www.justiceforchandra.com

[gozgals]

Few clues in Amanda Jones case
By Tim Rowden
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
08/13/2006

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/E8611BA725442E11862571CA0012FF0A?OpenDocument




A year ago Amanda Jones kissed her daughter and parents goodbye after attending a Sunday church service in Festus and drove off to meet with the man she believed was the father of her unborn child.

She was nine months pregnant and was supposed to be home in a couple of hours.

She never returned.

Today marks the one-year anniversary of the Pevely woman's disappearance, a case that grabbed the attention of local and national media last summer and a case that continues to frustrate police.

Friends and family will hold a memorial service today at 6 p.m. at Calvary Assembly of God Church, 1650 Calvary Church Road in Festus. Her mother, Bertha Propst, says they will release purple balloons - purple because that was her daughter's favorite color.

Police still don't have any solid clues in their search for Jones, who disappeared only days before she was due to deliver her second child, a son. Jones was 26, a divorced mother of a 4-year-old girl, who now lives with her father in St. Louis, and worked as a loan administrator at Eagle Bank in Festus.

She had gone to the Hillsboro Civic Center to meet with Bryan Lee Westfall.

Police found her unlocked car on the Civic Center parking lot but said it offered no clues.

Authorities initially described Westfall, 36, a farmer and former instructor at Jefferson College in Hillsboro, as "a person of interest" in the case. They now say they have neither identified nor eliminated anyone as a suspect. Westfall has told police that Jones was alive and well when he left her at the Civic Center.

Investigators searched Westfall's home and property near Hillsboro last year but found nothing linking him to Jones' disappearance.

For Jones' parents, Bertha and Hubert Propst, of Festus, the lack of progress in the case and the frustration of not knowing what happened has deepened the pain of their loss.

"It's the worst thing I've ever had to go through," Bertha Propst said. "I can't even work. I break out in tears at any moment. I see a baby or a little girl and it just brings back everything."

Reluctantly, the Propsts recently sold their daughter's car, and mobile home in Pevely.

"It was like giving up," Bertha Propst. "We haven't given up, but it sure felt that way. I'm always going to have that hope that she's out there alive, but as time goes on it kind of makes that dwindle."

Before she disappeared, Jones had decorated a bedroom in the home in a teddy bear-and-ocean theme for the son she planned to name Hayden Lucas.

She had filled a dresser and closet with baby clothes and stocked up on diapers.

Then she was gone.

Propst said his daughter was very trusting. "She always gave everybody the benefit of the doubt. I wish she wasn't so trusting, I guess. I've just turned the opposite right now. I don't trust anybody."

Propst says her family has received a variety of calls and letters from anonymous tipsters, some of them from prison, who claim to know something but don't want to talk to the police.

Someone knows what happened, Propst said. "All I can pray for is the guilt is going to get to them someday."

Lt. Tommy Wright, chief of detectives for the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office, says investigators have followed hundreds of leads, including a recent tip from a psychic that led police to search a lake and quarry near Hillsboro.

They didn't find anything.

"At this point, we're not eliminating any sources of information," Wright said. "We have no choice. This is a big puzzle and we're still looking for the pieces to put it together."

Police have to take every tip seriously, Wright said, because they don't know where the missing piece will be found

What will it take to give investigators a break in the case? "It's going to be someone that knows what happened coming forward," Wright said. "It's not a recent incident. It didn't happen yesterday. We've tried conventional methods. We've utilized unconventional methods. Anybody that's got any information, we'll take it. We want to find her and bring her home."

A $100,000 reward is offered for information leading to an arrest and conviction in Jones' disappearance. Anyone with information can all the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office at 636-797-5515.

[rd]

Thanks for the update, goz. For more background on Amanda, see Missing Pregnant Woman- Amanda Jones.

[peripeteia]

Thanks for the update gg....I'd completely forgotten about this poor woman and a year later nothing....

Strange that Amanda's cell phone conversations did not lead to anything sustaintial by law enforcement regarding possible suspects or leads...

The more one weighs out what evidence there is, the more suspicious Westfall becomes, as nothing else has turned up after a year. There is no mention of the search of the former husband's property...house, tearing his life apart, no mention of a refusal also. The parents of Amanda are not satisfied with Westfalls two different versions of when he last talked to Amanda.

I still am curious of how he telephoned out of the blue...very odd, that he suddenly contacted Amanda 8 months later.....cell phone conversations from Amanda's phone and her place of work might indicate whether or not she contacted him first, also a search of his phone records re: the same... Also, it is mentioned that Amanda was seeing him to see if he had changed his mind about the baby, (read this in the case information in the other file on Amanda just now) this implies that he already knew about the baby, how is this so....unless, already in December Amanda advised him of the pregnancy, as if the baby was due August 22 the conception date would have been in November, this I know as my Birthday is this exact date...I was conceived in November....

A question too, how come the FBI got involved if it is felt that Amanda walked away from her life? Curious that they would get involved if thereis no evidence leading to foul play?

Odd too how Westfall lawyered up immediately, although it is reported that he agreed to cooperate and have his property searched. I wonder though at the wisdom of such a move, I'd have never lawyered up, if someone I knew went missing, and I was the last person to see them, unless of course I'd reason to fear that I might be a suspect, which would never enter my mind...I would expect a grilling by police of course if I was the last person to see the vanished person alive....

My gut feeling is that Westfall wanted nothing to do with the child or Amanda, and that he broke off the relationship when she became pregnant, and that he was fearful he'd have to pay child support.
My guess is that he got rid of Amanda before she had the child, and actually with malice of forthought planned her murder, staged a disappearance with witnesses around. What would have been so compelling that he left the horse show at 2pm? Did he return to the horse show? Where was he that he was phoning Amanda later?

Searching for a body on two farms would be a horrific challenge...particular if there was crop production on these farms such as vegetables.. anything where the earth would be unturned....


It is interesting to note that Westfall is no longer lecturing re: at the college, as in one article it states the former employee of a college where he taught computer science.

My opinions are not the responsibility of the owner of this site...these are my personal views based on the information at hand...
_________________
A vision sent me on the path of seeking justice for Chandra, nothing I've seen in print to date has diminished the vividness but only served to reaffirm the validity of this vision.

[gozgals]

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/jeffersoncounty/story/ED4AB76FD36F42D9862572B600100FF1?OpenDocument


Police, family turn to Internet in search of missing woman
By Christine Byers
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
04/07/2007

DE SOTO — Hubert and Bertha Propst looked at each other, looked at the floor and finally at their hands as they searched for the words to describe what their life has been like since their daughter, Amanda Jones, vanished nearly two years ago.

"It's kind of like a plague has come over us," said Hubert Propst, 60, as he raised his head.

It has afflicted their minds and bodies. Invaded their faith in people. Eroded their family relationships.

But the Propsts haven't given in to hopelessness.

That's why they, along with the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office, are trying a new way to prompt anyone who has information about their daughter to come forward. They have created a page, "Finding Amanda Jones," on the popular website www.myspace.com hoping someone may post the clues police need to bring Jones home.

On Aug. 14, 2005, Jones, who was 26 and nine months pregnant, told her mother she was going to the Hillsboro Civic Center to meet Bryan Lee Westfall, the man she believed was the father of her unborn son. Westfall, a former college instructor, has denied being the father and told police he had left Jones where the two met, at the horse show grounds of the civic center.

Police found Jones' unlocked car, with her purse inside, at the civic center. No one has reported seeing Jones since, and no one has been charged in her disappearance.

"We've tried everything conventional," said Lt. Tommy Wright. "And now we're trying something unconventional. We're so close, but we lack certain pieces of the puzzle. Is this the panacea to find those missing links? I don't know. Only time will tell."

Along with providing a place to post clues with relative anonymity, the site also serves as a tribute to Jones, who was a divorced mother of a 4-year-old daughter at the time of her disappearance.

Several friends and family members, including the Propsts, already have posted messages on the site, which also keeps count of the days, the minutes and the seconds she has been missing — or for her parents, the amount of time they have been plagued with worry.

Initially, they tried to keep the mobile home in Pevely that their daughter shared with her daughter, where the child's drawings lined the walls and covered the refrigerator.

But paying two mortgages became too difficult.

The couple spent about a month last summer going through their daughter's belongings and preparing to sell her place. They kept some things — including her Herculaneum High School mug — and donated her clothes to area nonprofits. They also sold their own home, in Festus, and moved to a smaller home in De Soto.

"Every time we went there (Jones' home), I could barely walk through the door," said Bertha Propst, 51.

The stress also has taken a physical toll on the couple. A knee replacement surgery Bertha Propst had shortly after her daughter's disappearance has yet to heal properly. Hubert Propst, once an avid runner, has gained weight and is having problems with his short-term memory.

At times, he has come home to find his wife of 32 years sitting alone in the dark, "Like she's in a trance."

"It isn't like a death, because you don't know where she's at or what happened to her," Bertha Propst explained.

"And you don't want to think of her as dead," Hubert Propst added. "Just gone."

At least one aspect of moving has brought comfort to Hubert Propst. He said he no longer looked out his kitchen window and imagined his daughter's car pulling into his driveway.

They have set up a room for their granddaughter with a picture of her mother on the nightstand. The little girl they once saw as much as four times a week is now 6 and has seen her grandparents only a handful of times since her mother disappeared — a privilege the Propsts said they had to go to court to earn now that she is in her father's custody in St. Louis.

Each time the girl does come for a visit, she goes to the picture of her mother, kisses it and says, "I love you, Mommy." She named a stuffed bear her grandparents gave her Hayden — the name of the little brother she never met.

Along with their granddaughter, the Propsts have struggled to maintain the relationships they once had with other family members. Frequent family get-togethers have dwindled under the cloud of knowing someone isn't there, Hubert Propst said.

Some family members criticized Amanda Jones' sister, Carrie, for having a picture of her sister on the altar at her wedding in July and for having a moment of silence at the reception, saying it overshadowed her day as the bride.

The Propsts also are having difficulty with relationships beyond their family.

"We've become very bitter, and we don't trust anyone," Bertha Propst said as she recalled stories of people calling to offer tips that have led nowhere, including one that came from a prisoner in Jennings who claimed to know where Jones was buried.

Hubert Propst went to the jail to meet him and still wonders if there was any truth to the man's claims. And just last week, the couple met with another man who said he had pictures of Jones in a park. The images turned out not to be of her.

"When it's your daughter, you'll do anything, go anywhere to try and find her," Hubert Propst said.

Now, they hope the Internet will produce some clues.

"I hope and pray that the person who has the information will find it in their heart to bring it forward," Bertha Propst said, pausing to wipe her tears. "To help us get closure and peace back into our lives."

cbyers@post-dispatch.com | 636-500-4106


Comments: Let us pray this brings some new information to this cold case and Amanda will be found one day. Justice needs to be served for Amanda and her family.

Gozgals

[rd]

See Missing pregnant woman - Amanda Jones for more info on this tragic loss.

rd

[gozgals]

How very sad that Amanda was pregnant and is now missing for two years. As stated, the investigation is at a "standstill." All we can do at this point is remember these women and note the dates they went missing. Maybe one day there will be justice for Amanda and her body will be discovered.

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/EA839588C552EE2A86257336000E26BB?OpenDocument



<snip>
Anniversary of disappearance of Amanda Jones approaches
By Christine Byers
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
08/13/2007

DE SOTO — The family of Amanda Jones is dreading this week.

Tuesday marks the two-year anniversary of the disappearance of the 26-year-old woman. She had gone to the Hillsboro Civic Center to meet Bryan Lee Westfall, the man she believed fathered the child she was about to deliver.

"Like 9/11 is for America, that's how Aug. 14 is for us," said Carrie Johnson, 20, of Desloge, Amanda's younger sister. "Two lives were stolen that day and several lives were changed. Hearts were broken, and a lot of those hearts have not mended at all."

As for the investigation two years later, "It's at a standstill," said Sgt. Gary Higginbotham of the Jefferson County sheriff's.
<snip>