Probation officer gives office BJ to boot-camp teen
Amber Graham, 14, Missing in Georgia: Foul Play or is She a Runaway?
Friday, March 5, 2010 at 3:21 pm
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| Amber's friends and their parents are lawyering up, and no one seems willing to cooperate with police |
But when mom checked again at 2 a.m., Amber was gone and a window was open.
According to police, she called her 16-year-old boyfriend the next morning. They spoke for about 10 minutes. The boy's family let detectives search their house. But when they found weed in the attic, the boyfriend and his mother lawyered up and stopped talking to the cops.
"We believe he knows more than he is telling us," Aragon Police Captain Dwayne Alexander told Fox News.
Police last picked up a trace of Amber's cell phone two days later. Since then, no one's seen her, nor has she seemed to have been in contact with anyone -- at least anyone willing to tell police.
The cops say she has a history of running away. But family friend Ruthann Battles Dabbs disputes that, contending that Amber once bolted, but left a note saying where she would be.
Both mom and police believe friends know something about her disappearance, but are clamming up. Mom says that when police searched the home of Amber's former boyfriend, he and his mom lawyered up as well.
The longer she's gone, the more Dabbs worries. It's not like the 9th grader is prepared to take on the world. She's a smalltown girl who's a wee 5-feet-tall and weighs just 90 pounds.
UPDATE: Amber Graham was found hiding behind a wall at her boyfriend's house.
Police previously believed the boy and his mother were withholding information, and it turns out they were right. Amber was found hiding behind a wall in their home. There are no details yet on how she remained hidden. Police had searched the house multiple times before.
But what we are sure of is that the boy and his mom are in a heap of trouble. He's been taken into juvenile custody. Stacy Dukes, the mom, is jailed on charges of obstruction of law enforcement and interference with custody.
UPDATE II: Stacie Fennell had a hidden compartment in her home that allowed Amber to avoid previous police searches.
The compartment could be accessed through her boyfriend's bedroom, so Amber could hide unnoticed when police arrived. But a tipster -- apparently someone who knew the boy -- called to tell police about the hiding place.
Detectives got another search warrant and this time were quick enough to catch her. They found Amber in the bedroom before she could hide.
Captain Dwayne Alexander says she was a willing runaway, but seemed somewhat relieved when she was caught. There had been no argument that led to her flight, and he says Amber comes from a good family with no outward problems.
But Stacie Fennell has problems. Not only was she housing a runaway, but she appears to be an animal hoarder as well. Eighteen cats and three dogs were also taken from her home.
Tags: Georgia, Gooberville
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