The FBI is hoping a reward of up to $20,000 will help solve the case of a Jefferson County woman who vanished in 2005. Investigators have also released a new missing person poster showing Amanda Kay Jones in the clothes she was wearing the day she disappeared.
The federal agency is seeking information leading to the location of Jones, or details about anyone who was involved in the disappearance.
"All I want is for my mom to come home," said 13-year old Hannah Jones. She made her first public comments about the case Tuesday during a news conference at the FBI's St. Louis office.
Several tips have come in over the past nine years, but nothing has panned out. It's hoped the reward will attract what authorities describe as "specific information" about the case.
"Sometimes money's the push," said Lieutenant Colonel Steve Meinberg with the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department.
Jones was last seen August 14, 2005, at the Hillsboro Civic Center. She met with the alleged father of her unborn child. Jones was 8-and-a-half months pregnant at the time of her disappearance. Her car was found unlocked and abandoned hours later in the Civic Center parking lot. Jones' cell phone, wallet, keys and purse have not been found.
"When you lose someone like this, at this magnitude, and you have no answers it's worse than death," said Bertha Probst, Amanda Jones' mother.
"I know there's someone out there who knows something that can at least give this child some closure," she added.
Investigators are asking anyone with information about the case to contact the St. Louis office of the FBI at 314-589-2500.