Amy Billig

* Living photo
* Age progressed

**Amy Billig** was a teenager who vanished while hitchhiking in 1974.

## Background

Amy was described as a "flower child" who was very spiritual and social and a well-adjusted teenager. She liked playing the flute and guitar and was an avid reader and writer of poetry. She was considering becoming an actress at the time of her disappearance, and she was known to hitchhike around her neighborhood.

## Case

### Disappearance

Amy was last seen hitchhiking on Main Highway in Coconut Grove, Florida, on March 5, 1974. She was going to her father's office to borrow money from him, which she planned to use to meet friends later in the day. Amy never arrived at her destination, and her friends never saw her that evening. She has not been seen or heard from since.

Amy's camera was found at the Wildwood exit on Florida's Turnpike shortly after her disappearance. It was turned in by a man who had heard of her case. It is unknown if Amy had the camera at the time of her disappearance or if she could have lost it sometime beforehand.  The film was developed, but no clues were gained from it. However, most of the photographs were overexposed.

Another strange occurrence that happened after Amy vanished was that 16-year-old twins Larry and Charles Glasser called her family, claiming to have abducted her. They demanded $30,000 in ransom money. However, it was found that the brothers had lied and were not involved in Amy's disappearance. They were charged with extortion for their actions.

### Susan’s investigation

Amy's mother, Susan Billig, personally investigated her daughter's case in addition to law enforcement searching for Amy. Susan soon began receiving tips from numerous individuals who claimed that Amy had been abducted by members of the Outlaws or the Pagans, motorcycle gangs that were known to travel in the Coconut Grove area. Some people claimed that Amy was alive, and others maintained she had been killed. Susan travelled across the United States and even as far as Great Britain to follow up on these leads but never found Amy.

Paul Branch, a member of the Pagans, initially told Susan in the late 1970s that Amy was alive and being held by the Pagans. However, according to Branch's widow, he recanted this statement on his deathbed in the late 1990s. He then changed his story and claimed that Amy had attended a party thrown by Pagans in Florida on the night of her disappearance and died of a drug overdose. Her body was subsequently taken to the Florida Everglades by gang members and tossed to the alligators.

Shortly after her daughter's disappearance, Susan began receiving phone calls from a man who told her that members of a sex ring abducted Amy and was being held captive. These calls continued until the FBI managed to track the man's cell phone in 1995. Before this point, he had always used pay phones. He was identified as Henry Johnson Blair, an employee of the US Customs Department. He was sentenced to two and a half years for harassment, and Susan settled a lawsuit against him for five million dollars.

Blairs claims that he had never met Amy, and he harassed her mother because he had alcoholism and OCD. However, Amy's journal discussed the possibility of running away to South America with a man called Hank. Blair's nickname was Hank, and he had to relocate to South America for his work around the time these entries were made. A photo of Amy's camera also showed a white van that resembled Blair's vehicle at the time.

### Media coverage

In 1998, the A & E Network aired a documentary on Amy's disappearance that focused on Susan's search for her daughter and showed her meeting with Branch's widow. Afterwards, she expressed that she believed what she was told. However, authorities have since expressed concern that the widow may have been lying to make a financial gain from Amy's case.

Both of Amy's parents are now deceased; her father died of cancer in the 1990s, and her mother passed away in 2005. In 2001, Susan co-authored a book on her daughter's disappearance with Greg Aunapu.

## Characteristics

* Wavy brown hair.
* Brown eyes.
* Two-inch appendectomy scar on the abdomen.
* An unspecified tattoo.
* Had a significant amount of dental work done.
* High-stepping gait.
* May use the aliases Little Bits, Mellow Cheryl, Mute and Sunshine.

## Clothing and accessories

* A demin miniskirt.
* Cork platform sandals.

## Sources

* Amy Billig at the *Charley Project*
* Amy Billig at *NamUs*
* Amy Billig at *NCMEC*
* Amy Billig at the *Doe Network*