Amy Billig (January 9, 1957 – disappeared March 5, 1974) was an American high school student who disappeared while hitchhiking to her father's art studio in Coconut Grove, Florida, on March 5, 1974, at the age of 17.
Investigators believe Amy's disappearance was involuntary and although no definitive leads as to the exact circumstances surrounding her disappearance have ever materialized, unconfirmed leads indicate she may have been abducted by a motorcycle gang (most likely the Pagans) and subsequently drugged, gang-raped and murdered.
Amy's parents continued to search for their daughter for the remainder of their lives; her mother, Susan, died in 2005 at the age of 80, having continually searched for her daughter for over 31 years. Prior to her death, Susan asked Amy's brother, Joshua, to "never give up" the search for his sister.
Despite the intense publicity surrounding Amy's disappearance and repeated efforts to locate her alive or deceased, her disappearance remains unsolved. Her case remains open, and has been described as one of Florida's most enduring missing persons cases.
Background Amy Billig was born in Oyster Bay, New York, on January 9, 1957, the first of two children born to Nathaniel Solomon and Susan ( Chern) Billig. Her father owned an art gallery, while her mother was an interior designer and art dealer. The family followed the Jewish faith.
Susan Billig had suffered four miscarriages before giving birth to Amy; she later described her only daughter as a sociable, "spiritual" teenager and a "flower child", very much "into nature". Her hobbies included playing the flute and guitar in addition to reading and writing poetry. She also trained dolphins at the Miami Seaquarium. Amy was close to her mother, who later reflected: "I would look at her and think 'What did I do to deserve such a beautiful thing?
Due to concerns regarding crime levels in New York, the Billigs relocated from New York City to Coconut Grove, Florida, in May 1969, where Nathaniel opened an art gallery and Susan pursued her professions as an art dealer and interior designer. The family resided in a middle-class household and, by the early 1970s, were active in several community cultural organizations. Both Amy and her younger brother, Joshua (born February 14, 1958), attended local private schools.
Graduation year By 1974, Amy was considering becoming an actress following her anticipated graduation from the Adelphi Academy of Coral Gables on March 31. As she did not own a car, she often hitchhiked in and around her neighborhood, although never for considerable distances. At the time of her disappearance, Amy was 17 years old, was 5 ft 5 in and weighed 110 pounds. She had wavy, mid-brown, waist-length hair, a distinctive two-inch appendectomy scar on her abdomen and possibly a tattoo.
March 5, 1974 On the afternoon of March 5, 1974, Amy returned home from school, ate a yogurt, then telephoned her father to ask if she could borrow $2 to pay for a scheduled lunch with some friends in nearby Peacock Park. Her father agreed, and Amy changed her blouse and began hitchhiking to her father's art gallery on nearby Commodore Plaza to borrow the money with view to later meeting her friends for lunch. She was observed by construction workers hitchhiking at the corner of Poinciana Street and Main Highway in Coconut Grove, close to her family home, in the early afternoon. This would prove to be the last definitive sighting of Amy, as she never arrived at her father's art gallery. At the time of her disappearance, Amy was wearing a denim miniskirt and cork platform sandals.
Disappearance By the evening of March 5, Amy's mother and brother had become concerned when she failed to return home. This concern began when Amy's friends phoned the residence to ask Susan why her daughter had failed to meet them as promised and increased to panic when Nathaniel returned home to divulge Amy had failed to appear at his workplace as promised to borrow her lunch money. A call to the local police department only earned a promise of an investigation if Amy had not returned by morning, with Detective Michael Gonzalez informing Amy's mother: "Don't panic. Call back if Amy isn't home by morning." By 6 a.m., a frantic Susan Billig had again reported her daughter missing to the Miami Police Department; on this occasion, an investigation was launched.
Investigation Law enforcement began actively investigating Amy's disappearance immediately upon receipt of Susan's March 6 phone call, with both parents—frequently assisted by family and close acquaintances—actively participating in the investigation. Routine questioning of Amy's friends and searches of locations she was known to have frequented in the immediate hours and days following her disappearance yielded no results, and as Amy had few personal possessions on her at the time of her disappearance, investigators rapidly concluded her disappearance was involuntary. Upon learning that Amy frequently hitchhiked around her neighborhood, investigators also theorized she had most likely willingly entered her abductor's (or abductors') vehicle.
The sole item of physical evidence pertaining to Amy's disappearance subsequently discovered was her Instamatic camera, which was discovered by a hitchhiking college student in an area of grass beside the Wildwood exit on Florida's Turnpike approximately 250 miles northwest of Miami on March 18. Processing of the camera film yielded nothing fruitful to the investigation as the majority of the photographs were overexposed; however, one of the photographs depicted a light-colored pickup truck parked in front of the wall of a vine-covered building. Another image depicted a white van. Investigators were unable to locate either vehicle or identify the building.
Community and family efforts In addition to conducting their own private search for Amy, Susan and Nathaniel Billig hired a private investigator; this individual was unable to develop any conclusive leads. The family also printed and distributed hundreds of missing persons posters throughout Miami-Dade County. Flyers in both English and Spanish were also distributed both door-to-door and in public locations throughout South Florida in the hope of generating leads regarding Amy's disappearance. The family maintained a vigil whereby a family member—typically Susan—remained close to the telephone should Amy or her kidnapper(s) initiate contact. Her mother also contacted the Miami Police Department almost daily to inquire as to updates and progress in the investigation in addition to holding several news conferences in the hope of maintaining public interest in her daughter's disappearance.
On March 10, five days after Amy's disappearance, the first newspaper headline regarding Amy's disappearance appeared in local periodicals; this headline revealed that both police and Amy's family suspected she had been kidnapped, possibly by members of a motorcycle gang. The same evening, a benefit concert to raise funds to search for Amy raised $850 and a fund was established at a local bank to assist in search expenses. A $1,000 reward was also offered for information as to Amy's whereabouts; this reward generated several public tips, though none of the purported sightings were confirmed.
In the weeks following Amy's disappearance, her family received $2,000 in donations for reward money from friends, neighbors and colleagues, while a music festival organized by her high school raised $1,500 to fund the family's private investigation into her disappearance. An additional $1,000 was collected from former neighbors of the Billigs in New York.
Investigative leads Both police and Susan Billig received several tips from individuals indicating that Amy had been abducted by members of either the Outlaws Motorcycle Club or the Pagan's Motorcycle Club; these rival motorcycle gangs had both traveled through the Coconut Grove area of Florida en route to an annual bike festival in Daytona on the date of Amy's disappearance, and both gangs are known to have engaged in violence and abuse against females, including abduction, rape and sex trafficking. The family and investigators alike viewed this theory as the most likely to explain Amy's involuntary disappearance.
On March 16, a telephone tip from a girl who identified herself as "Susan Johnson" claimed that Amy had been abducted by the Outlaws Motorcycle Club. Shortly thereafter, a family friend telephoned the Billig residence to inform Amy's parents he had heard from a lawyer who had previously performed legal work for the Outlaws of rumors of a teenage girl recently "taken from Miami". At Susan's behest and with the assistance of this lawyer, two members of the motorcycle gang visited the Billig household to hear her pleas for her daughter's return; one of these individuals assured Susan that if Amy was "in the Outlaw Nation, we'll return her". Days later, these individuals phoned Susan advising her to simply "forget the whole thing".
By June 1974, Susan had learned from a convenience store manager in Orlando that a young woman he positively identified as her daughter had entered his store accompanied by two bikers on several occasions to purchase vegetarian soups at a time a motorcycle gang had been in the city several weeks previous. As the fact Amy was a vegetarian had been unreleased to the media, Susan found credibility in this particular sighting that her daughter was alive and being held against her will.
Extortion attempt Sixteen days after Amy's disappearance, her family received a phone call claiming that she had been kidnapped and was being held for a $30,000 ransom. Susan borrowed the sum from friends after hearing a voice she believed to be her daughter's in a subsequent call from this individual saying, "Mama, mama, please." A rendezvous was arranged between Susan and the caller for her to deliver the money in a black attaché case at the Fontainebleau Hotel on March 22, where the caller was arrested after Susan refused to hand over the money until he could prove he had Amy.
The perpetrators of this extortion attempt proved to be 16-year-old twin brothers Charles and Lawrence Glasser, who had no involvement in Amy's disappearance. Both brothers were arrested and charged with extortion, to which they pleaded guilty. Prior to sentencing the youths, Judge William Gladstone stated the brothers had "a long way to come back from the serious delinquent and tragic events which they caused".
Shortly after the brothers' arrest, Amy's distraught mother addressed the media, stating: "Please no more crank calls like that one. I would have done anything to get [Amy] back—begged, borrowed or stolen."
Stalking campaign Within months of Amy's disappearance, the Billig family began receiving hoax phone calls from an unknown male who identified himself as "Johnson"; this individual openly and repeatedly taunted Amy's family—in particular her mother—and graphically illustrated the abuse and torment he claimed to be inflicting upon Amy. This individual also claimed that Amy had been abducted by members of an organized sex ring, was being held captive and that Susan herself was to suffer the same fate. In one phone call, Susan was told that her daughter had two weeks left to live; in another, he stated that he had cut off Amy's tongue. Shortly after Susan was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1992, she informed the caller of her diagnosis in the hope this knowledge would reach his conscience and he would cease the harassment or, if he were indeed Amy's abductor, release her; instead, the caller incorporated this knowledge into his threats and taunts. On two occasions, the caller agreed to meet with Susan at a proposed rendezvous, though the perpetrator failed to appear on both occasions.