had been a committed vegetarian. Susan was certain that the girl was Amy.
However, a year-and-a-half would pass before Susan received another lead. On January 9, 1976, a biker named "Dave" contacted Susan after seeing a picture of Amy in the newspaper. He claimed that he had actually owned Amy at one time. He agreed to talk to her, but only at his house. He acted nervous while she was there, believing that they had been followed. When shown a clearer picture of Amy, he was certain that the girl he owned was her. He described her as quiet, like a "mute". He also described a hidden scar on her body, which Susan had never divulged publicly. This made her certain that the abducted woman was Amy.
Dave agreed to try and contact the person who he believed had Amy. A few weeks later, he contacted Susan and claimed that Amy was in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The two met in Tulsa and tried to search for her. In June of 1976, the two arrived at a tavern where Dave claimed Amy would be delivered to them. While there, a fight broke out and Dave was injured. Susan was whisked away and placed in a cab by one of the other bikers. She never saw Dave again. He did tell her attorney that Amy was in Seattle.
In November of 1977, Susan traveled to Seattle, even though she had suffered a heart attack a few months earlier. She frequented bars, tattoo parlors, and motorcycle shops. Several people recognized photographs of Amy, describing her as "always quiet" and "like mute". However, she once again could not find her daughter.
Eighteen months later, in the winter of 1979, an anonymous male caller told Susan that Amy was at a remote truck stop outside of Reno, Nevada, and that she desperately needed help. FBI agents learned that a biker gang had been at the truck stop briefly, but there was no way to verify if Amy was with them.
Years passed; then in 1992, Susan was contacted by private investigator Virginia Snyder. She and a British investigator were working on a case when they received a tip about Amy. The investigator was in a post office in Falmouth, England, when he was approached by an American biker. The biker said that he had a girl that he wanted to sell to him. He said that the girl was American, from Oyster Bay, and was "mute". The description seemed to match Amy. However, the biker left without showing a picture of the woman. Susan felt certain that the woman was her missing daughter. However, she was unable to find any trace of her. Tragically, the British investigator passed away a year later.
Virginia Snyder believes that Amy is still alive, if she was able to survive the first few years. However, investigators do not believe that she is alive after all of this time. Susan would like to know what happened to her. Sadly, her father Ned died in 1992 of lung cancer. To date, no trace of Amy has ever been found.

Age Progression of Amy Billig to 56 years old

Suspects: For years, Susan believed that a biker gang was responsible for Amy's disappearance. She followed up on hundreds of leads, which took her to various parts of the United States and even England. Unfortunately, she was never able to find Amy or the people who may have been responsible.
Following Amy's disappearance, a man named Henry Johnson Blair was identified as the source of harassing phone calls to the Billig family. An alcoholic, his obsessive-compulsive disorder caused him to harass Susan, but he later claimed to never know Amy. He was sentenced to a two-year prison term for harassment and lost a suit to Susan, who received a five-million-dollar settlement. However, he is a person of interest in the case because a white van similar to his appears in one of Amy's photos, and she describes a man named Hank who wanted to take her to South America at the same time Blair's job as a customs agent was sending him to Argentina. Officially, he has not been positively linked to her disappearance.
Extra Notes: This case originally ran on the January 26, 1994 episode. Susan Billig wrote a book called Without A Trace: The Disappearance of Amy Billig with Greg Aunapu in 2001. This case was also profiled on America’s Most Wanted.
Results: Unresolved. In a deathbed confession, a former member of the biker gang that kidnapped Amy claimed that she had been drugged, raped and killed soon after being abducted. He claimed that her body was then thrown into the Florida Everglades. Police were able to verify some details of the biker's account, but her remains have yet to be found. Sadly, Susan passed away on June 7, 2005, at the age of eighty. She had searched for Amy for over thirty-one years.
Links:

• Help Find Amy Billig on Facebook
• Amy Billig on The Charley Project
• Amy Billig on the NCMEC
• Amy Billig on the Doe Network
• The Night Caller: 21 Years of Unspeakable Grief
• Whatever Happened To Amy?
• Amy Billig on Find-a-Grave
• Susan Billig on Find-a-Grave

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