Amber-Lee Cruickshank

*This article includes content which may be disturbing to some readers, such as details of drug use. Discretion is advised.*

## Amber-Lee Cruickshank

* Living photo
* Age progressed

### Classification

Endangered missing

**Amber-Lee Rose Cruickshank** was a toddler who vanished in 1992. She is believed to have been abducted.

## Case

### Background

Amber-Lee was born in Gore, New Zealand at 2:45 P.M. on May 5, 1990. She was the second child to her mother, Nicola Cruickshank, and she had been planning to give her up for adoption during the pregnancy as she wasn’t sure if she would be able to give her the best life possible as a single mother. However, when she first saw Amber-Lee, she decided she was going to keep her.

Amber Lee was a cheerful, bubbly and vocal toddler. She enjoyed helping out in the kitchen and throwing the clothes pegs everywhere so her mother would have to pick them up before hanging up the laundry. She was a very happy child and she was very close to her older brother Harley, who she liked following around.

Nicola had a lot of personal issues, which she had been struggling with since she was in her early teens, including gang involvement and substance abuse. After giving birth to her third child, Danny, in 1992, Nicola and her partner, James Gill, decided to move away from Otautau, Southland. They sold their house and bought a house bus to live in. They also made plans for Harley to stay with a family friend so he could complete his final term of school in Otautau before moving up to join them.

### Disappearance

On Saturday, 17 October, 1992, Nicola and James said goodbye to Harley and boarded the house bus with Amber-Lee and Danny. They were planning to travel across the country, but James was hoping to visit his friend Richard Dette and his partner Belinda Sayer, who were living half an hour away in Kingston. They stopped for ice creams in Mossburn and everything seemed to be going well until a bicycle hit the back window of the bus about 15 miles outside Kingston. When they arrived, Nicola and James discovered the bike had shattered the window and covered their beds in shards of glass. They decided the best thing to do would be to stay at Richard’s house for the night to give them some time to clean the mess up.

Richard’s house was located by the shore of Lake Wakatipu and there were several people out boating that day. Due to the good weather, Richard decided to have a barbecue with about ten people, all of whom Nicola and Richard were familiar with. Nicola changed Amber-Lee and Danny, who had been napping during the drive, and took Amber-Lee out to the lake for a swim. However, she quickly realized Amber-Lee didn’t want to go in the water because it was too cold and they decided to spend time on one of the boats instead.

Later that day, James and Richard went out to clean up the bus while Nicola went out to the back of the house to extract opium from some poppies Richard and Belinda had been growing. Belinda was supposed to be keeping an eye on Amber-Lee, but she assumed James and Richard were keeping an eye on her, so she went inside to take a shower. Afterwards, she drove to a friend's house on Kent Street. When she returned 20 minutes later, she noticed Amber-Lee was gone. Around half an hour after Amber-Lee was last seen, James went out to see how Nicola was doing. She explained she wasn’t comfortable getting drugs and asked him where the children were. James knew Danny was in bed, but he wasn’t sure where Amber-Lee was, although he thought she might have been watching TV. Nicola went to check on Amber-Lee but found she wasn’t in the living room or in her bed. She then began calling her name and when she didn’t respond, she began knocking door to door, hoping to find Amber.

Neighbors quickly formed a search party and began to scour the local area. Nicola called the police at 9:12 P.M, however, there wasn’t much that could be done immediately because night had fallen and the search was called off until 8:00 A.M. the next morning. In the following days, over 100 people took part in the searches, including kayakers and divers. Tracking dogs and a helicopter were also brought in. The initial search for Amber-Lee was called off on 19 October, but James and Nicola continued searching for her until December.

Police dive teams searched Lake Wakatipu twice. First in the days after Amber-Lee vanished and then again around a month later when the water was less murky. Due to favorable conditions, the divers were able to search out to a distance of 80m from the shore and they had visibility of up to 10m, allowing them to get a clear view of the lake floor. A man who was fishing in Lake Wakatipu close to the shore on 17 October spoke to the police and told them he was confident that if someone had fallen into the lake that night, he would have seen them. Amber was also known to dislike water, so it is unlikely she would have deliberately decided to go into the lake for a swim.

The investigation into Amber-Lee’s disappearance was named Operation Oliver. From an early stage, the police suspected Amber-Lee was abducted. Detective Sargent John Kean has stated that everyone who was known to be at the house that day is considered a person of interest, but that he is confident that Nicola and James had nothing to do with her disappearance He has also stated that there is still a real but remote chance that she did wander off and get lost. The area Amber-Lee vanished from had lots of holes and overgrown bushes, so despite the thorough searching, there is a slim possibility she could have been missed. Law enforcement has dismissed theories that she was abducted by someone who knew Nicola and James as retribution for them stealing drugs, or that she was killed in a hit-and-run accident, as there is no evidence supporting them.

Multiple people have come forward over the years claiming to be Amber-Lee, but they have all been ruled out through DNA testing. At one point bones, which were believed to possibly belong to Amber-Lee, were found, but it was later discovered that they belonged to a sheep. People claiming to be psychics said they believed Amber-Lee was abducted and murdered by a man who knew the family and was seeking revenge over a drug-related dispute, and the police interviewed the man in question. However, Kean has stated that after looking into the claims, they found them to be implausible and that he didn’t think Nicola’s past had anything to do with her daughter’s disappearance.

In 2020, the police announced a $100,000 reward for any information leading to answers in the case. As a result, 75 new tips and pieces of information came in. One of the tips, which came from an unknown but credible source, led police to a man who had been at the house when Amber-Lee vanished. The man initially claimed he hadn’t seen Amber-Lee that day, but he later said he saw her playing with a dog in front of the bus. The information which led the police to this man was supported by an anonymous tip that the police received in 2010. The tip contained some “very brief but quite specific information”. Detective Inspector Stuart Harvey has stated that this doesn’t mean the man abducted Amber-Lee, but that they would like to speak to him, or anyone he told about what happened that day. Their main focus is also on finding the anonymous tipster, not the man himself.

Nicola has stated she didn’t think any of the people living in the house when Amber-Lee vanished were involved in her disappearance but she didn’t know about anyone else who was in the area at the time.

Nicola and James had a plaque erected in Amber’s memory not far from where she went missing. They also held a memorial service and planted a tree for her.

## Characteristics

* Blonde hair.
* Blue eyes.

## Clothing and accessories

* A pink T-shirt.
* A white knitted jersey.
* Grey track pants.
* Blue sneakers.

## Gallery

Clothing similar to what Amber-Lee was last seen wearing.
## Sources

* New Zealand Police
* *New Zealand Herald*
* *Stuff.co.nz:*
* Article #1
* Article #2