SPEAKER_00 0:00

In Tragedy, a true crime podcast, we discuss missing persons' cases, violent crime, and other sensitive topics that may be difficult for some listeners. Listener discretion is advised. Our show is a place where every story matters and every voice deserves to be heard. To support this podcast, you can subscribe at www.tragedy a true crime podcast.com for early access to new episodes. And join our Facebook community, Tragedy, a True Crime Podcast, for updates, discussions, and ways to support the families we feature. Welcome to Tragedy, a True Crime Podcast. I'm Elisa.

SPEAKER_02 0:47

And I'm Michael.

SPEAKER_00 0:48

Today we're joined by Amanda Verbilia, Amber's sister. Through Amanda's memories and perspectives, we have another opportunity to understand who Amber was, their family, and the experiences that were part of Amber's life. We'll hear about the life she lived, the people she loved, and the things that Amanda remembers about her. We'll also talk about what Amanda remembers from the times surrounding Amber's death, the questions that have remained for her family, and what she hopes people will take away from hearing Amber's story. Thank you for being here and welcome to the show. Thanks for having me, guys. We're really glad that you have um taken time to talk with us about your sister. But before we get going on Amber's story, please tell us a bit about you and your relationship with your sister.

SPEAKER_01 1:38

So I'm Amanda and um I was Amber's older sister, and we had a typical sister relationship. Uh when we were young, we used to bicker a lot, and as we got older, we got pretty close, but still had our arguments. We were primarily raised by my father. He worked two jobs, so we spent a lot of time together, and um, a lot of people would say I did a lot of bringing her up, even though I was only a couple years older. Um, I was the motherly type in the household. How would you describe Amber and what was she like as a person? She was kind and she was funny and she loved life and she always had a lot of fun. She would make anybody laugh on their worst day and um always brought the party.

SPEAKER_00 2:32

I think we've heard that from other people as well. So this is a a theme that we hear from people that she would she I think somebody even said she brought the party. You're not the first person to say that. Yeah. What are what are some of your earliest or strongest memories of her?

SPEAKER_01 2:49

I mean, just our our childhood growing up. We shared a bedroom. There was a short period that we uh didn't live together when we were really young. And I remember just, you know, missing her and wishing that um she was with us. And I was so happy when uh we were finally reunited. And um, as we got older, I I was a little jealous of her because I was more of an introvert, quiet, responsible person. And she was carefree and fun and had so many friends, way more than I ever had. Everybody wanted to be around her, and I was I was envious of her and really wished I could be more like her and view life um the way she did.

SPEAKER_00 3:28

She just looked like I don't have siblings, but Michael does, and he is also the oldest. So can I can imagine that there are some things that you're saying that are resonating with him because he is the oldest in his family, as you just described as well. And I remember him telling me a story about one of his sisters and the mall and how he caught her at the mall when she wasn't supposed to be there.

SPEAKER_02 3:51

Well, she was skipping school and she was, I was gonna say she was dressed inappropriately. And I had to go up to her, and I'm like, uh, you know, mom didn't let you leave the house dressed like that. So, you know, I'll make you a deal. I won't tell anyone you skip school, but you need to change clothes and go back to school. And yeah. She goes, You wouldn't say anything. I'm like, Have you ever heard me bluff?

SPEAKER_01 4:10

And she's like, Oh yeah, I would tell on her all the time.

SPEAKER_02 4:12

She's like, I'm I guess I should go, I guess I should go back to school. Or yeah, you should go back to school.

SPEAKER_01 4:17

Yeah. We have some pretty crazy stories though when we were really little. We got caught sneaking out of the house together. Um, she stole my dad's car. We had like an extra car when me and my brother were, you know, able to drive, you know, we had a car that was like kind of for us to share and she wasn't allowed to drive yet. She had a permit, but not a license. And she took the car out one night. And I mean, we yeah, we weren't, you know, angels.

SPEAKER_00 4:47

I think that's just growing up, right? You know, that's true. I mean, I I don't I don't recall everything.

SPEAKER_01 4:53

I let her drive when she had her permit and it and we were pulling into a parking spot and she should have been hitting the brakes and she hit the gas, and we hit a guardrail, and oh my god, I was so mad at her because now I gotta tell dad, you know, that I let her drive because I am not getting in trouble for smashing up the front end. It was yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:16

Did you get in trouble for letting her drive though?

SPEAKER_01 5:18

Uh I mean, I don't really remember. Um, I'm sure I'm sure I got a talking to.

SPEAKER_00 5:25

And see, and when you don't have siblings, you don't have anybody else to blame. So if something happened, it was me. That was it.

SPEAKER_02 5:32

You did it.

SPEAKER_00 5:32

And I did do a few things. My car rolled into a gas station pump. I backed the car into the garage door, but I didn't have anybody else to blame. I think I I missed an opportunity, it sounds like. So at some point, um, we know that Amber relocated out of where you currently live and where you all grew up. Can you tell us about that? When that happened and maybe why?

SPEAKER_01 5:55

Yeah. Um, she graduated high school and she wanted to go to school for like fashion. The community college near where my mom was living, down in Myrtle Beach, had a better program. So that's why she went down there.

SPEAKER_00 6:08

And what do you what were her hopes and dreams? What was she going to do with that fashion degree? Costume design. Oh, that's really cool. I that really sticks with me. I don't really love art. Like people say, go to the art museum museum. I'm not really there for it. But I went to the Kennedy Library and they had all of the, well, not all, but several of the outfits that Jackie Onassis wore during the Kennedy presidency. That was very interesting to me. So that's some is something that really sticks with me. Do you remember her like drawing, sketching, you know? Oh, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:45

I have a lot of her art still to this day. Um, that after she passed, and I um, you know, took some things from her apartment. It was a lot of her art and I still have it.

SPEAKER_00 6:56

That's really cool. And that's something we weren't uh we were not aware of. So thank you for sharing that. What did was she able to graduate, or did everything happen kind of in a time frame that prevented that from happening?

SPEAKER_01 7:08

Amber died May 3rd. She was supposed to graduate a few weeks later.

SPEAKER_00 7:12

Yes, and then also get married as well, from what I recall. She was gonna graduate, get married, and move to Spain. So let's talk a little bit about, you know, maybe that time frame before, in the months before, you know, she was killed. Do you remember anything? Well, obviously there were some really great things happening, right? She was getting married, she was graduating. Do you remember anything that kind of stood out as sort of unusual or out of the ordinary for her? Nope. Everything just seemed to be kind of going along in the positive, in a positive way. Yeah. Yeah. Everything was normal. And tell us about what you what when you learned that she had died and your experience around that time.

SPEAKER_01 7:55

I was, it was a Friday night and I uh waitressed full-time at the time. My phone had been going off for hours, but I was slammed. It's a busy pizza restaurant that I was working in. And I didn't, it was before like everybody texted and um had like smartphones. So um I didn't listen to my voicemail until things got slower, probably like eight, eight thirty, maybe. And I got a message from one of my uncles who I didn't really know very well. He was like my aunt's second husband. And so and they got married like when I was uh, you know, almost an adult. So I really didn't know him very well. So I thought that it was uh weird that he was calling me and telling me to call him back. So I did right away. We still had customers in the restaurant. I was kind of in the back of the restaurant. He told me um initially they had thought that she had been shot. So that's when he told me that um Amber had been shot and it didn't like click to me yet. I was just kind of like, Well, is she okay? Where is she? And that's when he told me, um, you know, she's gone, honey. Um she didn't make it, and I just I just kind of fell to the floor, dropped my phone, and um my friends, my co-workers, uh, you know, I I maybe screamed, I'm not sure, but very quickly all the my friends were around me and trying to figure out what happened, but they got me off the floor and kind of got me out the back door so that I wasn't in front of all these people anymore, just having uh the worst moment of my life. And um so I went out the back door and Amber's um high school best friend from up here, um, she worked with me at the time in the kitchen. So somebody went into the kitchen and and told Jess. So she came out the other back door and met me in the back and we just sat on the on the ground and cried and cried. And um I'm not I'm not sure how I got home then. I don't remember. I don't know if I called my husband or if somebody else drove me home or if I drove myself home. It's all a blur after that. It was um I do remember that maybe my husband did come get me because on the way home I called my father and and told him.

SPEAKER_00 10:24

That's I don't mean that's that's really rough. Thank you. Thank you for sharing all of that. Can you tell us what was your knowledge of uh where she was living and what her day-to-day life looked like when she was in Myrtle Beach?

SPEAKER_01 10:38

I don't remember the name of the condos, but she had an apartment in an apartment complex. Everyday life was just, you know, she was a 20-something young uh year old college student working and getting ready to graduate and move. So she was she she worked and she ran her errands, you know, did her grocery shopping. You know, the day she died, she was out paying her bills, you know, she went to class, and that's really it. Um, I mean, she of course went out with her friends, you know, on her free nights. Just a regular 20-something-year-old's um 23-year-old's life, you know. Um, she lived alone, so nothing's out of the ordinary.

SPEAKER_00 11:19

Yeah, I can think back to when I was that age and and all the running around that we did. And we know that that the day that she was killed, she did a lot of running around. There were, you know, she's been seen on this video in several places. There's a pretty good geographical footprint of um where she went um during that day. She paid a bill, she returned something at, I think it was Ross or TJ Maxx, one of those things. Um, and we can even see in one of the surveillance cameras what she's wearing, um which matched what she wore um when when she was found when the 911 call was made. What explanation from law enforcement was your family given? What did they tell you about what happened and what they were doing?

SPEAKER_01 12:06

Uh, we really haven't gotten any explanation that her body was found by a couple of teenagers that were uh outriding four-wheelers going mudding. Her car was still running a few hundred feet away. And as far as the investigation, they said they didn't find any evidence. I mean, I'm sure that at one point somebody told me that there was, you know, she put up a good fight, that there would be should be DNA evidence under her fingernails from like scratching. But from my knowledge now, they say that there is no DNA evidence, as far as I know. I haven't really gotten much explanation. About a year after she died, I went down there to kind of like get an update. You know, they had had uh initially a couple of um possible suspects, but that was all um, you know, proven not to be, you know, anything.

SPEAKER_00 12:57

So since then they're nothing. So you're saying sin you went down there and you were actually able to speak with people, but there hasn't been any further contact since that time.

SPEAKER_01 13:08

Right. Not for me. I I've probably called a couple of times in those first couple of years. Um, but it's it's really um emotionally draining. You know, everybody has their own like kind of view, and I'm just um I'm very hopeful. I just kind of like believe deep down that uh one day it'll come out, but I don't see how me making it my life, the mission um to harass them is gonna be helpful and it's never gonna bring her back.

SPEAKER_00 13:41

So I don't know. That makes sense. You know, we have talked to several families through our podcast journey, and and what you're describing is is the way that some people choose to move forward, not necessarily move forward, but I understand you and that you're saying, you know, you emailing them and calling them it isn't really going to make a difference, maybe. And so I don't want to speak for you and say that you're compartmentalizing it, but it is the way that you are choosing to, you know, cope with the loss of your sister. And and we're not here to judge anybody and the way that they choose to move forward with this kind of experience because I personally do not have this experience. Michael does, but it we are never in a place where we're going to judge somebody's action or what someone might perceive as non-action.

SPEAKER_01 14:31

Yeah, it just um can really absorb all of your um being, because for a while it it it did, you know, that first um year or two, you know, I have kids and I have a life, um, and it was everything had been put on hold and it's it sucks. Um but you know, you have to figure out how to get through it. I just with my whole being, I I think that one day it might be, you know, years and years down the line, but um I believe it'll come out and I believe in karma.

SPEAKER_02 15:08

Well that's what I really relate to as well, because I'm a you know, you you always hear that, you know, it it things always come back around. And for the most part they do. They don't necessarily come back around in the timeline that we hope, but they do come back around. I don't think, you know, whoever this was, they're not gonna get away with it forever. It's just a question of it's always something dumb, right? You know, because Lisa and I read a lot about true crime now. We started a true crime podcast because we're passionate about it, and it's amazing how many times something very small leads to the biggest break of the case, and it was thing something you never thought would have connected anything. And the next thing you know, you have this giant wave of information that comes in that changes the story, changes the perception altogether, and is the thing that needed to be said to the right person at the right time to make things happen. And that's what we have to look for.

SPEAKER_01 16:00

I'm I'm sure you've heard of Heather He Heather Elvis, and you know, it was just maybe five or six months after my sister passed. Um, did Heather Elvis go missing? And um there was a lot of national pressure on Hory County to solve that case. So I think that had a lot to do with why um the investigation came to a stall.

SPEAKER_02 16:25

No, that makes a lot of sense too, because something we've discussed many times of you know, why do some cases get a lot of attention and others don't? And it's it's due to lots of different reasons. You know, we we have the what's the case that just happened with Arizona?

SPEAKER_00 16:41

Nancy Guthrie.

SPEAKER_02 16:42

Thank you. Um that one I think everyone knows about now, evidently except for me, because I couldn't come up with a name right in that moment. But with that being said, things were happening to other people during that period, and we'll never know. Um and so unless someone speaks up. And so that's one of the focuses of this podcast, is we we don't traditionally cover cases that have a lot of national intentions. Like we even we even had people reach out to me, wanted us to cover that case, and we said no. Um, because that's not not that they're not important, they are, but that one's being covered. I'm interested in the people who aren't getting that coverage.

SPEAKER_00 17:16

Yeah, I am interested. I do know that you um you you had mentioned to us earlier that you were able to go on the Nancy Gray show. And so I would I'm really interested to find out more about that and what that experience was like for you, and if you think that was, in hindsight, a s a beneficial move.

SPEAKER_01 17:35

I'm kind of neutral either way. I mean, it was I don't even know how it came up. I'd have to go back and look. I mean, it didn't get her any more attention. Her case has made no progress. Uh, I don't know if they, you know, reopened the case. I don't I think it they could still consider it an active investigation or open investigation, not active. I mean, nothing's as far as I know, um come of it. So, you know, I mean, I don't ever want anyone to forget my sister. And maybe those little um interviews, you know, I've done a few different ones over the years, get people like you to learn my sister's name and be interested in her story. And you know, the more people to know, you know, maybe maybe something will change.

SPEAKER_02 18:25

No, I agree, and that's one of the purposes that why we started doing this, because we didn't have a word for it yet, but it was interesting. We met a guy um named Nick and he he kind of helped us give it a name, and he talked about that every person they they die twice. And you you die the day you died, the day you stop breathing, and then you die the day people stop saying your name. And so that became kind of the purpose of this podcast is to make sure that these names keep being said and keep being put out there, especially whenever things are we don't say resolved anymore, we just say unresolved because we've also learned through this journey that we've made that whenever we stop talking about it on a podcast or in a book or on a show, it may be over, it may be drawn out, um, drawn to a conclusion for the people listening, but it never really ends for the people that are experiencing that story. There is no end to that.

SPEAKER_00 19:23

Or justice.

SPEAKER_02 19:24

Right.

SPEAKER_00 19:24

Yeah. I wanted to talk just a little bit going back to the national news and what you experienced was something that we have noticed as well. Um, and this is going back to the Audrey Heron disappearance, which I know you're aware of because that's the area in which you live in. And, you know, a real similar thing happened with with them. They were getting a lot of national coverage. You know, she disappeared in her vehicle, and they felt like they were really getting some traction. And then the Scott Peterson, Lacey Peterson event happened in California, and just like with the snap of a finger, all the national news coverage that they were getting just stopped. Um everything pointed to California. And it's just another example of like, I don't know, the whimsy guess of the media and and what they do, which is to sensationalize and jump from one story to another. And that's why it's so important that we're able to speak with you and really learn about Amber from a victim-centered perspective rather than a sensationalistic point of view. I know people in the area, um, in the Myrtle Beach area, are probably familiar with the circumstances of her death. What do you think people would miss just about Amber as a person who just know that, well, sh her car was found, her vehicle was running, you know, she was killed. They just know the basic kind of information. What are they actually missing or what do they need to know about Amber?

SPEAKER_01 20:50

You know, there was a lot of talk about, you know, well, maybe she was into drugs or something more. Um that's not true. Um, you know, she was in her early 20s, she probably smoked some pot, but I mean, she was a a good girl. She liked she liked to go out and drinking with her friends, just like everybody her age down in that area. She was a good girl, and there's nothing at all that she could have been involved in that would have led to this. The way she was killed is very personal. Somebody must have must have been upset. Uh I I c I don't know. You know, um it seemed like a crime of passion almost. Um, Amber was getting ready to make these big changes in her life, and it almost seems like somebody else didn't uh want to let her go, uh let her move on with her life. I'm not sure, you know. I mean, that's kind of what um the investigators had said initially. But because there's no evidence and there's no I mean, it's not like it is today where there's cameras everywhere, like w There's no nobody has any clue who was with her that day. And it's just wild. I I just she didn't deserve it. That's you know, not that anybody deserves to be killed, but um there's nothing that she could have done.

SPEAKER_02 22:15

Yeah, one thing that stuck out to me is, you know, Elisa mentioned earlier about how many times she was caught on camera. And I thought it was really interesting around the key moment. Of course, there's no cameras anywhere. So that that's one thing that stuck out to me. And then I've seen multiple reports that talk about possibly someone in the car with her, but then there's there's absolutely no camera shot that shows this in a way that's you know, that you can see. I think there was one that Gina mentioned that you can kind of see there was a possible shadow, but it was then kind of dismissed of just how the light was coming in the window. You can't actually tell there was anyone in that in the car at the time. And so to me, I'm just like with the amount of times that we saw her, there was no one with her. And so when did that, if if that was true, then when obviously it happened, but when and where it happened becomes a very key point to understand and to find out. And I don't think that we do. Just there's been no indication that I've because I've been digging through the files for a few weeks now, and there's been no indication that I've been able to find that indicates that at all.

SPEAKER_01 23:18

Yeah. I mean, so they said that she, you know, uh pulled off like the main highway and went on, you know, some of these side roads um for a period of time, and then she came back onto the main highway. Um so that can be the only time. And if she did pick somebody up or whatever, like somebody has to know, right? You know, somebody has to know that you know sh either saw her pick somebody up or knew that this person was going, you know, with her. Um somebody.

SPEAKER_02 23:53

Yeah, and it's even even the time of day, because I was looking at it, it's on a Friday, and then I actually did some research on what the traffic patterns would have been like along that road. And you'd have a combination of people getting off work during this time and and and with people coming in for this. Is a this is a tourist town. Yeah. There'd be a higher level of tourism traffic on the road on that Friday afternoon as well. So we're not talking about a road that wasn't busy. And so someone saw her turn off, and we just unfortunately we've never been able to reach that person.

SPEAKER_00 24:24

I think you bring up a really interesting point that we have not. Well, I won't speak for Michael, but I speak for myself, that I have not considered. You know, this is a time you've already noted that there are some pretty big things happening for her. She's graduating from school, she's getting married. These are big life changes, but she's not just doing those things, she's moving, right? She's planning on moving, and she's not just moving from Myrtle Beach to, I don't know, Atlanta. She's leaving the country. Yeah. When you said she was leaving and maybe somebody got angry, like that really hit me that, and this is a plausible situation, that she's not even going to be, you can't even get to somebody easily when they move overseas. And so that's just a a thought I hadn't personally had. It does sound like the investigators had, and you are right about the method in which that in which she was killed, and that it is, it is personal, uh, very personal. And that just really stuck out with me. That the that's something I think I would like to tease out a little more and maybe try to find the people who were like in her circle um at that time and who might have that kind of anger.

SPEAKER_02 25:36

Well, to me too, I've you know, I I know I'm not sure this is the right way to think about it, but I've been fixated on the rock or what's been described more as a boulder. Whenever I hear the size of this thing, this thing weighs at least a hundred pounds. So I'd be interested in like it's gonna take a pretty big person to pick this up. And who in her circle was big enough to even pick it up? I couldn't pick it up.

SPEAKER_00 25:58

So I heard you say, and and this is the same with with Michael's uncle. There's a couple of things going on with this case. One, it's either going to get solved with DNA or someone's gonna say something. Right. And, you know, I heard I heard you kind of say the same thing with someone will say something at at some point. So what would you like to say to someone who could be listening who might have even the smallest bit of information? Um, what would you want them to do with that information? Tell somebody.

SPEAKER_01 26:27

I mean, how could you, you know, whether you believe in a higher power or not, how can you live knowing that information um and not coming forward? How can you live with yourself knowing that you could have, you know, eased so many of our problems? I mean, I don't know if that's the right word. It's just helped us get come get some peace. Help our family, her friends, anybody that knew her, anybody that loved her, anybody that cared for her, help us heal. Um, you know, there are so many people that are broken, um, have lost a piece of them, lost a piece of their heart, and um I mean just to experience like this kind of tragedy, it it takes away I guess like a sense of like innocence, maybe. Most people don't have to experience this type of loss. And when you do, it just changes you. Um it it changes the way you live your life, it w changes the way you uh view uh human beings. To help us get some closure and a little peace and a little justice for Amber, it would mean so much to so many people. And I hope that one day you find it in your heart and your soul and to do the right thing and and speak up.

SPEAKER_00 28:03

You've been listening to Tragedy, a true crime podcast. Our purpose is to honor victims by sharing their stories through the voices of friends, family, and those whose lives were forever changed. If today's episode resonated with you, we encourage you to subscribe, leave a review, and share the podcast so these important stories continue to be heard. Together, we can preserve their memories and ensure their voices are never forgotten. If you have ideas for cases we should cover or questions about what you heard, you can connect with us through our Facebook group, Tragedy a True Crime Podcast, on X at Tragedy Podcast, by email at Tragedy a True Crime Podcast at gmail.com, or by visiting our website www.tragedy a true crime podcast.com. Thank you for listening, and we hope you'll join us next time.