AMANDA BROWN - 7 yo (1999) - Tampa FL

TAMPA - Every year for the last 11 years, Roy
Brown has celebrated his daughter's birthday in the same way: by going
to the shores of Old Tampa Bay, by the waters where investigators last
searched for little Amanda's body. "The worst part about it is
before all of this even took place me and Mandy used to come out here
and fly kites," said Brown. Amanda Brown was just seven when she
went missing. Detectives arrested Willie Crain, a local crabber and
convicted child molester, for her murder. For weeks investigators
searched the waters off the Courtney Campbell Causeway where Crain took
his boat, but Amanda's body was never found. "I didn't get to
see her have boyfriends. I didn't get to run them off. There's just so
many things I've missed out on," added Brown.


Brown says since
Amanda's disappearance, he's been as involved as he can be with missing
children. According to the National Center for Missing and
Exploited Children, there are still more than 300 kids in Florida who
have gone missing in the last 25 years and have never been found. Brown
says he's become friendly with many of those children's parents, like
those of Zachary Bernhardt, a little boy who disappeared exactly two
years after Amanda. "They go through life every day thinking
Zachary is going to come home. They don't have nothing like what I got. I
have somebody on death row," explained Brown, which he added was little
solace. As he and his family celebrate what would have been
Amanda's 19th birthday, Brown says he fears his memories are also
growing older. "It just gets harder every year. I guess as I get
older I forget things that I don't want to forget, " added Brown. So
Saturday, Brown and his family released 19 purple balloons to remember
the girl Amanda Brown was and honor the woman she might be today. Willie
Crain is on death row, though he maintains his innocence. Guilty
or innocent, Crain might not make it to his execution date. He has been
diagnosed with colon cancer.