Amanda L. Wienckowski, 20,(Body Found) Missing Since 12/7/08, Buffalo, NY

[Faith]

12/16/08 06:20 AM
Police ask public’s help in search for woman, 20

Buffalo police are looking for the public’s help to find a 20-year-old woman missing since Dec. 7.

Amanda L. Wienckowski is 5- foot-3, weighs 100 pounds and has blond hair and blue eyes.

She was last seen wearing a brown leather jacket, jeans and black knee-high boots. She has a butterfly tattoo on her back and a tattoo of a rose on her foot.

Wienckowski was reported missing by her mother, police said.

Anyone who may have information regarding Wienckowski’s whereabouts is asked to call 911 or the police confidential tip line at 847-2255.

http://www.buffalonews.com/437/story/524439.html

http://www.idahostatesman.com/102/story/605303.html

[Faith]

Amanda L. Wienckowski, 20, has been missing for more than a week.
Buffalo Police Department

http://media.buffalonews.com/smedia/2008/12/15/16/807-Amanda_20Wienckowski.embedded.prod_affiliate.50.jp g

Buffalo police are looking for the public's help to find a 20-year-old woman missing since Dec. 7.

Amanda L. Wienckowski is 5-foot-3, 100 pounds with blonde hair and blue eyes.

She was last seen wearing a brown leather jacket, jeans and black, knee-high boots. She has a butterfly tattoo on her back and a tattoo of a rose on her foot.

Wienckowski was reported missing by her mother, police said.

Anyone who may have information regarding Wienckowski's whereabouts is asked to call 911 or the police confidential tipline at 847-2255.


http://www.buffalonews.com/258/story/524041.html

[annalyzer]

Another beautiful young lady missing. I do hope she is okay.

[packy]

Hope they find her soon.

[Begood]

http://www.niagara-gazette.com/local/local..._009222414.html

Published: January 09, 2009 10:24 pm
BUFFALO: Body of Lewiston woman found
By Rick Pfeiffer

Buffalo police remained tight-lipped Friday night on the fate of “person of interest” picked up shortly after the body of a 20-year-old missing Lewiston woman was found in a garbage tote on the city’s East Side.

Family members said the body in tote was that of Amanda Wienckowski. However, Buffalo Police spokesman Michael DeGeorge said the body has been positively identified. An autopsy will determine the cause of death.

“We were called around 8 a.m. (Friday) to a location at Clinton and Spring streets,” DeGeorge said. “The body was discovered in a garbage tote in an alcove of (New Covenant United Church of Christ).”

DeGeorge and a spokesman for the New York State Police both confirmed that a search for Wienckowski, with the help of a specially trained K-9 cadaver dog had been scheduled to take place Friday morning in the Spring Street area.

Wienckowski was last seen alive when her roommate dropped her off at a home in the 100 block of Spring Street on the night of Dec. 5. Her family said she had left a shift as a bartender at Cocktail Bob’s in the Falls earlier in the evening.

Wienckowski reportedly had a heroin addiction and was working as a prostitute when she went to the Spring Street home. Her roommate told police investigators that he was waiting for her in his car when he received a text message telling him that she would be longer than she expected.

The roommate told investigators he couldn’t wait for Wienckowski and left to return to their apartment in Lewiston. When he failed to hear from Wienckowski after two days, he went to her family. Her mother reported her missing Dec. 7.

Buffalo police took the lead in the case and began actively looking for Wienckowski. The longer she remained missing, the more concerned her family became.

“We were hoping for the best,” her sister Danielle Wienckowski said. “We’re glad they found her, but you don’t know how to react (to her death).”

Shortly after the discovery of Wienckowski’s body, Buffalo police took her Spring Street “client” into custody.

“We do have a person of interest in custody,” DeGeorge said. “He has not been charged (with any crime).”

While denying that Wienckowski worked as a prostitute, her family did admit that she had been involved “with a bad crowd.”

“She made some mistakes,” he sister said. “But she had more than enough time (in her life) to turn things around.”

Danielle Wienckowski said another sister was moving back to the area and that she and Amanda were going to move in together. She also said Amanda had enrolled at Niagara County Community College to study nursing.

She also had been interested in a modeling career.

“She was getting her life together,” he sister said. “We don’t know how this could have happened. We don’t know how (someone) could have hurt her.”

Wienckowski was described as 5 feet 3 inches, 100 pounds, with blue eyes and blonde hair and was last seen wearing a leather jacket, jeans and black knee-high boots. The church alcove where her body was found is across the street from the home she was last seen at.

Wienckowski had some minor brushes with Falls police, having been twice arrested on shoplifting related charges in August 2007 and July 2008.

[Emyo]

This link includes a video of family members

http://www.wivb.com/dpp/news/search_for_woman_comes_to_terrible_end_090109

:1222423:

[Faith]

Updated: 01/10/09 07:48 AM
Police mum on how woman found in garbage tote died
Police question man in case involving drugs, prostitution

http://media.buffalonews.com/smedia/2009/01/10/07/676-bn-20090110-A001-lewistonwomansb-2239-MI0001.embedded.prod_affiliate.50.jpg

Amanda L. Wienckowski, the 20- year-old Lewiston woman whose body was found stuffed in a garbage tote outside an East Side church Friday, was murdered, according to her family.

But police have declined to say anything about the circumstances of her death until an autopsy is completed.

Buffalo homicide detectives were continuing to interview a man who allegedly had a paid sexual encounter with Wienckowski before she was reported missing Dec. 7. His home is across the street from the church at Spring and Clinton streets.

Authorities said a risky lifestyle of drugs and prostitution put the young woman in danger’s way. But these grim details, according to her family, do not even begin to scratch the surface in describing the woman they knew.

She spent her early years growing up in Kenmore. Her family then moved to Wheatfield, where she graduated from Niagara Wheatfield High School with a Regents diploma in 2006. She even dreamed of one day becoming a corrections officer.

Family members, in coming to terms with the death, pointed to photographs of a petite, blonde, blue-eyed young woman who seems to bubble with effervescence and happiness.

In one portrait, she’s cuddling an infant niece. In another, she’s smiling as if she did not have a care in the world.

Yet, there is the horrible reality. “She was killed. I don’t know how, but they are doing the autopsy,” said Leslie L. Brill Fink, her bereaved mother who lives in the Town of Tonawanda. “She was innocent. She was so young. She would never hurt anybody.”

The mother says she is at a loss for words in explaining how her daughter became a heroin addict, but she was at no loss for words when it came to Adam Patterson.

He’s the Lewiston man, police say, who lived with Wienckowski and drove her to the Spring Street home where she was hired to have sexual relations on Dec. 5.

“After he dropped her off, he called me two days later and asked me to come to his house on Walmore Road. At his house, he told me he left my daughter Friday night on the East Side and later found her purse in his truck,” Brill Fink said.

She said she agrees with what police have told her about Patterson. “The police called him a coward. It doesn’t make any sense, and they’re not doing anything to him,” Brill Fink said of Patterson’s decision to drive off and leave her daughter. “Why would he leave her? I don’t understand.”

Patterson told investigators he received a text message and phone call from Wienckowski stating she would be longer than expected at the home on the 100 block of Spring Street and so he left, according to authorities.

The home is across the street from New Covenant United Church of Christ, where the tote was discovered in an alcove at 7:55 a.m. Friday by a Central District officer investigating a tip. But, it was no secret that Wienckowski was missing in that neighborhood.

Her family and friends printed up thousands of circulars and canvassed the neighborhood, knocking on doors asking residents if they had seen her in recent days.

“Her mother’s pastor came to our door and showed us a picture of the young woman and asked if we had ever seen her,” Julius Allen said. “I said ‘No, I’ve never seen that young lady.’ ”

Allen and his wife are heartbroken. “I get chills. That’s my church across the street,” Marlene Allen said. “I have eight children, and I know just how that mother is feeling right now. If I could see her, I’d give her a hug and tell her that God will be with her.”

Late Friday, Buffalo police were consulting with the Erie County district attorney’s office on the case, and no one had been charged.

Buffalo police spokesman Michael DeGeorge declined to confirm details of the case.

Wienckowski’s family says whoever is responsible for her death will get what he deserves, but they wanted to focus on the young woman they knew best.

“She’d signed up for college the day before this occurred. She wanted to go into corrections,” said Carolee Wienckowski, one of Wienckowski’s older sisters. “If you knew her, you’d love her.”

Glenn Wienckowski, a brother, said his sister was a devoted aunt to his young children. “She loved her niece and nephew,” he said.

The 28-year-old brother had performed the sad task of identifying his sister’s remains at the Erie County Morgue Friday, after his mother was unable to go through with it.

One of 10 siblings, Wienckowski loved to play softball and dance, according to Matthew Clark, who described himself as her uncle.

“Since she was a little kid, she danced at my studio. Why would somebody leave her here?” Clark asked Friday afternoon, sitting in his car across the street from the Spring Street home where she had been dropped off last month. “Like any young adult, she’s had issues, but this is unfathomable.”

Clark, of North Buffalo, urged the public not to judge Wienckowski by this one part of her life, but to consider the countless moments of goodness that made her a lovable person who suffered a tragic death.

http://www.buffalonews.com/home/story/545062.html

[Faith]

:1222423::1222423::1222423:

[Grande]

Candlelight Vigil Held for Amanda Wienckowski
Posted By: Collin Bishop
Updated By: Christie Witt
13 mins ago

Friends and family of 20-year-old Amanda Wienckowski held a candlelight vigil in her honor Sunday evening.

The vigil was held at New Covenant United Church of Christ at Clinton and Spring Street - the place where Wienckowski's body was discovered by Buffalo Police.

"I miss my daughter. I just wish this never happened," said Glenn Wienckowski of his daughter. "All I know is that she was just with the wrong crowd."

Dozens of people gathered to remember Amanda's life. And many questioned how, and why, it took such a tragic turn.

"What has happened to Amanda, parents gotta know it can happen to any child," said Michelle Bliss, the victim's aunt. She said many of Amanda's relatives didn't even know she had begun traveling down a darker path. Relatives say police told them that drugs likely played a role in Amanda's death.

But her younger sisters say Amanda always encouraged them to do the right thing. "If you got in trouble, she'd be there to talk to me and ell me, Alyssa, you're stronger than this, you can do different," said fourteen year old Alyssa, Amanda's sister. She added that she doesn't want to travel down he same path.

Amanda's youngest sister, Mercedese was overwhelmed by the tremendous show of support at the Sunday night vigil. "She was a role model. She was great. She was a best friend that I told everything to. She shouldn't deserve this."

Erin Smith says she remembers stopping to buy honeybuns every morning on their walk to school. "She was a good girl, had good grades. She was always the good one."

Michelle Bliss says her niece's death should be a wake-up call to others. "I just hope other parents realize that it can happen to anybody. If it happened to Amanda it can happen to anybody because she had everything going for her."

Wienckowski had been missing since December 7th. Police had been actively searching for her since that time. On Friday morning, an officer following up on a tip found her body in a garbage tote in the alcove next to New Covenant. It was not clear how long she had been in the tote.

"Information was uncovered that we may be interested in a garbage tote," said Chief Dennis Richards. "The officers were told about it this (Friday) morning and Officer Duffy happened over to the scene and made the grim discovery."

Shortly after 9 o'clock Friday morning, police took a person of interest into custody at William and Nash Streets.

Buffalo Police Spokesman Mike DeGeorge says the individual is being questioned, but has not been arrested or charged with a crime.

Police are continuing their investigation. Detectives are awaiting the results of an autopsy to officially determine a cause of death.

Stay tuned to 2-On-Your-Side for further details.

WGRZ-TV

http://www.wgrz.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=63278&catid=37

[packy]

My condolences to her family.

Hope they find who did this soon.

[Faith]

My condolences to her family and friends. :1222423:

[Faith]

BUFFALO: Police waiting for autopsy results
Staff Reports
Niagara Gazette

Buffalo Police say it may now be weeks before they know the cause of death for Amanda Wienckowski.

The body of the 20-year-old Lewiston woman was discovered on Friday in a garbage tote in the alcove of a church at Clinton and Springs streets on the city’s East Side. She had been reported missing on Dec. 7 after failing to return home from what investigators had called a paid sexual encounter at a Spring Street home across from the church.

An autopsy on her body has been completed by the Erie County Medical Examiner. They are now awaiting the results of toxicology tests before making a final determination on the cause of Wienckowski’s death.

A person of interest, described as the “john” that Wienckowski had visited on Dec. 5, remains in Buffalo Police custody. He has not been charged in connection with either Wienckowski’s death or disappearance.

http://www.niagara-gazette.com/local/local_story_012195415.html

[Faith]

RIP Amanda :1222423:

http://tribeca.vidavee.com/bim/rest/file/GetFileThumbnailCustom/5E04B6C6F33B90055C0C665F0347DEC4/bdoy_giner_1-9.ogg.jpg

[sarahhod]

BUFFALO: Autopsy awaited in Wienckowski case

Police continue to question a person of interest in death of Lewiston woman
By Rick Pfeiffer
rick.pfeiffer@niagara-gazette.com

http://www.niagara-gazette.com/local/local_story_012000642.html




Buffalo Police say they are still “questioning” a man in the disappearance and death of a young Lewiston woman.

At the same time, investigators are awaiting the results of an autopsy to determine the cause of death of Amanda Wienckowski.

“There is nothing new to report at this time,” Buffalo Police spokesman Michael DeGeorge said over the weekend.

“The person of interest remains in custody and we are awaiting the results of the autopsy.”

Beyond that statement, Buffalo Police have been tight-lipped about the details of the case. Wienckowski’s body was discovered just before 8 a.m. Friday in a garbage tote in an alcove of a church at Clinton and Spring streets on the city’s East Side.

Her identity was confirmed by police late Friday night.

Wienckowski was last seen alive when her roommate dropped her off at a home in the 100 block of Spring Street on the night of Dec. 5. Her family said she had left a shift as a bartender at Cocktail Bob’s in the Falls earlier in the evening.

The roommate told police he had taken Wienckowski to the Spring Street home for a paid sexual encounter. Investigators said Wienckowski, who also had an addiction to heroin, had been working as a prostitute at the time of her disappearance.

The young woman reportedly sent a text message to her roommate telling him that she would be longer than she expected and he told investigators he couldn’t wait for Wienckowski and left to return to their apartment in Lewiston.

The 47-year-old man said when he failed to hear from Wienckowski after two days, he went to her family. Her mother reported her missing Dec. 7.

By Friday morning, Buffalo Police had asked for assistance in their search for Wienckowski from the State Police. A specially trained K-9 cadaver dog had been brought to the Spring Street area when detectives got the tip to check the garbage tote at the church.

Shortly after the discovery of Wienckowski’s body, police took her Spring Street “client” into custody. The identify of the client has not been confirmed by police and is being withheld by the Gazette.

Wienckowski’s family said they don’t know how she came to have contact with the man. While denying that Wienckowski worked as a prostitute, her family did admit she had been involved “with a bad crowd.”

“She made some mistakes,” her sister, Danielle Wienckowski said. “But she had more than enough time (in her life) to turn things around. She was getting her life together,” he sister said. “We don’t know how this could have happened. We don’t know how (someone) could have hurt her.”

[sarahhod]

http://i42.tinypic.com/2igj6yu.jpg
Sonya Garner, the mother of Antoine J. Garner, and her sister Suzetta Garner say there are several aspects of the case that point away from their son and nephew.
Charles Lewis/Buffalo News

Updated: 01/20/09 06:26 AM
Mother stands by son in Wienckowski’s death
By Lou Michel

http://www.buffalonews.com/home/story/554385.html



Antoine J. “Justice” Garner, who has been described as a person of interest in the disappearance and death of Amanda L. Wienckowski, told relatives she visited his East Side home Dec. 5.

The same relatives acknowledged he has a criminal past, that Wienckowski probably went to the Spring Street home for a sexual encounter and that he served time as a teenager for an assault involving a woman.

But they said the 22-year-old man adamantly insists he had nothing to do with the 20-year-old Lewiston woman’s monthlong disappearance and death.

“My main focus is that my son doesn’t get railroaded and that the right person is charged,” Sonya Garner, his mother, said Monday.

She knows the circumstances do not look good, but she said she believes her son when he says he had nothing to do with Wienckowski’s death.

Police say there’s been “no rush to judgment” on their part.

“The Buffalo Police Department is not in the position to ‘railroad’ anyone,” said Dennis J. Richards, chief of detectives. “In fact, there has been no arrest in the disappearance of Amanda Wienckowski.”

During a visit with her son Sunday in the Erie County Holding Center, she said, he told her Wienckowski, whom he only knew as “Summer,” had been dropped off at his grandmother’s house on Spring Street, where he had been living, and later left there alive.

Quoting her son, Sonya Garner said: “ ‘This dude brought her here. She came and left.’ ”

On Jan. 9, the day Wienckowski’s body was found stuffed in a trash tote outside a church across from the grandmother’s home, Buffalo police took Garner into custody as a person of interest and also charged him in an Oct. 18 rape involving another woman.

He had spent four years at a juvenile detention facility for assaulting a female when he was 16 years old. Despite that, Sonya Garner and her sister Suzetta Garner say there are several aspects of the Wienckowski case that point away from their son and nephew.

“My son isn’t perfect, but there are too many open blanks with this case,” Sonya Garner said. “I’m a woman myself and feel bad for Amanda’s family, but the truth needs to come out.”

Her questions and concerns include these issues:

• Other people were in the Spring Street house the night of Dec. 5, when Wienckowski visited Garner and, therefore, would have been aware of foul play.

• Where would Garner hide Wienckowski’s body for five weeks before police received a tip the morning of Jan. 9 to check a trash tote placed outside the church.

• An unidentified man in a white Cadillac with Pennsylvania plates showed up at the Spring Street house Dec. 13, and police have not tracked him down.

“If [my son] killed her, my mom would have heard something, and I would have seen something that night when I picked up my 13-year-old daughter at 10:15 p. m. My mother was baby-sitting her,” Sonya Garner said.

She also said her son is acquainted with the woman he is accused of raping Oct. 18, but he denies attacking her.

“[Police] don’t even have a rape kit to prove the charges,” the mother said, adding that she found it strange that police would happen to have that case to bring against her son only hours after he was identified as a person of interest in the Wienckowski case.

Richards had a quick answer for that question.

“Numerous efforts were made by investigators to have Mr. Garner make himself available to police for questioning,” Richards said, “[and] he didn’t come in for questioning.”

Sonya Garner said if her son had anything to hide, he would not have let police officers into the Spring Street house on Dec. 7 when they came to search for Wienckowski.

Wienckowski’s mother, Leslie Brill Fink, had filed a missing person report that day after meeting with her daughter’s roommate, Adam Patterson.

Patterson, who has admitted he had a paid sexual encounter with Wienckowski but later opened his Lewiston home to her as a friend, has said he drove her to the Spring Street residence on Dec. 5, at her request.

Police believe Wienckowski, who was addicted to heroin, went to Spring Street for a paid sexual encounter.

Patterson told authorities he waited two hours on the night of Dec. 5 outside the Spring Street residence before leaving, claiming that Wienckowski had text messaged and called him on her cell phone to say she would be delayed.

Police have not said what time Patterson had dropped off Wienckowski at the Spring Street home.

“I would have seen something when I went to pick up my daughter,” Sonya Garner said, adding that her son had let her into her mother’s home when she dropped off her daughter at about 7:20 p. m. and picked her up at about 10:15 p. m.

She also said that a trash tote reported missing from a Spring Street residence was stolen the week of Dec. 7. Through a tip to police, it was discovered outside the church Jan. 9 with Wienckowski’s body inside.

“Where was that tote from Dec. 7 to Jan. 9? Somebody would have smelled the remains of a decomposed body,” Sonya Garner said. “My son doesn’t have a car or truck to move that tote, and he doesn’t have anyone he could borrow a car or truck from.”

The cause of Wienckowski’s death has not been released, pending autopsy and toxicology results.

Sonya Garner said that despite her son’s past problems with the law, he was getting his life in order.

“He’d just gotten a job at Mc-Donald’s and was picking up his work schedule when he was taken into custody. . . . He was planning to go to Bryant & Stratton to study law enforcement.”

She added that authorities need to thoroughly investigate all aspects of the Wienckowski case to avoid charging the wrong person.

[Grande]

http://i44.tinypic.com/8yhx5g.jpg

www.myspace.com/bunique08

[Grande]

Updated: 02/18/09 09:32 AM
With no signs of violence, death has been ruled accidental
Woman found dead in tote died of drug overdose
By Lou Michel
NEWS STAFF REPORTER

Amanda L. Wienckowski, the young Lewiston woman found frozen, naked and stuffed inside an East Side trash tote last month, died from a drug overdose.

Erie County District Attorney Frank Sedita III said an autopsy also determined there were no signs of violence and that the manner of her death has been ruled accidental.

But that determination is not sitting well with Wienckowski’s mother.

“I don’t believe that at all,” said Leslie Brill Fink, Amanda’s mother. “I feel there’s more to this and somebody needs to do their job and figure this out.”

“Obviously, my daughter did not take off all her clothes and throw herself into the garbage can.”

An investigation is continuing to determine who placed her body in the tote, which was discovered Jan. 9 in the alcove of a church across from the Spring Street house she was driven to by her roommate, Sedita said Tuesday.

“If the investigation reveals credible evidence of who disposed of her body in such a disgraceful fashion, we will prosecute,” he said.

The determination that it was a fatal overdose caused by “acute opiate intoxication” was confirmed by all four medical doctors at the Erie County medical examiner’s office after reviewing toxicology tests, Sedita said.

“There’s no evidence of hypothermia, which means you have to be alive when you’re exposed to the cold,” Sedita said. “Nor are there any identifiable lethal injuries. In other words, no trauma indicative of foul play.”

Fink said too many questions remain unanswered.

“Nothing makes sense,” she said. “Nothing anybody is telling us makes sense.”

“Did somebody give something to her that knocked her out — then, took advantage of her, and, then, threw her out?” she said. “These are my questions.”

Fink said semen was found on her daughter’s body. She wants to know whose it was.

Her face was bloodied when her body was found. How did that happen?

She is also not satisfied with the accounts given by the man who drove her daughter to the address who claims “not to know anything” and the man she met there who says he “never saw [Amanda] before.”

“I’m very, very upset, if, for whatever reason, this is what they’re concluding.” he district attorney said, if the investigation produces evidence that an individual injected her with the intention of causing her death, “then you could prosecute for a homicide offense.”

He cited a case his office is prosecuting against Julius C. Franquet, 41, of the Town of Tonawanda, who is charged with second-degree murder in the death of his girlfriend, Annmarie Paciorek, 38, for allegedly injecting her with a fatal amount of a prescription painkiller last December.

At this point, Sedita said it remains unknown if Wienckowski injected herself or if it was someone else.

The 20-year-old woman was reported missing once her family found out she had been taken to the house at 157 Spring St. on Dec. 5 by Adam Patterson, her 42-year-old roommate. Patterson told authorities he had received text messages and a cell phone call from her saying she would be delayed inside the residence.

Antoine Garner, the man Wienckowski went to visit for what police believe was a sexual encounter, was charged later on Jan. 9 by Buffalo police in an unrelated Oct. 18 rape. He allegedly choked a woman into unconsciousness by tightening a piece of cloth around her neck during the attack.

Garner’s family has insisted that authorities wrongly labeled him a “person of interest” in the Wienckowski case.

Meanwhile, a close friend of Wienckowski’s family has organized a fundraiser to help cover the cost of her funeral. The event is set from 6 p. m. to midnight March 21 in the Dom Polski Club, 576 Oliver St., North Tonawanda.

The gathering will include a silent auction, a 50-50 drawing, music, dancing and food. Admission tickets are $20 apiece. For information, call Joanna M. Hemmerling at 444-1186.

Some of the funds will be used to create a memorial in Wienckowski’s honor.

http://www.buffalonews.com/cityregion/story/582624.html

[CSAFD]

im don think its accidental,..im thinking more along the lines of a Hotshot drug.

[Nut44x4]

City, County Sued Over Death of Woman Found in Tote
Posted By: Scott Brown 32 mins ago

Ever since her daughter, Amanda Wienckowski, was found dead - stuffed in a garbage tote on the Buffalo's East Side back in January - her mother Leslie Brill Fink feels she's been getting the run around from the Erie County Medical Examiner's Office which ruled Amanda, who her family admits had a drug problem, died of an accidental drug overdose.

"We know my daughter was murdered," said Fink.

And getting the run around from the Buffalo Police Department, which despite the M.E.'s ruling, says it has an on-going investigation into Wienckowski's death as a possible homicide.

"It's been seven months and no one's called me with this on-going investigation," says her mother.

Now, Amanda's family has sued both the city and the county, seeking the release of all of the information surrounding her death.

The family wants to use the information so that a second, independent autopsy can be performed on her body.

In response to the suit, the police department reiterated that it had an active investigation into Amanda's death, and that releasing internal information could hurt a potential future prosecution.

Scott Brown: "Why not let the police do their job?"

Steve Cohen, the family's attorney: "We will let the police do their job, we'll encourage them to do their job.

"And the first way we're going to do that is by getting the Medical Examiner's office to wake up and get on top of the file and say wait a minute, an accidental drug overdose doesn't end up with someone being naked, frozen solid, and and folded up in a garbage tote."

Police say that Wienckowski was working as a prostitute at the time of her death.

The man she was living with when she disappeared last December says he dropped her off at a home on the east side and never saw her again.

Fink: "I want people to pay, people are sitting out there that know something horrible happened and let it happen and just kind of swept it under the table, that's how I feel."

The man at whose home Wienckowski was allegedly dropped off was subsequently arrested on an unrelated sex charge.

The man who Wienckowski was living with has retained an attorney.

The County Attorney's Office, which represents the Medical Examiner, says it's evaluating the lawsuit.

The suit is scheduled to be heard August 21st.
http://www.wgrz.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=68973&catid=13

[Amusedtdth]

Such a waste of a beautiful life. I really feel for Amandas family and wish they finally get the answers they are seeking. I really feel that one of those two men know EXACTLY what happened and are cowards who won't fess up. If she did die of an accidental overdose the most they are looking at is gross misconduct of a corpse unless the police can prove they administered the drugs.
RIP Amanda:1222423::1222423::1222423:

[Nut44x4]

Parents are on a crusade for the truth

September 27, 2009
They are on a crusade. They are on a crusade to prove that their daughter was murdered, and to find out who did it. They have questions that deserve answers.

The troubled daughter whom they say was straightening out ended up dead, naked and stuffed in a garbage tote. They believe, with good reason, that she was murdered. But believing it is different than proving it. This is the nightmarish purgatory in which Leslie Brill and Ken Fink live.

Brill is the mother, Fink is the stepfather, of Amanda Wienckowski. Amanda was the 20-year-old woman found discarded last January on Buffalo’s Clinton Street. She had been missing for five weeks, since being dropped off at a house across from where her body was found. The medical examiner said Amanda—whose hair had been shorn, whose body was bruised and contained traces of the date-rape drug GHB—died of an accidental overdose.

Her mother and stepfather do not believe it. I talked to them last week at a restaurant near their Tonawanda home.

“She did not jump headfirst into that garbage tote on her own,” said Ken Fink, a contractor with a steady gaze. “Nothing adds up. Nobody has been held accountable.”

Amanda had long blond hair and sky-blue eyes, but she was not the typical girl-next-door. She was a heroin addict who worked as a prostitute to pay for her habit. She lived with a 42-year-old man who admits he dropped her off that night on Clinton Street. She likely never left the house alive.

One grim but plausible scenario is Amanda went there to turn a trick, stayed to party and overdosed. She was eventually dumped in the garbage tote by dirtbags who did not want to call the cops and deal with the blowback. If it happened that way, it would be wrong, sick and cowardly. But it would not be murder.

Leslie Brill and Ken Fink do not believe it. Maybe it is just the wishful thinking of two loving, grieving parents. But I do not think so.

Their lawyer last week sued for Buffalo’s police files. The department will not release the files because the case remains open. It is the latest step by Amanda’s parents in a crusade for the truth. Their next move may be exhuming her body for an independent autopsy. They may need to move the ball on their own. With an overload of unsolved homicides, Buffalo police may not be inclined to go full-bore on a suspicious, but officially accidental, death.

There are reasons her parents believe she was murdered. They say Amanda— who spoke with her mother every day— had gotten clean, was headed to college and was taking an anti-addiction drug. They say she was lured to the house by e-mails from a man posing as a photographer looking for models. They think that she was held against her will, drugged and killed. A forensic expert told them her bruises are signs of a struggle that prompted heart failure.

Antoine Garner is the man whom Amanda went to see. Police describe him as a “person of interest” in the case. Garner is now in jail, charged with raping a woman seven weeks before Amanda disappeared. He has denied involvement in her death.

“Just because things [look] a certain way doesn’t necessary mean you have enough to make an arrest,” said Dennis Richards, Buffalo’s chief of detectives. “We still are very interested in knowing who was with [Amanda] in the last moments of her life and who deposited her in the garbage tote.”

Richards told me that it is no sham investigation, that detectives Noreen Walsh and Mary Evans are on the case. District Attorney Frank Sedita said he cannot prosecute if there is no arrest and no proof of homicide.

Which leaves Amanda’s parents in limbo. And on a crusade.

http://www.buffalonews.com/cityregion/story/809116.html

[CSAFD]

"medical examiner said Amanda—whose hair had been shorn, whose body was bruised and contained traces of the date-rape drug GHB—died of an accidental overdose."

if its GHB, then it was NO accidental overdose, i think Amanda was murdered.

[Nut44x4]

Family of Young Girl Found Dead Still Seeking Answers

Chris Jamele (2009-11-07)
BUFFALO, NY (WBFO) - The family of Amanda Wienckowski is planning a fundraiser to pay for a second autopsy after exhuming the twenty year old's body.
Wienckowski's frozen and naked body was found in a garbage tote earlier this year. The cause of death was determined to be an accidental overdose of drugs, but the family is convinced that she was killed.

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wbfo/news.newsmain/article/0/0/1575430/WBFO.News/Family.of.Young.Girl.Found.Dead.Still.Seeking.Answ ers

[Nut44x4]

http://www.wkbw.com/news/local/69439807.html
Family of Dead Teen Wants Independent Autopsy

A local family continues to look for closure in the case of a young woman whose naked body was dumped in a garbage tote. Authorities believe she died of a drug overdose, so how did her body end up where it did?

The family of Amanda Wienckowski says the autopsy report they were given by authorities was incomplete. They want answers so they plan to exhume Amanda's body, and have it flown to California to undergo a second autopsy by a team of forensic experts.

"My daughter was murdered. And whoever killed my daughter is still out there and nothing has been done," said Leslie Brill, Amanda's mother.

The death certificate for Amanda, which was issued by the Erie County Medical Examiner's Office, lists her death as an "accident" due to "acute opiate intoxication."

Amanda had been missing for a month when her body was found on church property on Buffalo's east side in a garbage tote naked and frozen solid, back on January 8, 2009.

"Somebody killed my daughter and threw her out like she was garbage and I have no answers, no answers," said Brill.

The Buffalo Police Department is handling this investigation. Tonight, police spokesman Mike DeGeorge re-affirmed that this case remains open and active and in the hands of homicide detectives.

But Amanda's supporters are frustrated with the lack of progress and they are now launching their own investigation, which starts with a second autopsy. "We are going to exhume her body, send it out to a very famous company to have them re-autopsy this body," said WBEN Radio Host Kathy Weppner, who is helping coordinate this effort.

Volunteers plan to fan out into area neighborhoods next weekend to raise enough money to fly Amanda's body to California for forensic testing.

"I told Leslie that I am going to purchase my own ticket, I am going get on the plane with Amanda and Amanda's body will have all of the answers," said Brill.

Brill believes the answers in this case can be unearthed when they exhume her daughter. "We don't know what happened to her and I want to know, and I want the people brought to justice," said Brill.

The family hopes to raise at least $7,000 next in their Justice for Amanda campaign next week. Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Erie County Medical Examiner's Office tells Eyewitness News that they have no comment about this case.

[downunder]

How awful. The family should not have to fund their own investigation. Even if it was an accidental overdose the family and Amanda still deserve answers for how this happened and who treated her so badly.

She was thrown away like rubbish when she died, and now her memory is being tossed aside as well.

[Amusedtdth]

Not withstanding the point the GHB was found in her system.....accidental? Personally, I think not..jmho, of course.

[Nut44x4]

Second Autopsy For Woman Found In Garbage Tote
Posted By: Scott Brown Posted By: Scott Brown 16 mins ago



Twenty year old Amanda Wienckowski disappeared one year ago this week.

About a month later, her nude body was found upside down in a garbage tote on Buffalo's east side.

Wienckowski had a serious drug habit, and the Erie County Medical Examiner's office ruled her death an accidental drug overdose.

Her family though, has been convinced Amanda was murdered, citing how her body was found, the presence of a date rape drug in her system, as well as bruises on her body.

Within the next few weeks, her family will have Amanda's body exhumed and flown to California where an independent autopsy will be done.

Scott Brown: "What do you think the autopsy results are going to show?"

Leslie Brill Fink, Amanda's mother: "I believe Amanda struggled for her life and that someone gave her the GHB (date rape drug) that was found in her system."

Despite the county medical examiner's ruling of an overdose, the Buffalo Police Department says homicide detectives have an open and active investigation into Wienckowski's death.

Wienckowski was last seen being dropped off at the home Antoine Garner last December 5th, and a police source says Garner remains on the radar screen of investigators.

Although the independent autopsy will only take a day or two to be completed, it's expected results from a new round of toxicology tests will take a few weeks.

"It's like reliving everything over again. It's almost a year later and we have no answers and we have no closure because we do not know what happened to Amanda," says her mother.

Anyone interested in helping to defray the family's costs for the autopsy can contribute at: "Justice For Amanda" at any Bank of America branch.

http://www.wgrz.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=72456&provider=gnews

[Amusedtdth]

I hope this family finds the answers they are looking for and pray they are not setting themselves up for dissapointment. Even though if they do get what they are looking for it means their daughter was murdered and it also means closure won't come until someone is brought to justice.

[LiveLaughLuv]

About a month later, her nude body was found upside down in a garbage tote on Buffalo's east side.

Wienckowski had a serious drug habit, and the Erie County Medical Examiner's office ruled her death an accidental drug overdose.

Her family though, has been convinced Amanda was murdered, citing how her body was found, the presence of a date rape drug in her system, as well as bruises on her body.

Within the next few weeks, her family will have Amanda's body exhumed and flown to California where an independent autopsy will be done.

Scott Brown: "What do you think the autopsy results are going to show?"

Leslie Brill Fink, Amanda's mother: "I believe Amanda struggled for her life and that someone gave her the GHB (date rape drug) that was found in her system."

Despite the county medical examiner's ruling of an overdose, the Buffalo Police Department says homicide detectives have an open and active investigation into Wienckowski's death.

I don't get this..this young woman had GHB in her blood, found head down in a garbage bin, bruises on her body and yet it's ruled accidental OD? Why isn't it being ruled a homicide? This woman didn't die scampering through a garbage can...someone put her there...I think the ME made a huge error in how they listed her COD..

If she had GHB, someone must have had sex with her...did they come up with any semen? DNA of another person? If she struggled, there must be something of the perpetrator on her body...some evidence..

I feel for Amanda's parents, they want and deserve answers as to how their child died and found thrown away in a garbage can. This isn't something someone would do to kill themselves..:sad0119:

[CSAFD]

I don't get this..this young woman had GHB in her blood, found head down in a garbage bin, bruises on her body and yet it's ruled accidental OD? Why isn't it being ruled a homicide? This woman didn't die scampering through a garbage can...someone put her there...I think the ME made a huge error in how they listed her COD..

i believe that too. Amanda WAS murdered. she didnt get into that tote by herself, i mean come on. accident my a**. someone killed her. pure and simple.