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E192: Amanda Hughes
5.7k Plays1 year ago
Nearly 18 years ago, in early 2006, Nicholasville, Kentucky resident Amanda Lynn Hughes was reported missing. Although the vibrant and likeable Amanda had a large friend group, none of them seemed to know where she may have gone. When her remains were discovered over a year later, those questions shifted from “Where could she be?” to “Who on earth would have wanted to harm her?” The two young daughters Amanda left behind, now grown, have become advocates for find out the answer to that question. Will you help them by sharing their mother’s story?
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Transcript
Exploring Flavored Olive Oils
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Speaker
This past week, I decided to try a new recipe with my McAvoy Ranch flavored olive oil. During the summer, I am drawn to all things fruity and citrusy. I love lemon in my water, snack consistently on clementines, and the list goes on. So when I saw the recipe for a blood orange olive oil lemon curd cake on the McAvoy Ranch website, I made a beeline to the store to get the ingredients.
00:00:30
Speaker
Oh my goodness, Maggie. Chef's kiss, scrumptious. And I know it was because the olive oil itself is so delicious. It is so yummy.
The Benefits of Olive Oil
00:00:41
Speaker
McAvoy Ranch creates sustainably produced extra virgin olive oil. That's the world's best. And it comes from their Northern California ranch. The company is female founded and female led by their president, Samantha Dorsey. And I don't have to feel bad about eating my sweets.
00:00:58
Speaker
because olive oil itself has so many health benefits as an anti-inflammatory and an antioxidant. But unlike a lot of healthier desserts, desserts made with McAvoy Ranch products are also delicious. Trust me when I say this olive oil will be a game changer in your kitchen.
00:01:19
Speaker
Olive oil is actually a great substitute for butter in a lot of baking because it contains healthier fats than butter. Olive oil is also a great swap for vegetable oil because it maintains its health benefits throughout the cooking process. If you'd like to experience the healthy and tasty benefits for yourself, visit www.macavoyranch.com.
The Role of Family and Friends
00:01:41
Speaker
That's M-C-E-V-O-Y-R-A-N-C-H dot com and enter code COFFEE15 to receive 15% off your order. You will be so happy that you did. They are a company with products worth celebrating. There are so many people in our lives that end up being integral to our happiness.
00:02:05
Speaker
As adults, those people tend to be our spouse, our children, grandchildren, a best friend, and a remaining stronghold from the significant people in our childhood, our parents. When we're young, our parents, particularly, though I realize this is a bit biased, are mothers who kissed skinned knees, talk to us throughout the night after a first breakup, throw back the covers to let us climb in bed when we've had bad dreams,
00:02:35
Speaker
make our favorite meals just because it's our comfort food. It seems as though when we think of comfort and of love, the first thought for many of us is mom. When we want someone to empathize, we tell mom. When we want someone to help us make the right decisions, we go to mom. There's an unfathomable loss when the figure of mom is absent.
00:03:01
Speaker
While the loss of a mother is something that is a life expectancy as we age, my mom and my dad have both lost their mothers, my grandmothers. Growing up without a mother is something unexpected. In the United States, roughly 80% of single parent households are headed by women. Traditionally, the mom is usually present.
The Impact of Losing a Mother
00:03:26
Speaker
In an opinion piece in the New York Times,
00:03:29
Speaker
Hope Edelman wrote, quote, I can tell you, based upon personal experience and interviews with hundreds of motherless American women, that losing a mother at a young age is one of the most stressful life events a person can face. It completely rips apart the fabric of a child's life, end quote. Keeping in mind all that a mother typically represents, it's easy to understand why.
00:03:56
Speaker
There are only a few things that make the loss of a mother to a young child even more traumatic, and that is a tragic death or dealing with the unknown. Unfortunately, two young daughters, Alyssa, who was three in 2006, and Chloe, who was also just a toddler at the time, had to deal with both.
The Case of Amanda Lynn Hughes
00:04:19
Speaker
And they are still having to cope with those same wounds to this day.
00:04:25
Speaker
This is the case of Amanda Lynn Hughes.
00:05:04
Speaker
Welcome to Coffee and Cases where we like our coffee hot and our cases cold. My name is Allison Williams. And my name is Maggie Dameron. We will be telling stories each week in the hopes that someone out there with any information concerning the cases will take those tips to law enforcement. So justice and closure can be brought to these families.
00:05:23
Speaker
With each case, we encourage you to continue in the conversation on our Facebook page, Coffee and Cases podcast, because as we all know, conversation helps to keep the missing person in the public consciousness, helping keep their memories alive. So sit back, sip your coffee, and listen to what's brewing this week. So Maggie, I have to tell you, I felt a calling to cover this case.
00:05:50
Speaker
this week because I saw an update about this particular case when I was watching the local evening news. It was at the end of last year.
00:06:03
Speaker
And you know, on some of the cases that we cover on the show, I don't know if our listeners know this, but we find them and then we spend several months researching and trying to conduct interviews and making sure that we have all of the information that we need before we actually cover the case on the show.
00:06:22
Speaker
So this was one I saw on the news. It was, I think, November of last year. And this case is one that is local to us because it has connections to several counties in central Kentucky. So connection to
00:06:40
Speaker
Jessamine County, Mercer County, Fayette County, and Anderson County. So all right there in the cluster, right in the middle. But the trails of potential information in the case actually stretch into Ohio and all the way home to Mississippi.
00:07:01
Speaker
And so because of those local connections, as well as to other states where we have significant listenership, I just pray that someone with information will hear this coverage and will come forward with recalled information or with some detail that they've been holding on to for years since this case happened in 2006.
00:07:25
Speaker
And this one I feel like has been a long time coming for coffee cases. Cause we've, or I know you have been trying to kind of get the ball rolling for quite a while. Yes. And the reason why I kind of needed to wait a while is to make sure that I could get as many contacts and interviews as I could, because the problem with this particular case
00:07:51
Speaker
is that there has been so little information printed about it. I mean, less printed information than I've found on any case since the Valerie Brooks case and less even than that. Yeah. I mean, there was I think when I printed out everything I could find, it was about four pages. And that's that's not a lot because yours are usually like
00:08:19
Speaker
Hundreds. Oh, yeah. I'm normally, yes. I'm normally combing through hundreds of pages of research. And this one I had four. And so I knew I had to rely on interviewing people were associated with it. And I was even worried about covering it because I knew it could be a shorter episode than a lot that we cover. But
00:08:41
Speaker
Immediately after feeling those worries, I knew in my gut that our listeners, they believe in our mission as much as we do. And obviously that mission is to cover the lesser known cases because we care. I mean, we're not doing it because this is the popular case that everybody's going to talk about and it's going to skyrocket us to number one. I mean, we do it because it's our small part that we can do in keeping these cases alive. And we want to make sure that
00:09:12
Speaker
we are a support for the families. And I feel like we can do that when we cover cases like this one. And I know that our Sleuthhounds will also support the family by sharing about this case with other people too.
00:09:27
Speaker
And I do feel like we have such a supportive community of listeners. I don't think that people will be like, oh, this episode was 35 minutes instead of an hour. I'm done with them. I think they're going to, it'll be OK. Yes. And luckily, because there was so little printed information, I had a lot of help in gaining details to supplement the news articles by interviewing Amanda's daughter, Alyssa.
00:09:55
Speaker
getting written responses from Amanda's younger sister Chloe, so the two daughters who I mentioned in the introduction, and being able to interview the detective now in charge of the investigation, Kentucky State Police Detective Van Hoos.
Updates and Investigations
00:10:12
Speaker
So a lot of viewpoints. Yes, we do. And a lot of information. Now, like I just mentioned, I was watching the news a few months back when I saw an update story.
00:10:26
Speaker
for which a reporter from WLEX 18 News, Kristen Edwards, was interviewing Alyssa Hughes concerning her mom's case. And it was an update of the original story, which actually aired way back in 2006, when Alyssa, who was interviewed then as well, was only three years old.
00:10:48
Speaker
And 2006 seems like yesterday. I know, I know. But in the original story, a precious looking little girl is asking for help in finding her mom. Because Amanda... She's still obviously asking that question. Well, we have some more details now, but there are still a lot of questions.
00:11:13
Speaker
So before we discuss the details that we do know about the case, I want to talk a little bit about Amanda and what I was able to gather about her background and even her life at the time. Amanda Lynn Hughes was born August 31st, 1982. And in interviews with local news agencies,
00:11:37
Speaker
her parents in various places in those interviews told reporters that Amanda was the kind of person who would give anyone the shirt off of her back because she was just this caregiver at heart. I mean, she would often take care of and take in sick animals. She was always drawn to children. You know, there are some people to whom caregiving just comes naturally. Yeah. And it did for Amanda.
00:12:08
Speaker
Amanda also had this affable, likable personality. And that was a lot of the reason behind that was because she put everyone at ease when she was talking to them, usually cracking a joke. Because, you know, when somebody cracks a joke, you just feel more engaged. Yeah. And I think people who are caregivers are like that. Yeah, they know how to calm people down. Yeah.
00:12:38
Speaker
She did live at home with her parents, Dawn and Linda Hughes in Nicholasville, and had continued to do so even after giving birth to her oldest daughter, Alyssa. They actually set up a crib in Amanda's room where Alyssa slept. When I talked to Alyssa, she did say that she believes, because remember, she was three at the time, so a lot of information
00:13:06
Speaker
It's either things that she vaguely remembers or has been told about or so she said that she does believe that her grandparents and her mom, Amanda, had joint custody of her. Well, I didn't even know that was a thing. Mm hmm. Because at the time when Alyssa was born, Amanda was either 19 or 20.
00:13:36
Speaker
Okay. So she was still pretty young. And so that's what Alyssa said. She believes that they had joint custody. And because Amanda was still young, she still wanted to go out with other people her age, meaning other people who did not have children like she did.
00:14:00
Speaker
So it was often the case that Amanda's parents would care for Alyssa while Amanda was out with friends. And you know I do think that would be a really hard thing to balance at 19 or 20 being a mom but still being 19 or 20 you know.
00:14:20
Speaker
Yeah, because you're young, so you feel like you want to or deserve even, you know, to experience life. And yet you've got a lot of responsibilities. Yeah, but you're almost too young to be a grown up, but you kind of have to be a grown up because you have all those responsibilities.
00:14:41
Speaker
And it's not as though Amanda's parents, Dawn and Linda, minded caring for Alyssa because there is nothing in this world better than grandbaby snuggles.
00:14:52
Speaker
I can vouch for that firsthand. You know from experience. Yes. And when Amanda gave birth to youngest daughter Chloe, Chloe's father Brad stepped into the role of caregiver. Now I will tell you, I was not able to verify whether Chloe had been with her father from birth on or whether she had gone to live with him after Amanda went missing. Right. As I mentioned before.
00:15:23
Speaker
But either way, he did step up to be the primary caregiver for his daughter, Chloe. But more and more issues were arising related to the crowd that Amanda found herself immersed in. As you can imagine, we're talking about 19 and 20-year-olds. So they liked to party. They liked to have fun. And many were frequent drug users.
00:15:54
Speaker
At the time, Amanda didn't have the most stable employment history. She had worked in some fast food, though again, I was not able to gain any information in terms of what restaurants. I always try when I do the interviews to
00:16:14
Speaker
ask questions that would elicit details because you never know, you know, let's say she worked at Burger King. Well, maybe somebody at Burger King had overheard her say something. Right. But even the people I asked were unsure about what fast food she had worked in. But she had worked in fast food. She had also worked at a gentleman's club in Lexington, Kentucky called Camelot. But from what I could gather,
00:16:44
Speaker
It didn't seem as though either of those places that her employment was long standing. And you know, I think a lot of the time Anthony and I were actually having this conversation. I think a lot of the time we expect kids to know
00:17:02
Speaker
what they're gonna do as soon as high school is over. And that's really hard to be 18 or 19 and be like, I wanna be a doctor for the rest of my life. I wanna sell insurance for the rest of my life. I think we take for granted how difficult that decision can be to make. And it is true, especially when you're younger, the influence of the crowd
00:17:31
Speaker
within which you surround yourself, it can either boost you up and make you more successful or distract you. Yeah, almost like a make or break. And family and friends say that Amanda's crowd of acquaintances was growing larger and more rough.
00:17:55
Speaker
And even as it was growing larger, her connections with some of the people within that group were growing stronger, so much so that the people close to Amanda weren't sure how deeply her own involvement was in the group and what the group was up to, if that makes sense. So they know she's involved in this group. It's a rough group.
00:18:20
Speaker
They don't know how much she is participating in the thing. And the activities that they're doing. Right. But she was often staying out later and gone from home more often than she had been in the past.
00:18:40
Speaker
According to details I was able to gather, she was known to frequent both bars and several local gentleman's clubs. And there was some evidence of narcotics use in Amanda's past. Alyssa was, during this time, obviously more and more in the care of her grandparents.
00:19:06
Speaker
And I wish, I'm approaching this discussion delicately because I wish I didn't have to say this every time we cover a case like this one, but I do because I want to be very clear. I do not care what a victim's past is.
00:19:28
Speaker
I don't care if they experimented with drugs. I don't care if they were an addict. I don't care what their career was or if they even had a job because a victim is a victim. A life is a life. And Amanda and her family deserve justice, whether she had a past of narcotics use or not.
00:19:52
Speaker
I feel like I'm sitting in the front pew of church. Amen. I am preaching, yes. Because they deserve justice. You don't have to agree nor understand Amanda's lifestyle to recognize her worth.
00:20:08
Speaker
Right. Because her life was worth living. Exactly. And I will add that even if Amanda didn't return home for days at a time, she would, even if she were away, she would still call both her parents and Brad to check in on the girls to see how they were doing. And that was nearly everything. She was completely checked out. I mean, again, she's young.
00:20:36
Speaker
I think it's really hard to have that amount of responsibility thrown at a person and nobody knows how they're going to be in that situation unless they're in it. So we're not judging her on the past or things that have happened in her life.
00:20:51
Speaker
That's right. And despite the large group in which Amanda now found herself, there were really only a few houses at which she would normally hang
Influence of Social Circles
00:21:04
Speaker
out. So even though her group is getting larger, she still had certain people and certain places that were her safe places.
00:21:14
Speaker
where she would go. But that list of places grew one more after a new group came into town from Mississippi. In, you know, I said this case takes place in 2006. In August of 2005, category five hurricane Katrina
00:21:39
Speaker
hit New Orleans and the southeastern parishes of Louisiana. But obviously we know the devastating impacts were much broader impacting Alabama and affecting nearly two thirds of the state of Mississippi. So I think you're going to go to the same place, but I was fascinated. So when I worked at the state, my supervisor, his wife was a transplant from
00:22:08
Speaker
So she came from Louisiana and she now, they now live in central Kentucky. And I just thought that was fascinating. I mean, and sad, but you know, just the geological effect.
00:22:20
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Yeah, there was a mass exodus. I read in National Geographic that 61,613 households relocated from Orleans Parish alone. So from one parish. And that's almost 62,000 households, not individual people. So each one of those households had multiple people.
00:22:49
Speaker
And many of the residents, they fled the storm itself, so they fled before the storm hit. And of course, many residents resettled after losing all their possessions to the storm. And while a lot of Hurricane Katrina refugee population went west to Texas, others settled, like you were saying, Maggie, much further north, many of them coming to Kentucky. And at least one family of Katrina refugees who came to Kentucky
00:23:20
Speaker
and settled in Nicholasville were the Washington brothers who became part of Amanda's circle and one of whom became a person with whom Amanda was rumored to have had a romantic relationship. So that's how her her group grew even more with these hurricane Katrina refugees and her places where she would frequent grew one more as well.
00:23:50
Speaker
because one of the brothers, it was rumored she was romantically linked with. Gotcha. However, it is not believed that Amanda had a steady boyfriend. In talking with several people, I think the investigation showed that she was linked by some acquaintances to a handful of men from their social group.
00:24:15
Speaker
So not dating casually among this large social group. The last Amanda's parents heard from her was just after Valentine's Day, 2006. Amanda had called them actually to say that she bought a little something for Alyssa for the holiday and wanted to know if she could stop by to drop it off.
00:24:41
Speaker
And according to my sources, her parents had agreed for her to do so. And they said, yeah, sure, you can come on by whenever you're able. But she never showed up with a gift, nor did she call.
00:24:54
Speaker
And I didn't read anywhere why it took a little while before Amanda was reported missing, but I was able to verify my interview with Detective Van Hoos that there would be stretches of time during which Amanda didn't contact her parents, right? Like I mentioned before, come home. So that might explain the delay, but she wasn't a missing person until March, 2006. So it's a couple of weeks.
00:25:23
Speaker
So does that mean we weren't looking for her in that time period or she just hadn't been made an official missing person until March of 2006? Kind of both. So her parents are aware that the last time they hear from her is right after Valentine's Day when she makes that call and says, I have a gift. And then she doesn't show up to deliver the gift and she doesn't call.
00:25:49
Speaker
And after a couple of weeks passed by, that's when they said, OK, this is not normal. We need to file a missing persons report. And so my only guess is that because of her recent crowd of friends, her parents may have assumed, you know what, she's gotten sidetracked. You know, that's why she hasn't delivered this present. She's going to come back, you know, just give her a few days.
00:26:14
Speaker
And without the benefit of hindsight, I feel like we convince ourselves, you know, just be patient. You know, everything's gonna write itself if I just give it some time. Yeah, Anthony always says hindsight's 20-20. Yes. Yeah. But when weeks passed with no word and no visit from Amanda and most telling,
00:26:36
Speaker
no phone call from Amanda to check on the girls. That was when her parents filed a missing persons report in March 2006. But it didn't seem like initially the investigation led anywhere. I mean, either because nobody knew anything
00:26:55
Speaker
because many of them weren't willing to talk. We'll talk a little bit more about that later. Or because there was at least an initial belief from law enforcement at the time that Amanda would return home. Because after all, at this point, Alyssa's three
00:27:14
Speaker
Amanda's 23, so she is an adult. And so, you know, we've covered so many cases where the police are like, I mean, even if she lives, yeah, she'll come back. It was fairly quick, however, that police did begin to suspect foul play in Amanda's disappearance, especially when coupled with the huge red flag of not calling to check on her children,
00:27:42
Speaker
that there's the fact that nobody in her acquaintance circle, once police started investigating and asking them questions and that huge group, none of them had seen nor heard from Amanda either. Yeah, that is strange because you would think she would at least contact somebody friend group. Yeah. Yeah. And recall earlier that I said, really, there were only a few homes where she would stay and she hadn't been to any of them.
00:28:13
Speaker
So other than those select places, people didn't seem to have any further idea of where she might go either. I mean, you think of Amanda Hughes and you say, OK, well, she's at this place, this place or this place. And she's at none of them. And you think, OK, where next? And nobody had any idea. So the Hughes family were left wondering and they were left
00:28:38
Speaker
grieving. And with grief, especially of this kind of magnitude, can come disbelief and even a sense that the trauma needs to be explained. But the only explanation Amanda's family could come up with was that something had happened to Amanda as a direct result of someone from that crowd of acquaintances that she had at the time.
00:29:02
Speaker
Per the spattering of news reports from 2006 and 2007, her family was aware that Amanda, quote, liked to ride with a rough bunch of people, end quote. And her parents even speculated in one report, quote, with the crowd that she liked to run with, we thought maybe she got shipped out of the country, end quote. Wow. Okay, so that's an interesting theory. Yeah.
00:29:27
Speaker
I know, because the only thing that makes sense in terms of what they meant by that is it sounds like in their grief and their loss, her parents had this distinct fear that she may have been the victim of sex trafficking. Yeah, sex trafficking. And so I feel like what's so scary about a situation like this one is when nothing is concrete, everything is possible. And that's what's so terrifying.
00:29:55
Speaker
So their wondering of what became of their daughter lasted over a year until in October 2007, around 18 months after Amanda Hughes was last heard from, her remains were discovered not far from her hometown of Nicholasville, Kentucky. With deer season approaching, a hunter had been out looking for the perfect location to set up.
00:30:22
Speaker
when he stumbled upon skeletal remains and called law enforcement.
00:30:27
Speaker
those remains were found just off of the westbound lanes of Martha Lane Collins Bluegrass Parkway, what we locals just call the BG Parkway. Why does everything happen there? Everything? Yeah, I mean, if you think, if you guys are familiar or listeners with the Bardstown case, Jason Ellis, that happened off of an exit of the BG Parkway. So yes, this too was right off of the BG Parkway around mile marker 54 in Mercer County.
00:30:57
Speaker
And this mile marker is actually just past the Lawrenceburg exit in Anderson County on the way to Washington County. So on that. I can see how you like said, we were going to have a lot of counties involved. Yes. Yeah. So again, in Kentucky, we have a lot of counties and
00:31:15
Speaker
Sometimes you'll get like the corner of, you're at a corner and it's the corner of three different counties together. But this mile marker, it's just past the Lawrenceburg exit in Anderson County on the way to Washington County. And on that route, there's a little stretch of the BG Parkway that passes through a corner of Mercer County and it's in that small stretch where her remains were recovered.
00:31:45
Speaker
Due to exposure to the elements, we're 18 months out, and animal life, the remains were skeletonized. With the passage of time, it meant that very little physical evidence could be collected from the scene. But one thing was sure, Amanda Hughes's case went from a missing persons case to a homicide investigation.
Homicide Investigation and Theories
00:32:11
Speaker
And I feel like did we have a lot of searching for her after the missing persons report was made? I did not read much about it and so I hate to speculate.
00:32:26
Speaker
Gotcha. So I don't want to say, oh yeah, there was lots of searching if there wasn't. And I don't want to say, oh no, there wasn't any if there was. If there was. Yeah, so I don't have much information about that. What I do know is that while Detective Van Hoos was not assigned this case until many years later in 2019, and he's actually in charge of dozens of
00:32:48
Speaker
cold cases in the Commonwealth, I was able to ask him some clarifying questions, even concerning the discovery of the remains, even though that was in 2007.
00:33:02
Speaker
So I first asked him about the decomposition. And I'll kind of explain my process in thinking about these questions that I asked. But I was curious whether it was their belief that there was so little physical evidence at the scene merely because of the 18 months that it passed between. Thinking in my head, OK, well,
00:33:30
Speaker
had Amanda been killed shortly after she had gone missing. And then the body- Exactly, exactly. And so that's why there's little physical evidence or whether there was little evidence on the side of the BG Parkway because her death had occurred elsewhere and her body just brought there to dispose of it. Right, if there's not evidence of a crime scene.
00:33:58
Speaker
Yeah, that's a good point to make. Yeah, so that was my thought process in asking that question. But unfortunately, because of the time factor, he acknowledged that it was hard to tell and that either of those options could have been a possibility.
00:34:16
Speaker
So unfortunately, because of time, we don't know. And another reason I asked was because I was curious if it was his belief that her death had happened close to the time she went missing or whether it was even possible that, you know, maybe Amanda had gone off somewhere to escape her current life and that she had been killed sometime later and
00:34:43
Speaker
That curiosity was at least answered when Detective Van Hoos explained that it's believed that Amanda was killed shortly after going missing, primarily due to the facts that I mentioned earlier, that she hadn't called to check on her girls. OK, so we don't think a lot of time elapsed between talking to her parents. Right. Though it could still be the case that the
00:35:09
Speaker
the homicide happened elsewhere, which was part of my first question. So it seems that no matter what was going on in her personal social life, she would not have gone an extended period of time without calling and talking to her babies. And so that's kind of where we come to this resolution that the homicide likely happened right after she went missing.
00:35:35
Speaker
A second detail that I was curious about concerning the discovery of the remains was how far off of the road they had been located. And again, I know these sound like crazy questions. I'll explain my thought process.
00:35:49
Speaker
Maggie, do you remember in our Patreon coverage of the Carol Sue Klaber case, which was also here in Kentucky, we briefly discussed the psychology of the discarding of remains by perpetrators, like how far off of the road
00:36:07
Speaker
Because, for example, there seems a distinct difference between the choice to just leave a body on the side of the road in plain sight versus just off the side of the road versus carrying it somewhere to hide it and covering it up. So I was curious because I knew she was found alongside of the BG Parkway just how far off of the road she was found.
00:36:37
Speaker
So I asked Detective Van Hoos, and he told me that her remains were not immediately beside the road. So it didn't seem as though this were a speeding car. I just threw it out. Exactly. But she was placed over the guardrail. Oh, so you would have had to stop.
00:36:55
Speaker
Yes, and that explains why 18 months could pass and she's not discovered until the hunter. And also because on the other side of the guardrail, there was a steep embankment.
00:37:08
Speaker
So it would have been possible that even if her world, yes, had been placed just over that, yes, she could have rolled to the bottom, which obviously is where the hunter later discovered her. But regardless of the detail of how her body got there, with that discovery of her remains, her parents and friends now had to navigate a very different form of grief
00:37:36
Speaker
And if they thought they had questions before, now those questions doubled. I actually, and this is going to seem a little bit nonsensical, but bear with me. I saw a funny meme the other day on Facebook. And I know you're like, why is she bringing up a funny meme? This is a serious case. And I agree, but I saw a connection.
00:38:02
Speaker
So I'll kind of tell you about the meme, and then I'll tell you how I was thinking it connects to the seriousness of situations like this one. But it said something like, you never realize how much you distrust all of humanity until you can't find the remote. And then it was this conversation where person one says, have you seen the remote? And person two says, no. And person one says, stand up.
00:38:26
Speaker
Like you can't trust them to say no. And I know that that's a silly yet true meme, but think about how much those same feelings of distrust can be exacerbated in times like this for me and this family. Because someone knows something about what happened to their daughter, someone
00:38:48
Speaker
knows if she were in trouble or if she were scared, someone may have heard rumors or people talking about her death, and someone actually committed the murder. And knowing the statistics that we all know, because Maggie, you and I talk about them every week, that murders are almost always committed by someone who knows the victim. And knowing that no one seemed to be coming forward with information,
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Ready to combat dehydration? Try care today and feel the difference for yourself. Use code coffeeandcases for 20% off your order. One silver lining, Maggie, if there can be a silver lining in a situation like this one, because I hate to even imply that there can be any good in such times, is that Amanda's girls were so young.
00:43:29
Speaker
Amanda's oldest daughter, Alyssa, was only around three or four and Chloe was even younger. And they've been kind of sheltered, I guess. Right. I guess not understanding fully what was going on. And then couple the fact that they were too young to fully grasp what was going on with the fact that the girls were already settled into living situations with others.
00:43:53
Speaker
also gets their daily lives exactly the constant. Right. Yeah, they weren't altered as much as they otherwise would have been. Alyssa was already living with her grandparents. And, you know, after the discovery of her mother's remains, she continued to do so.
00:44:10
Speaker
and youngest daughter Chloe continue to be in the custody of her father Brad. And really Maggie, that's all we have to go on based on news reports. I mean, literally she was hanging around a large group of people. She goes missing and then the discovery of her remains 18 months later. I was
00:44:33
Speaker
though, able to speak with Detective Van Hoos about any details that he was able to add to Amanda's case file during his time investigating the case. So here are the details that by proxy I was able to add to my understanding of the case as well.
00:44:53
Speaker
Detective Van Hoos was able to locate and speak with a woman who, while long since having left this lifestyle behind, had worked at the Gentleman's Club in Lexington at the same time that Amanda did. So he finds a past co-worker. And she was able to tell Detective Van Hoos that she recalled Amanda dating a man
00:45:19
Speaker
who had come to Kentucky as a Hurricane Katrina refugee. Oh, so maybe one of those brothers. And what was interesting about the previous investigation compared to what Van Hoos was able to uncover was that initially
00:45:38
Speaker
One of the Washington brothers had been interviewed by law enforcement concerning Amanda's disappearance. His statements were taken, his description was recorded, but when Van Hoos shared the description of the Washington brother on record,
00:45:54
Speaker
That description didn't match with the description of Amanda's boyfriend that was given by the past coworker. Why? Because there were brothers, yet the only one interviewed at the time, back in 2006, made no mention of having a brother with whom he shared that apartment in Nicholasville, nor was that other brother ever interviewed in the initial investigation. Was the brother not mentioning
00:46:25
Speaker
The other an accident or purposeful though? I do not know. I do not know. The other brother is now incarcerated in Mississippi. The brother who was not interviewed at the time. So Detective Van Hoos
00:46:45
Speaker
he drove down to Mississippi to conduct an interview with that Washington brother who had never been questioned before concerning Amanda. Because they're not named persons of interest. They're not named suspects. But they are known to have been in this group
00:47:05
Speaker
with whom Amanda is hanging out. There's speculation that Amanda was romantically linked to one of the brothers. So obviously, they might have information that could lead to resolution in this case. When I asked him how the interview went, Van Hoos said that it wasn't very productive and it didn't lead to any breakthroughs in the case.
New Leads and Hopes for Closure
00:47:32
Speaker
So hearing that, obviously it led me to ask then if there were any potential theories about what had happened to Amanda or any previous theory that maybe had already been ruled out.
00:47:47
Speaker
And he told me that there were several individuals that she was known to have been in the company of in the last few months and weeks before she went missing who have been ruled out as persons of interest and that many of the men with whom she was casually dating or was potentially romantically involved with have also been ruled out as well. So like I said before, there isn't solid evidence. I know I've mentioned the Washington
00:48:17
Speaker
brothers and that's because it seems as though they could potentially have more information or someone in that group who was with them. There is not solid evidence to link the Washington brothers to Amanda's homicide either. Detective Van Hoose does wonder whether the brothers
00:48:39
Speaker
and or others from that circle like I said could know more information than what they've previously shared or even know information but not realize that they know information like maybe you think it's insignificant but there is some significance to it. Right because I feel like it would be different if she had a small group of friends but with a big group of friends you would think
00:49:04
Speaker
Maybe somebody had a feeling or maybe heard something. It's weird that nobody knows anything and it's weird. Everybody's been ruled out as a person of interest.
00:49:20
Speaker
Detective Andrews did tell me that the incarcerated Washington brother, according to statements from other people in that acquaintance group, was known to front people narcotics, Amanda included. So there are some who question, you know, might she have been indebted to him or to someone else from that group.
00:49:49
Speaker
And that's a common theory, I think, when we're covering cases with people that have backgrounds similar to Amanda's. Because you think, I mean, what motive would someone have had to harm her? And that at least gives an answer. Yeah.
00:50:04
Speaker
Others acquainted with Amanda have reached out in the years since, if not to law enforcement, at least to Amanda's daughter Alyssa, because Alyssa actually shared some screenshots with me of some of the people who have contacted her.
00:50:20
Speaker
And I reached out to them as well on Facebook. One person I reached out to, and I'm intentionally being vague here, so I'm just going to say person instead of a gender, but one person I reached out to recalled Amanda being taken to a guy's house who was here from fleeing Hurricane Katrina.
00:50:43
Speaker
who, quote, lived off maple in a nice little subdivision, end quote, and wonders now if Amanda may have held back in giving more information about that relationship because the person I contacted had called her crazy for staying with someone with whom Amanda had just met.
00:51:06
Speaker
Could there have possibly been another Hurricane Katrina refugee that Amanda was friends with or seeing that we don't know about? Potentially. Potentially. And again, just because
00:51:23
Speaker
We have someone else who's saying she was dropped off at the house of someone who had come here fleeing Hurricane Katrina. That detail doesn't in any way mean that the Washington brothers are involved in whatever happened to Amanda, but I do wonder if someone in their circle is, or at least again has that information. So
00:51:46
Speaker
It made me wonder who else might be out there who has just some small snippet of information that they might feel is inconsequential that would actually help build a trail leading to a suspect because her family, her children, they deserve that clarity. Yeah. And I mean, something as simple as this person potentially lived off Maple Street could change the case significantly. Right. Exactly.
00:52:16
Speaker
Even though the children's daily lives weren't drastically altered in terms of living situation, they were drastically altered in the way obviously that they were forced to live life without the central figure. We associate so closely with love and comfort and stability, like I mentioned in the introduction. Instead, her children, Alyssa and Chloe, have had to learn about their mom in pieces.
00:52:44
Speaker
Chloe has learned that they share a love of ramen noodles by hearing her dad say that when Amanda couldn't sleep at night, she would get up in the middle of the night to bake a bowl of ramen noodles. And that's something that Chloe could see herself doing as well. For Alyssa, it's the small stories in the moments as well, hearing that her mom's favorite color was always blue until she had a girl, Alyssa, and changed it to pink.
00:53:14
Speaker
Or asking her grandparents what her mom's favorite song was. That way she could listen to that song and feel a connection. Or it was seeing her mom's face in a photograph and turning it over to see a description of the photo scrawled in her mom's handwriting. I mean, these are pictures that Alyssa was so kind as to share with me.
00:53:38
Speaker
and that are on the cover of this episode and that we will post to our social media as well. So in situations like this one, the small things mean a lot, either in terms of information or in terms of connection. But they also learned about her death in small pieces. For Chloe, it was seeing a story in the paper that her dad had brought home.
00:54:05
Speaker
For Alyssa, it was growing up with the knowledge that her mom had passed, but only later learning how. She said she remembers friends when she was younger, asking if she could come over and saying things like, ask your mom. Oh yeah, because you don't think about that. And she remembers, right, yeah, when you're a kid. And she remembers even at a young age, responding that she couldn't because her mom was dead.
00:54:35
Speaker
And as she grew older, obviously she learned the details. And now both daughters are adamant about doing everything that they can to keep exposure on their mom's case to find out more and more until they have all the answers one day. You see Maggie, this is a case where there aren't even enough details to have a working theory. Yeah, I was going to ask. I don't know how we're going to really even discuss theories because there's not even enough
00:55:04
Speaker
information to formulate one. Exactly. Instead, this is a case of questions.
00:55:13
Speaker
In fact, I think the best analogy came from my conversation with Detective Van Hoos, who said that Amanda's investigation was like a puzzle and that when new information comes in, it's a matter of figuring out if the piece is part of the background or if it makes the image of what happened to her come more into focus. But that despite where it fits,
00:55:39
Speaker
all of the pieces are part of the overall puzzle and are therefore important. I mean, what a good analogy. Oh yeah. Thankfully, and he mentioned this, we talked about it briefly, the passage of time does have some benefits. Some of the people who were interviewed initially
00:56:03
Speaker
maybe aren't scared to talk now. Oh, that's a good point. Yes. Detective Ann, who's actually told Kristen Edwards of WLEX 18, quote, they've moved on. They've got a family of their own and they're able to talk about some of the things that they say they were afraid to speak of at the time, end quote. So there may have been past fears of retaliation,
00:56:30
Speaker
of certain individuals from within that acquaintance group, fears that, oh, they'll be able to trace that information that the police have back to me, and then I'll be in trouble. So they may have been afraid to speak at the time, but time has changed many things because some of them have moved. Some they may have been afraid of are now incarcerated, several members of that group.
00:56:59
Speaker
Some have even changed their names, but I'm also making a guilt weighing on that. Exactly. So all of those changes, I feel like, can make it easier for them to relate those details that may be, quote unquote, loyalties prevented them from sharing before.
00:57:20
Speaker
Detective Van Hoos has actually seen the benefit of the passage of time firsthand because he told me that now, years after the initial investigation into Amanda's case, much more information has come to light recently than it even did at the time, which I feel like is the opposite of a lot of the cases that we cover. Yeah.
00:57:44
Speaker
And with Detective Van who's in charge of the case, he has the personal conviction to help families find those answers. He, Maggie, has daughters of his own. And he said it's wearing on him and on law enforcement like him who take each case personally to see the grown up children of the victims in the cases in his caseload.
00:58:13
Speaker
having to navigate life without one or both parents. That's weighing on him and wearing on him. It's something unfathomable to him when he thinks about the love that he has for his own children. And that's what drives him to keep pushing for information. And we've covered a couple of cases where the detective in charge is like this.
00:58:43
Speaker
those families are very lucky that they have these detectives. Yeah, I feel like they're those are few and far between. Van Hoos realizes that regardless of what he's able to accomplish in an investigation, there will always be a gaping hole where the parents should be. But he feels that he can do some small part in bringing closure and in completing the now unfinished puzzle.
00:59:14
Speaker
that haunts the family and haunts him. I hope he can. Me too. We are now coming up on 16 years since Amanda Lynn Hughes was last seen, but it's also nearly 16 years of waiting for answers. As recently as October of 2022, Amanda's parents, Donald and Linda, told WLEX staff that they still visit Amanda's grave nearly every week.
00:59:40
Speaker
asked what they say to Amanda while there, Donald told the reporter, quote, that I miss her. I wish she was here. And someday I'll see her again. End quote. Others who miss her.
00:59:54
Speaker
even though they didn't get the opportunity to know her in traditional ways, are her daughters, Alyssa and Chloe. I ended my phone and written response interviews with the two of them with the same two questions. The first of those questions was, is there a call to action you'd like to give? Here's what Alyssa had to say.
01:00:15
Speaker
It's been 15 years. Even like the smallest information, even if you don't think that, oh, this maybe isn't important because, oh, like she was last seen on this day. This was the day before. Still stuff like that just, it doesn't hurt to reach out. If you didn't know anything, just say something because anything helps. Youngest daughter Chloe wrote the following, quote, if anyone knows anything, even the smallest detail can help.
01:00:41
Speaker
It doesn't matter how long ago this happened. She still deserves some sort of justice. So even if you just saw her in the street at school and had a conversation with her, if you noticed anything off or anything you feel like could help, please say something." My final question to both was, if they could say one more thing to their mom, what would it be? Here is Alyssa's answer.
01:01:07
Speaker
I would probably say that I miss her and I wish she could have experienced my graduation from high school. My sister actually just graduated back in Saturday. So I wish she would have been there to see us do that. And I just hope she's watching over us somehow and seeing all this stuff happen. But there's not a day that goes by that we don't think about her or talk about her. She's talked about often, often.
01:01:33
Speaker
So just that, you know, I miss you. I know I'll see you again. But until then, I'll just remember you. Chloe wrote this quote, you were taken too early. I wish I could have been able to make memories of my own with you rather than hearing them from someone else. I wish you could have been able to see me walk the stage when I graduated. But I know you watched me in another way. Just know we're all trying for you.
01:02:03
Speaker
and that you are loved very much." End quote. Let's help Alyssa and Chloe know that we too are trying by sharing Amanda's story this week.
Podcast Reflections and Listener Engagement
01:02:14
Speaker
Amanda's family and Detective Van Hoos hope that one person who hears this episode or hears it via our listeners sharing could get one step closer to closure. Detective Van Hoos has a message for anyone with information.
01:02:29
Speaker
It's Detective Luke Van Heesch with Kentucky State Police out of Richmond, Kentucky. And I'm looking into different code cases, which one is referenced to Amanda Hughes from back in 2006, 2007 timeframe.
01:02:46
Speaker
resided mostly around Nicholasville and frequented in the Lakeston area. If you have any information concerning her, she was last seen or maybe heard of back in February of 2006. That'll be reached at the Kentucky State Police Post Enrichment at 859-623-2404 or my state email.
01:03:20
Speaker
since there were potential sightings of Amanda until as late as early to mid-march law enforcement are particularly interested in information concerning Amanda's activities who she was with or anything that may stand out from before Valentine's Day through mid-march
01:03:40
Speaker
Since she often frequented Camelot and deja vu gentlemen's clubs in Lexington and even a location in Ohio, Detective Van Hoos would like to speak with anyone who worked there as an employee, manager, boss, or even someone who was a customer with whom Amanda may have spoken and mentioned any troubles or fears.
01:04:01
Speaker
Finally, he would like more information concerning the Washington brothers, what may have been going on, and who else may have been running around in that crowd between 2006 and 2007. Anyone who may be able to provide details, please call Detective Van Hoos at 859-623-2404.
01:04:27
Speaker
Again, please like and join our Facebook page, Coffee and Cases podcast to continue the conversation and see images related to this episode. As always, follow us on Twitter, at casescoffee, on Instagram, at coffee cases podcast, or you can always email us suggestions to coffeeandcasespodcastatgmail.com. Please tell your friends about our podcast so more people can be reached to possibly help bring some closure to these families. Don't forget to rate our show and leave us a comment as well. We hope to hear from you soon.
01:04:57
Speaker
Stay together. Stay safe. We'll see you next week. It's love notes for Maggie and Allison.
01:05:24
Speaker
And we have all kinds of love to get caught up on. So I'm very excited to go through all of these. First, I want to thank everyone who reached out to us to tell us that they voted for us for the best female hosted podcast and for people's choice at podcastawards.com. Super exciting. I know. I really felt the love with the messages that we got and would obviously love even more.
01:05:52
Speaker
If you haven't yet voted and you would go to podcastawards.com to vote for us as well, the deadline is quickly approaching to vote in the first round. July 31st is the deadline for round one. So time is taken. That's right.
01:06:08
Speaker
Please. And we also have a new Patreon member, Tonya Case, and we're very happy about that, and we're very happy to welcome her into the Patreon family. And if you want additional content just like she did, then you can just click the little link that's going to be in our show notes, and we'll have lots of love to share with you.
01:06:30
Speaker
That's right, because we love Tanya Kay. Thank you for joining. And speaking of Patreon, I am in the midst of making a special plan for the swag boxes that we'll be shipping out in August for our $12, $15, and $20 members that will actually help support the business of one of our long-time listeners and Hello Patreon member. Because, you know, I feel like life is all about mutual support and we're here for it.
01:06:56
Speaker
So if that sounds just as amazing to you as it does to us and you want to join to support the show and get bonus content like swag, if you so choose, like I said, you can go to patreon.com slash coffee and cases to join, or we'll post a link in the show notes. Yeah. So then you'll get to hear your name on a future episode. And who doesn't love that?
01:07:18
Speaker
Exactly. Just like the love we have going out to the six, which is amazing. New five star reviews we got over the last two weeks. And that makes me very, very happy. I'm thrilled.
01:07:32
Speaker
Three of those were just star reviews with no writing, but we will take it. We can't give a name to give you love, but you know who you are. That's right. We love you. Just the same. Exactly. But one written review came from Ranger Boyd and we are sending much love to you. And that person wrote, quote, great show, interesting and informative. End quote. Short and sweet. We love it. I do love it.
01:07:55
Speaker
We also have tons of love going out to Mike, one followed by 13 zeros. I don't know what kind of number that is, something very large, who wrote, quote, very informative podcast. Each case is thoroughly researched and presented very in depth, much more than most true crime podcasts, end quote. And I really appreciate that comment so much because it hits on the heart of what we try to do in each episode.
01:08:22
Speaker
And I wish that the one followed by 13 zeros was the amount of money I have in my bank account. Yes, that would be nice. Thank you. And the final written comment and love note goes out to Smiley's 123321 who said quote, love these ladies, they did a great job on the Britney Stokes case, end quote.
01:08:45
Speaker
And listen, that makes me so happy. In any review, we appreciate both. It's obviously nice to have your research acknowledged. And I'm glad you did find that coverage informative. We are so happy that we're able to help in any type of small way. And with that, all of our love is going out to each and every one of you. Until next week, Sleuthhounds.
01:09:09
Speaker
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