An Ohio woman who set out to the woods on Aug. 26 to look for her missing dog found far more than she bargained for when she stumbled across human remains.
After finding the remains, which had been wrapped up in cloth, the woman took them to authorities. They were then handed off to the Mahoning County Coroner’s Office.
Dr. Loren Lease from Youngstown State University’s anthropology department worked to assemble the bones so the victim could be identified.
Once forensic dentists examined the jawbone and compared it to dental records, they named the victim as Amy Hambrick, who had been missing for five years. A news conference was held Tuesday morning to announce the positive identification.
Hambrick had gone missing at 29 years old in November 2017 after setting off for a friend’s house. She never arrived.
Now, police are working to figure out more details, especially because they can’t rule out foul play.
While Hambrick’s cause of death is listed as “undetermined,” Youngstown police Capt. Jason Simon is certain someone knows something.
“Someone knows what happened,” he said during a news conference, according to WKBN-TV.
Hambrick’s mother, Debby Dolin, believed the same years ago when she was asking for the public’s help locating her missing daughter.
“I know that there are people who know what happened to Amy,” she told WKBN-TV in 2018.
Hambrick’s family revealed that she was also a drug addict, which made them fear for her safety even more.
“There’s people judging her for what she’s done or because she was on a drug or whatever,” Hambrick’s brother Jacob said. “But essentially she’s still a human, she’s still somebody’s daughter.”
She was someone’s mother, too — she left behind a 10-year-old daughter, Jayden.
“Her and Jayden were like two peas in a pod, always together. … She misses her mommy so much,” Dolin said.
The family has some answers now, and is waiting on more as detectives continue interviewing people and running tests.
