AMANDA LANKEY - 13 yo - (2004) - / POI: Cecil Wallis (deceased-suicide) - White Cloud MI

Amanda Lankey

7 years: Amanda Lankey case unsolved

13-year-old found murdered in Manistee Forest

Saturday, 18 Jun 2011, 8:08 AM EDT

• By Crystal Hilliard
  

WHITE CLOUD, Mich. (WOOD) -  Amanda Lankey was spending the night at her friend Jessica Foster's home on the night of June 21, 2004. She didn't return home, and a search began - though an Amber Alert was never issued.

Two weeks later, the 13-year-old was found brutally killed in the Manistee National Forest. Now, seven years later, there are still more questions than answers. No one has ever been arrested in connection with her death.

Though her family now lives in Florida, they return to West Michigan each year at this time to hold a vigil and remember their daughter, their sister, the smiling teen who was somehow murdered.  

Amanda's mom, Victoria Foster, and her siblings are in West Michigan for their annual vigil. At  7 p.m. Saturday, the vigil for Amanda will be held at Mill Pond, 1403 James Street, followed immediately by a benefit concert put on by her brother and some friends. Foster hopes the vigil keeps her daughter's murder in the public's eye and help gather information that could lead to an arrest.

Above all, she doesn't want other mothers to go through what she has.

http://www.woodtv.com/dpp/news/local/nw_mich/7-years-Amanda-Lankey-case-unsolved

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.
Amanda's backpack, money and shoes were all left in the room she disappeared from.

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.

(Information valid as of August 2, 2007)

http://www.amw.com/fugitives/case.cfm?id=47042

Man linked to cold case murder dies

11:52 PM, Nov 10, 2011

WHITE CLOUD, Mich. (WZZM)- If he knew anything about the unsolved murder of 13 year old Amanda Lankey,  Cecil Wallis, Sr. took those secrets to the grave.

"I know he knows or I thought he knew something that would help us in this case," says Amanda's mother, Victoria Foster. "That's something we are never going to be able to find out from him. There may be things he took to his grave."

Police believe Wallis committed suicide a few hours before he was due in court Thursday, to face charges for sexually assaulting two underage teenagers.

Foster wonders if guilt over things Wallis did or knew drove him over the brink.  

Wallis was a person of interest in the 2004 murder of Amanda Lankey. The teenager was friends with Wallis' stepdaughter, and the night she disappeared she was sleeping over at his home.

Lankey's body was discovered two weeks later, a few miles away in the Manistee National Forest.

"I think somebody in that house knew something," says Foster.

For seven years, Amanda's mother has been waiting for the killer to be identified and punished.  Even though he is now dead, if Cecil Wallis was involved, she wants to know.

"I have to know," she says. "My family has to know everything that happened the night Amanda went missing. We have to keep going. We are not going to quit because he is dead."

There is also a Cecil Wallis, Jr. He is on parole after serving a 17 month sentence for beating two women.  Police say he is also a person of interest in the murder of Amanda Lankey.

"I'm not willing to stop until I know for sure," says Foster. "A little girl doesn't disappear out of somebody's house without somebody knowing. Until we find out, I'm not giving up."

http://www.wzzm13.com/news/article/185441/2/Man-linked-to-cold-case-murder-dies