28 JAN 2022
Missing mum and baby in five-year cold case turn up 30 minutes from last known location
The woman went missing in the middle of the night, with no clothes or any personal items, but has now been found in a trailer home with her daughter and a new baby. A mum and her daughter, who had been missing for more than five years, have been found – just 30 minutes away from their last known sighting. Amber Renaye Weber and Miracle Smith disappeared in 2017. Police in North Carolina said that the woman, who was 21 at the time, was only reported to them around two months after she actually went missing.
And it had been so long since they disappeared that, despite many tips, the case was being classed as cold one. However, the pair were found on Tuesday, just 20 miles away from their last sighting – and the mother had another baby with her, too. Police had been investigating a trailer home belonging to Joe Smith – the maternal grandfather of the girl’s children.
He was arrested for possession of a firearm. But during the search, the woman and the two children were found, and it later emerged that the man’s son is the father or her children. Four guns were found, and seized, at the property. Michael East, US marshal for the eastern district of North Carolina said: “The culmination of years of following leads and tips resulted in the outcome that we had all hoped for today; the successful recovery of a child who had been missing since December 2017.
“Finally, someone gave us a piece of information we were able to corroborate. Then based on that, we basically obtained some criminal charges on Joe Smith.
The search brought some closure and relief to family and friends of the missing person.”
It is unclear how or why the woman went missing, and how she was never found given that she was living in her partner’s grandfather’s home – with a newborn baby – and details on this have yet to be released by local police.
