Amy Hooper /// Part 1 /// 294 | Forensic Files

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welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks for listening I'm your host Nick and
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[Music] the website Ohio attorney general.gov contains many resources one resource on there that
both saddens me and angers me is a list of Cold Case homicides all taking place in my home state the great state of
Ohio you can browse this list by searching a specific name or do as I have many times start at the beginning
and go in chronological order through the years many cases on there have caught my eye several of them
I have personally looked into hunting down old newspaper articles sifting through online message boards looking
for not only information but theories and suspects after all this is my home state
where my family and friends live and according to this list killers are walking amongst
us one of the cases that caught my eye was that of a young woman killed at home alone in her
apartment the case was initially of interest to me because I noticed that I once lived in the neighborhood in which
she was killed on the government website this is case number 17 the victim's name Amy
Hooper this was just one of many cases that for me stopped being just a number on some list and became a name on a file
folder however I am slightly ashamed to say that the file ended up on a shelf in
my office collecting dust later through conversations I learned of an even closer connection I
had had to the unsolved murder case my mother and Amy's mother taught at the same school and my father
followed the case in the papers and on TV not too long ago I was busy cleaning out the old office and sifting through
some old Case Files some that we have covered here on True Crime garage and others that we
hope to I found Amy's folder flip through it and looked at her photo the sadness and anger
returned and so I decided to revisit this case Amy was only 20 years old when some
Savage took her life she was very close with her family and had many friends the motive for this cold-blooded
killing is not obvious and the killer remains hiding in the shadows this week we take a look at just one of
Ohio's many Cold Case homicides this is the case of Amy [Music] [Music] [Applause]
[Music] Hooper Amy Joy Hooper was one of three daughters born to parents joy and Hollis
Hooper when Amy was born on November 2nd 1971 her sisters were quite a bit older
Holly was 8 and Sandy was 10 so Amy was the baby of the family Joy Hooper said that Amy was spoiled from all of the
mothering and that her sisters treated her like a little baby doll they actually took care of baby Amy when
their mother was ill ill for a time and was unable to do so Amy was blonde with curly ringlets and hazel eyes and as an
adult she was on the smaller side she was maybe 5' 3 in tall the website that we discussed lists her at 103 lbs but
according to her family she was quote about 90 lb soaking wet the hoopers lived in Columbus and Amy attended
wesland high school for a time but Amy's sisters Holly and Sandy tell us that Amy
and her mother Joy clashed a little when Amy was a teenager this from my understanding seems to be fairly normal
for teenage girls according to the family some of this clashing had to do with a boyfriend whom the parents have
viewed as abusive and Amy's mother Joy was very concerned because Amy actually had been hit on two separate occasions
by this boyfriend also this boy's mother worked in the school cafeteria and it sounds
like she may have harassed Amy after Amy tried to break up with her son yeah and
after Amy's sophomore year at Westland High School her parents are going to try to move her to get away from this
douchebag well after being given a choice of where to live she was offered the choice of living with either her
aunt or her sister Amy decided to go out to California to live with her sister Sandy and Sandy moved out there in 1982
the two sisters were very close despite the 10-year age difference between the two
Amy did her junior year at High School in California and hung out with Sandy and sy's boyfriend Reay but after her
junior year Amy moved back to Ohio and went to live with her aunt in a nearby town and graduated from a different High
School this would have been in 1989 after graduating from high school Amy moved back to Columbus and moved in
with her mom Hollis and joy had very recently gone through a divorce and although this was not acrimonious it was
a tough time for everyone Amy wanted to save money so she could return to California to go to college she loved
fashion and she looked for a job that would allow her to work in that industry she got a job as a manager at a Wilson's
Leather store in the wesland mall which many media reports refer to as burman's leather because burman's was bought out
by Wilson's Leather at some point well she worked there for about 6 months a job that she reportedly loved
and she was very responsible never showing up late never missing a day of work she also occasionally designed
display windows for the Lazarus department store she rode the bus so she didn't have to spend money on a car one
thing to note about Amy is that she loved animals and had a soft spot for anything furry at the time of her death
she had two cats that she had taken in articles about Amy state that she was very social had a lot of friends and was
known to frequent a Westside bar called coconuts she also it has been reported dated black men almost
exclusively like the abusive boyfriend from wesland high school this fact will become significant later also her family
describes her as very trusting friendly and although she was stubborn she would stand her ground when she needed to yeah
now Amy's 20 and she's is going to rent her own apartment this starts on February 17th 1992 renting an apartment
at 4942 Medfield way in Lincoln Village in Columbus now even though this was an apartment it wasn't a big high-rise type
building Amy's ground floor apartment door opened into a grassy open area outside punctuated by a spiderweb of
walkways leading between the various apartments and the street so to get to Amy's front door all someone had to do
is walk up to it there were no entranceways Gates outer doors or security measures
whatsoever these buildings were not equipped with security cameras Amy leased this apartment on her
own but allowed a friend to move in with her rentree this is a woman whose name we don't know but we do know that she
had a small child mhm the family isn't certain how Amy knew this roommate but her sister s
says Amy told them that she was going to let them live there really cuz she's just taking them in to help them Amy had
a kind heart and and the woman and her baby really had nowhere to go who cares how they became friends it's simply
here's Amy she has a place here's a single mother hey come stay with me for a while let's get you on your feet it
sounds like that maybe Amy tried to move this girl into her mom's house when she
was still living there but after a few days her mother was like no we're not having Outsiders come and freeload off
of our family and just stay here you know this woman apparently didn't have a job at the time or at least that the
family knew of so Amy rented the new apartment and let her friend and the baby move in with her Amy and this
roommate were really still getting settled at the time even Amy's mother had not visited the apartment yet
because the women were still getting the place together and they were actually lacking in the way of furniture at this
time Amy's sister Holly was also living in Columbus but she was in a serious relationship with someone in Cleveland
now on Friday March 6th Holly planned to travel up to Cleveland to see her boyfriend MH so she and Amy made some
kind of arrangement where Amy would borrow Holly's car and take care of Holly's dog for the weekend it turns out
that Amy wanted the car so that she could go up to see her boyfriend who was going to Bowling Green at the time this
was a young guy whose name we we won't use Holly did not want Amy driving her vehicle all the way up to Bowling Green
so what happened is Amy borrowed her mother's car instead and left her sister's car with her mother for the
weekend now everybody has a car to use Amy did not tell her mother that she was planning on going to Bowling Green and
it seems that Joy did not know about this boyfriend she never met him MH she only heard about him after Amy's death
okay now I'm going to bring up the fact that it's early 90s so it's not like you
have a lot of internet dating or a lot of ways of communication with some of these people it could be somebody she
went to high school with that went to Bowling Green for college or moved there with their family who knows on Monday
March 9th Amy's sister Holly returned to town from her weekend in Cleveland and she went straight to work Amy actually
returned the night before from her weekend and went out with some unnamed friends the night before the plan Amy
was supposed to meet Holly on Holly's lunch hour that day to return her car now when Amy failed to show up Holly
called her apartment numerous times to no avail we don't know whether she also called Amy's work but she told us that
she couldn't find Amy that day it was later reported that by 1:00 p.m. Amy's friends and co-workers started call each
other looking for Amy meanwhile Holly called her father and he gave her a ride to Amy's new apartment Holly had a key
to her car and was hoping to be able to retrieve the vehicle she and her father knocked repeatedly on Amy's apartment
door but there was no response yeah but they were able to find her car yeah Holly's car was in fact still there and
because she had the key she was able to open the car door and then drive the vehicle back to her work mhm Hollis also
left at this time likely figuring that there had been some kind of mixup one thing we have no information
on is whether the police ever took a look at Holly's car which we know Amy drove that morning so we don't know if
it was ever dusted for prints or examined for signs of a struggle or even things out of place now at this point
Holly called her mom joy to see if she knew where Amy was she had a really bad feeling when she was able to locate her
car at Amy's apartment but Amy was nowhere to be found joy was a teacher and she was in the classroom all day
long so it was hard for her to talk on the phone but eventually around 3:30 Joy was gathering mail at the school where
she worked and people from Amy's work started to contact her because Joy was listed as Amy's emergency contact person
Amy failed to show up for work then when Joy was finally able to call Holly Joy told Holly that Amy had been to her
house in Grove City around 6:30 that morning and returned her car and took Holly's car the two chatted while Joy
put on her makeup getting ready for work Amy told her mother at that time that there was a manager's meeting that was
scheduled for work that day later that morning and she was supposed to be a part of this meeting from what I could
tell from what I could find the manager's meeting was to be around noon or at least that's what some Reports say
Joy said Amy seemed normal at this time when they were talking that morning and very happy that morning so just a quick
summarized version of that timeline because there's a lot of moving pieces and parts here okay so the the General
timeline is this Amy returns to Columbus Sunday night we don't know what time she
goes out with some friends early Monday morning at 6:30 a.m. she's at her mother's house remember they have to
switch out the vehicles and so at 6:30 she talks to her mother every everything seems normal and happy and good at that
time there's nothing strange going on with Amy she takes her sister's car and presumably goes straight to her
apartment now where we are now is we have multiple people who have reached out to Amy's mother trying to get a hold
of her because they're like we haven't seen Amy we have Amy's sister Holly who I found my vehicle at Amy's apartment
but no Amy and now we have her work calling Joy because she is the emergency contact listed on her information
because they've not seen Amy either she's supposed to have been at a manager's meeting that day and mind you
she's worked there for for over 6 months and never missed a day of work so this is Raising all kinds of
alarms the you know the red flags are going up especially For Joy well sometimes mothers just know well she's
already heard from one daughter and she's heard from Amy's work and she's saying as soon as this went down she
knew right away that something bad had happened right so Joy Amy's mother asked Holly the sister to meet her at Amy's
apartment they wanted to go to the rental office and ask if they had seen anything trying they're still trying to
find Amy and they called Amy's father to meet them there as well so once they arrive Hollis her father tries the door
to Amy's apartment and found it locked they decided to go to the supers office and ask them to open up the door now Joy
the mother had to be present in order for the super to open up the apartment door he had to receive permission from a
person listed on Amy's lease documentation as a person who could actually authorize entry into Amy
Hooper's apartment so around 400 p.m. Amy's dad and the super entered the apartment Holly and joy stayed outside
thank thank God this is what Hollis and the super found according to the newspaper reports
upon entering the apartment they would find Amy lying naked and bound face up on the hardwood
floor of an upstairs room in her apartment she had been beaten over the head suffering a cracked skull which one
early story in The Columbus Dispatch described as a split and that she was stabbed in the
neck and heart her hands were bound behind her with a nylon cord dangling from a unique pendant tucked into her
hands and the police stated that they were unsure whether this belonged to Amy or if it was brought into the apartment
by the Killer right this was a wood and leather Medallion a heart-shaped painted
with colors of red yellow and green glued to a black Wood Circle was there any sign of uh sexual
assault there was according to the newspapers that is unclear yeah now regarding this Medallion itself the the
newspapers asked if this could mean something even asking if the killer was making some kind of statement because
Amy was dating an African-American man or was this just something that was lying around right but what does a
medallion have to do with an africanamerican man well mind you the colors that were on there we have red
yellow green mhm so we have colors of the African flag I would believe the uh right or is it somebody that saw a white
woman with a black man and I wanted to make her pay for that correct you I mean is that what you're saying that's what
the papers were saying I want to be very clear about that that's what the newspapers in 1992 were saying not what
the konal is saying in 2019 right I'm simply reporting what was reported so the question here regarding this this
Medallion this necklace whatever you want to call it is did this actually mean something did the killer bring this
to the apartment with them or was it just something that was lying around that was found in Amy's apartment that
the killer used to tie her up newspapers even suggested that this might be the key to the
case police told the media that Amy may have been rendered helpless with her hands tied and then struck on the back
of the head the family has stated that the blow to the head is what in fact killed Amy the stab wounds were all
postmortem and the family say that they were told that there were 13 or 14 stab wounds and all well see to me that
seems like an act of passion rage so more likely somebody she knew well that's that's pretty spoton there by you
Captain good job out of you because according to the detectives what they told the papers was whoever did this to
Amy was harboring some kind of rage against her now the knife that was used was found at the scene oh that's always
nice when they leave that behind for you but the puzzling thing is the weapon that was used to bludgeon Amy on the
head the blow that killed her was never found mhm so real quick before we move on regarding the
knife we know that it's found at the scene although we've never been told no one could tell us if this was something
that the killer brought to the scene or something that the killer found already in the apartment we don't know if this
knife belonged to Amy or even the roommate right but they believe those stab wounds were postmortem so where is
this object that hit her on the head to split the skull well they didn't find that at the scene you know unlike the
knife they did not find this weapon and in fact they according to investigators they weren't really even certain what
type of weapon it was the only thing that they told the media was that they all they know is it was a sharp heavy
object so almost immediately after finding Amy's body investigators they're searching alleys dumpsters garbage bins
in the area they're looking for of course not only Clues but mainly looking for the sharp heavy object that killed
her right but they found nothing well even though that they found nothing around her apartment do we have anything
else that we know more information about the scene of the crime we do have some more detailed information here regarding
the murder scene we know that Hollis the father discovered the horrifying traumatic sight of his daughter lying
dead on the floor the Franklin County Sheriff's Department they were called in to investigate they were the lead on
this murder case the 911 call came from Amy's family at 4:21 p.m. that day detectives were very quick to close off
the scene and they started their investigation immediately now the apartment door windows or really
anything otherwise showed absolutely no signs of forced entry there was also very little sign of a struggle in the
apartment there was a phone cord now this was found to be ripped out of the wall police from what they could see at
the scene surmised that Amy had taken a shower that morning well and this kind of gives us some kind of a window of
when the time of death would be mhm yeah and this is actually very important it to our investigation here because what
we have here Captain is we know that around 4:00 is when her father enters the apartment by 4:21 we have detectives on
the scene they've already blocked everything off so regarding the time of death we have a couple of indicators to
tell us what that could be we know she was at her mother's house at 6:30 and then she returned we're presuming that
she came straight to her apartment maybe she stopped off along the way but what we do in fact know that once she
returned to her apartment she did take a shower and we'll get into the details of
this more why we know this to be absolute fact this is not something where anybody needs to let us go she
could have taken a shower the night before or before she went to go pick up the car no we have details that point
out that matter of fact she took a shower after returning to her home so what I'm getting at here with the window
of time of of the frame of time that we need to be concerned with to find this offender is to narrow the C narrow the
time of death down to this she returns home sometime after the shower and before the time that she had to be at
work that day somebody killed Amy [Applause] [Music] Hooper this show is sponsored by better
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to you Captain so regarding the time of death this has never been publicly stated what the actual time was police
publicly would only say that Amy had apparently been dead for several hours by the time she was found what other
information do we have from the scene of the crime well there there were things at the scene captain that would give the
appearance that she may have been getting ready to go to work at the time when this attack went down right okay so
she had a plastic pink carry all that held her makeup and hair brushes this was found lying open on the bedroom
floor you know ready for use right the uh she had an electric blanket on a pullout sofa remember we said that they
had just moved in and they were kind of lacking in the area of actual Furniture everybody knows this when you go out
move out of mom and dad's house for the first time you realize I don't own anything maybe the fourth or fifth time
yeah I don't own anything so she was actually using a pullout sofa at the time as her bed so the pull out s sofa
is still set up for for her bed and she had an electric blanket on that which was still plugged in at this time her
hair dryer was plugged in as well so here this paints a picture of this young woman who had returned home we might
even guess that she may have taken a nap maybe went back to sleep for a little bit of time possible but there are
people that just leave things plugged in all the time so that is a possibility and then decides to get up and start
getting ready for work and then somehow this attack happens right so we know that she was found in the nude There is
some question was she did was she surprised you know was was she coming out of the
shower when she was attacked or did the killer strip her you know the the shower part and the
makeup part makes me seem to me makes it seem like she's getting ready for work and also then it goes back to the idea
that somebody knows her schedule because they would know when she would have to go to work mhm or somebody watched her
go into her apartment alone right is another possibility so regarding this this whole situation of her getting
ready for work what we do know is this that this was not in the newspapers but detectives specifically told her family
that they believe that Amy may have opened the door and was in her robe at the time that she opened the door and we
don't know or have details as to why they would come to this conclusion or tell the family that what we do know is
we have no signs of a forced entry so that has to be a consideration did somebody simply knock on the door ring
the doorbell and she lets them in or opens the door and they force their way in now the other thing that I wonder
about regarding this situation of telling the family that we believe she opened up the door and was in her robe
at that time we know that she was found dead upstairs did they find the robe downstairs near the front door you know
those are the questions that that you wonder how they came to that conclusion or at least why they were telling the
family that yeah now regarding the scene itself we have Chris Floyd he was one of
the Deputy sheriffs who was uh he was actually the first officer on the scene and he noted the position of Amy's body
and he says that he found it to be quite bizarre he said quote she was displayed
it wasn't as if she fell that way my first thought was this was to make a statement it's hard to know what the
reason why he believes this cuz we obviously didn't see how she was displayed so but I'm guessing there's
there's some kind of Reason well use the using just his words I think what we can
we can deduce from that is he is of the opinion that she was displayed that she didn't fall like that someone positioned
her in that manner in his opinion right but we also have possible postmortem wounds and does that come into a play of
where she i' assume that comes into the play of where she's going to be laying if you're attacking the body
after she's already dead well let's talk about that medallion for a while because
so much has been made in the newspapers about that Medallion if you look up this
case unfortunately there's not a lot of news coverage on this case there's there's a handful of of good newspaper
articles I'll say that uh that word good newspaper articles they're not great in
a sense that some of the lengthier ones while they make for a good type of murder mystery if it were to be
fictional this is a true story and the truth of some of this stuff seems to be left out of the papers now in their
defense this may be information that they just don't know okay so this Medallion if you look up The Columbus
Dispatch news stories regarding this case and I'm I'm I'm sure that there was probably one or two that made their way
through the Associated Press but they time and time again ask the question is this Medallion is this necklace the key
to the case because they're they're asking the obvious question here was this something that the killer brought
to the scene with them used it to tie her up and then either forgot about it was startled and had to leave the scene
earlier than they wanted to right or you know left it there for any number of reasons the truth about that Medallion
is it's very likely not the key to this case at all because we know this this is
one thing that we know to be fact her sister Sandy her older sister remember that she lived with for a time in
California oh Sandy says to us that that Medallion was not only not only did it belong to Amy but I know that it
belonged to her because I purchased this for for her right Sandy says that she bought the uh what she called a rosarian
themed medallion for Amy when the two attended a Reay festival in San Diego when Amy was out in California with
Sandy and then further more Sandy went on to tell me that not only did she purchase this for her little sister but
she knew that Amy would often keep necklaces hanging on a this is how it was described to me anyway
hanging on a from a lamp that was near her bed I think this was up on a desk or table of some
sort and that all of them just kind of hung from this lamp well we know that Amy was found in an upstairs
bedroom my thought is that this turns out to just be something handy that was already at the scene we know this per
her sister Sandy and that the killer grabbed it and used it to tie Amy up and then never felt the need to take it with
them because it wasn't theirs in the first place it had likely had no connection to the killer at all well the
fact that her sister's story is so detailed hey I know where I bought this for my sister right um and then also it
makes the idea of what the police are saying they think that she answers the door in a robe or something like that
when she's getting ready to go to work because maybe she had this in her hand or in the pocket of the RO or whatever
when she's getting ready because she was going to put it on well and in the defense of the reporters I think that
this is really just a detail that has gotten lost somewhere along the way that's gotten lost between the
investigation and the reporting of the murder and the investigation because Sandy was not questioned or spoken to
until about two days after Amy was actually killed remember she's still out in California so she has to fly back she
wants to be with with her family and during that time is when she spoke with the investigators so my guess is the way
that this thing went down is that very early on the newspapers are given some details regarding the crime and the
crime scene right which includes this Medallion or necklace whatever you want to call it and they kind of ran with
this idea I don't know that this information ever got to them that that is not the case that they don't have to
question this Medallion and being in the apartment anymore because it was supposed to be there right and a lot of
times when people cover a story again they just read an article and then repeat a lot of that stuff and then then
you have another paper saying hey this Medallion might have something to do with the connection you know I I buy
more of her sister's story that she bought it for her sister well I'm I'm stating it as fact I have no reason to
believe that anything other than exactly what she said happen so I was actually talking to a
friend of mine regarding this case cuz this is a bit of a pet case of mine you know you talk about red light cases this
is this is one for me and we were talking about this this Medallion this necklace thing and they asked me well
why would the detectives on the case still continue to let the newspapers believe that this Medallion might be a
big key to solving the case and my answer is simply this one the detectives don't owe that information to the
newspapers they may be wanting to hold that information back but then on top of that as detectives they're just happy
that somebody's reporting about this case because we talk about so many times that you need the Public's help and if
this case can stay somewhat in the public eye even though it has not you know that's probably their hopes there
and I do want to point out something regarding this case as well that there have been a couple detectives over the
years that have worked this case and I've not questioned their efforts and I don't think anybody should I from the
detectives that I've spoke to and from retired individuals that I've spoke to there there has been a lot of effort
made on this case this case is not cold for because of lack of effort on the investigation yeah but let's be honest I
mean the end of the ' 80s early 90s was a different time than now and there there was definitely more prejudice and
more racism going on and and more people being vocal about that and so to have a
20-year-old white girl dating you know pretty much all black guys there could be some police officers
on the case that are prejudiced or racist but it really doesn't seem that way in this case it really seems like
they were trying their best to solve this case for this family well speaking of investig ators there was a Franklin
County Sheriff's detective Clark he has been the one that is often cited in the newspapers when talking about Amy
Hooper's case and one thing one statement that he has made is that quote there are a couple of significant things
that only the killer would know end quote so one of these things might be the actual murder weapon because
although the cops have told the Press repeatedly right and even as recently as 2011 that they didn't know what the
bludgeoning weapon was they did tell the family Amy Hooper's family at the time of the murder at first that it might
have been a hammer now we don't know if they're just guessing here that it could
be a hammer or if in fact they did find the actual weapon and they're holding that information back right because a
lot of times when they're doing the autopsy they will go okay here is the here's the wound here's maybe a punctual
wound what are we looking for what kind of object and and they might have a broad Strokes of what that object is but
like you said the hammer could just be a guess yeah and then they told the family
that it looked like to them that Amy had run to her landline phone okay so this is kind of the full story of what
investigators are working with the what the evidence is showing them is that this is some this is how this might have
went down right that she answered the door in her robe and then the killer either is
welcomed into the home or forces their way into the apartment and then at some point Amy
made a move for the landline phone possibly to call for help they believe that the killer then grabbed the phone
and hit her over the head with the actual phone according to one family member they were told that blood was
found on the phone itself now that doesn't have to mean that she was hit with the phone we do know that
the only really true sign of struggle that was shown inside that apartment was the phone cord being ripped out of the
wall right and the fact that she dated a guy that was abusive to to her you know
one where's his whereabouts this day is is he around um I think that's something they
need to look into and also the men that she was dating was there any history of abuse with them maybe not that she
reported to the family or friends but do they have any arrest by being abusive to
somebody else that they dated mhm and so now you have those kind of suspects and
then it we have her wanting to go to bulling green right to hang out with a friend she she came back the day before
yeah right and so does she have somebody at home that she's seeing that would be
jealous of the fact that she went to go hang out with somebody in Bowling Green so you're saying we should get to some
possible suspects here Captain yeah that's what I'm saying well um and I'm starting with the
high school douchebag okay you know not in high school anymore but the guy that she
dated in high school well me finish up with the crime scene stuff first and then we'll get to possible suspects so
one thing the in the investigators are keeping mum on and won't even discuss with the family is whether Amy was
sexually assaulted or not now later all these years later we do know that DNA was found at the scene we do know that
that DNA does not belong to Amy this has been publicly stated we do not know the
source of that DNA but do we know if it's male or female well sounds like we don't know [ __ ] well
here's here's where I'm going to go with this okay they've they've never said this publicly okay so we're we're we're
basing our story off of what has been stated publicly throughout this the course of this very long
investigation but what we can do for you is we can pick apart the pieces of this
investigation and really tell you kind of what's going on with it based off of their actions and we do this often when
we look at these investigations how do we know that DNA was found at the scene well we know that
because they've public publicly stated that they have cleared possible suspects when testing DNA right okay the
only suspects that they have publicly stated have been cleared by DNA testing are
males so where I'm going with this is I believe believe that they have knowledge
that the DNA found at the scene that was not Amy is that of a male that our offender is in fact a man right because
there there could have been females that you would you would test right yeah yeah
so they must know that this DNA belongs to a man and they have tested several individuals and cleared them based off
of their DNA evidence well can you start with the X the abusive far eating jerk store yeah so earlier we mentioned Amy's
abusive boyfriend from when they attended wesland high school together well get this the the family says that
they have reason to believe that this guy actually tried to follow Amy to California remember her parents suggest
hey you got to get away from this guy you can go move with your aunt who lives in another part of Ohio or you could go
live with your your adult sister out in California she chooses California what I've been told the family says we have
reason to believe that this dude tried to follow her out to California but from what we can recall for whatever reason
he failed to do so meaning he never caught up with Amy while she was in California so then you wonder was he
waiting for her when she returned to Ohio yeah or did he hear about her returning and go oh she's back time time
to go back to be in The Jerk store as far as the family is aware of Amy Hooper's family they say that they are
not certain they have no reason to believe that the two actually ever saw each other ever again after Amy moved
out to California even when she moved back right but it certainly seems though that he was a good candidate for a
suspect to be the murderer given that he was violent and vindictive but according
to one of Amy's family members it seems that he has been ruled out okay I've been told by her family that this
individual was not only ruled out but he was cleared using uh DNA testing okay so
maybe they went and talked to him he said I had nothing to do with it here's my DNA clear me yeah I've not seen her
in God knows how long um I will cooperate with your investigation so where do they go to next the more recent
boyfriend well yeah that is the obvious place to go they probably may even went there before any other anybody else so
police honed in on her current boyfriend remember this is somebody that the family was unaware of he's a student at
Bowling Green State University at the time and Amy spent the weekend with this boyfriend in Bowling Green what we end
up learning here is that he does speak to police and he's very Cooperative he tells police that hey I gave her a small
diamond ring that very weekend the last weekend that I saw her and in fact it was still on her left hand when she died
when police found her that's sad but as we said Amy's mom didn't know about this
boyfriend and Amy didn't show her that diamond ring when she came over that Monday morning the morning that she was
killed yeah sometimes it's you know sometimes that's sensitive with your your parents you don't want to
tell them you're jumping into something too serious you know give them a little time well and I do want to I want to
remind you about something too is Amy's intentions so Amy was very much wanting to be in the fashion industry that's why
she took that job she she applied for that manager's job at the leather store right and she was working towards that
she was saving up for college her intention was to move back to to California and attend school there so I
can totally see a situation where maybe this wasn't as serious for Amy as it was
for the current boyfriend or maybe this is not something that you want to discuss with mom knowing that she plans
to move out of state soon right you know how it is you don't want to get in one of these long conversations with with
one of your parents regarding what you're doing and how the order that you're choosing to do them in I I prefer
to never talk to my parents about relationships sex or anything I mean or that I'm even
alive so the family does not know about the boyfriend they didn't know about the
ring at the time later they did find out that he was uh not only a good student at Bowling Green but he was also a
football player uh regarding this boyfriend though he was cleared now as far as public knowledge goes what I
could find in the newspapers we don't know why or how that was never stated public publicly other than he was
cleared so much so that police have gone on and stated that he's not a suspect they publicly said he's not a suspect
this is happening Monday morning correct so wouldn't he be at school yes I mean they would have some record if he went
to class and so he'd have a lot of aliis cuz if he was in a class of 30 then he has 30 aliis mhm and plus that's a it's
a hefty drive it's a 2 and 1/ half hour drive roughly so that's 5 hours you're going to be on the road mhm so I don't
know well and we got seem like he would be easy to clear yes well 100% it's it's
it would easy be easy to either put clear him or put him right on the suspect list MH and so what I think we
have here is it's early on in the investigation where they are stating they being law enforcement stating that
he the current boyfriend is not a suspect and my guess is that you're probably spot on here captain that there
are many people who are able to account for his whereabouts during that window of time and really that window of time
only has to be from 6:30 a.m. until 400 p.m. that day right so less than a full day and if he's at school all day long
well then he's not a good candidate for a suspect and what I've been told here is that
it's believed that even at a later date I I want to point something out here it's not like they find Amy's body and
then they're immediately plucking suspects and testing DNA and clearing people this isn't happening rapidly this
is happening slowly over a long period of time and we have him who very quickly is named as not a suspect from my
understanding that even at a later date even much later after being named as not a suspect he provided DNA and
they were able to clear him in that way so there's absolutely no question in regards to the boyfriend that's doing
your due diligence right there when you go okay we have aliis we have cleared him we don't think there's any way
possible that he was even in Columbus at the time but we're still going to go back now that we have DNA and make this
mother sucker take a DNA test well and that's why I stated earlier that I don't believe that this has not been solved
because of a lack of effort this is really them circling the wagons here and stating you know what we're going to
double check everything we're going to double triple check everything until we get this thing
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Amy Hooper /// Part 1 /// 294

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March, 1992 - Columbus, Ohio - A young woman is brutally attacked and killed in her home. To this day her killer remains at large. This is a case that is solvable and hopefully will be soon. This week Nic and the Captain take a look at a cold Columbus homicide case. Beer of the Week - Sohio Stout by Columbus Brewing Company Garage Grade - 4 and a quarter bottle caps out of 5

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Brief Summary

The episode discusses the unsolved murder of Amy Hooper, detailing her life, death, and the investigation.

Key points

The Tragic Case of Amy Hooper. Amy Hooper was a vibrant young woman whose life was cut short at just 20 years old.
A Mother's Instinct. Joy, Amy's mother, sensed something was wrong when she couldn't reach her daughter.
The Mystery of the Medallion. A unique medallion found at the crime scene raises questions about the motive behind Amy's murder.
The Mysterious Knife. Investigators are puzzled about the knife found at the scene, questioning its origin.
The Scene of the Crime. Hollis, Amy's father, discovers her lifeless body, prompting an immediate investigation.
Time of Death Investigation. Detectives narrow down the time of death based on Amy's activities before the murder.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Amy was only 20 years old when some savage took her life.

Introduction to Amy's case

6:43WatchNov 16, 2023

Tension

70/ 100High tension

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