Post by Scumhunter on Mar 9, 2016 21:25:03 GMT -5
(Above photo credit: mlive.com)
A Missing Young Girl
Amanda Lankey was a fun loving, young teenager. She loved music, and played the trumpet and the violin. She did well in school. She was a goofy kid, always joking around. And Amanda had lots and lots of friends. Amanda had just turned thirteen, and wanted to spend the summer with her friends.
The thirteen-year-old was raised in White Cloud, Mich., but moved to Florida with her mom and brother in 2004. The summer after the move, Amanda and her brother wanted to stay in White Cloud to be near their friends. So while Amanda's mom settled into their new Florida home, Amanda and her brother stayed with her grandparents back in her hometown. On June 20, 2004, weeks before she was supposed to return to Florida, Amanda spent the night at one of her closest friend's house.
When Amanda's friend woke up the next morning, she made a startling discovery. Amanda was gone, and the bedroom window was open. A few hours later Amanda's grandfather contacted the police, reporting that Amanda was missing. But the police didn't treat Amanda as an abduction.
Based on what they knew at that time, they thought Amanda was a runaway. And there were reported sightings of Amanda over the next several days that seemed to confirm the cops' beliefs. But a gruesome scene would soon reveal that Amanda's disappearance was not that of a runaway teenager ... it was something much worse.
The Gruesome Discovery
On July 5, two weeks after Amanda went missing, a body was found by mushroom hunters in the Manistee National Forest. Police confirmed that the body was Amanda's. Current investigators now know she was not a runaway child. They know that night, Amanda disappeared from her room, possibly even leaving through the window to meet someone. That very night, police say she was killed.
Amanda's body had been laying in the woods for almost the entire two weeks she was missing. And her body was badly decomposed. According to the Medical Examiner, Amanda was beaten in the head, using a metal pipe or a baseball bat. This gruesome crime horrified the White Cloud area, which is not used to seeing such heinous crimes. And now cops need to find the killer.
Cops are trying to break this three year old murder case. Tips are coming in. Cars have been searched, internet chats have been analyzed, and persons of interest are being looked at. They do believe that whoever killed Amanda is from White Cloud, and is probably still in the area. And they, along with all of Amanda's loved ones, want to see the person who committed this sinister crime brought to justice.
web.archive.org/web/20100107031122/http://www.amw.com/fugitives/brief.cfm?id=47042#case
The above is from the old AMW website archives, where Amanda Lankey's homicide was a web-exclusive case. There would be huge updates in the case. In 2011, the man whose house Amanda was staying in, Cecil Walls, was arrested for assaulting two girls. He would commit suicide in jail the same year.
In March of 2014, Walls sister, Candace Baumgartner-Wallis, a former police officer, pleaded guilty to one count of lying to detectives — a lie that had nothing to do with Amanda’s murder. As part of the plea deal, she agreed to no longer work at the Department of Human Services in Newaygo County.
A month later, Marcus's nephew, Cecil Wallis, pleaded guilty on Monday to providing false information to a police officer.
Candace Baumgartner-Wallis was sentenced to 30 consecutive weekends in jail.
Marcus Wallis was sentenced to 60 days in jail.
A Detective working the case believes Cecil Wallis killed Amanda and family members helped cover it up.
My thoughts? It sounds like Cecil Wallis is the guy- and he's no longer a menace to society anyway. But it would be great for Amanda's family to have official closure. I will link to the news updates below the admin notes.
Admin Note #1: According to news articles, Anyone with information regarding the Lankey homicide is asked to call the non-emergency number at Newaygo County Central Dispatch at 231-689-5288.
Admin Note #2: If you have any news-related updates on this case, please contact us here: amwfans.com/thread/1662/website-contact-form
www.mlive.com/news/muskegon/index.ssf/2011/10/newaygo_county_man_who_owned_h.html
legacy.wzzm13.com/story/news/local/2014/02/01/5105345/
woodtv.com/2014/03/17/baumgartner-sentenced-in-lankey-case/
woodtv.com/2014/04/17/brother-of-lankey-murder-suspect-pleads-guilty/