WHERE IS AMANDA?
COPS REOPEN PROBE FOUR YEARS AFTER DREXEL HILL WOMAN VANISHED
UPPER DARBY » Township police are reopening their investigation into the disappearance of Amanda DeGuio, a 24-year-old mother of two who has not been seen since leaving her mother’s home back in 2014.
Upper Darby Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood said Monday morning that the police are changing their investigative position from a missing person to a foul-play investigation as the case remains unsolved going on four years.
“We are going forward as best we can do, and hopefully the information that we’ve obtained we can bring some type of closure to the family,” said Chitwood. “As a result of what the detectives have learned and the information we’ve gotten, we feel strongly that there needs to be a new direction into the investigation.”
Chitwood would not add any specifics as to what the direction would be that detectives would take, even after all leads have been exhausted.
DeGuio disappeared without a trace in early June 2014 from her mom’s Drexel Hill home. Police and private investigator Kevin Ryan have been working to find DeGuio since then, speaking with her family and close friends to find out what could have happened to her. She has not been heard from, nor has she been located.
“She walked out my door and vanished,” said Joanne, Amanda’s mom. She said her daughter’s bedroom is exactly the way it was before she left, noting Amanda didn’t leave the house with anything because there is nothing missing in her room.
“But there is somebody out there that knows something, where she was or who she was with or anywhere she was going. To not come forward in four years, how do you not have the heart?” Joanne added.
Joanne was joined by Amanda’s father, Jon, and grandmother, Gloria, and other family members Monday morning as they continued their plea for the public’s help in finding her.
“It’s time, somebody knows something,” said Joanne. “We’re hoping that that one person will answer our prayers. This is torture to wake every morning and realizing 20 times a day that she may not be alive out there. We don’t know that, but her children need to know that.”
Her father also made his case that she needs to be found for the 6- and 8- year-old girls that have been left behind in their mother’s absence.
“I had two baby girls the good Lord blessed me with, and I have two granddaughters and they need their mommy so bad,” he said. “They need their mom so bad. So please, please come forth. It’s been too long.”
DeGuio was known to leave the house for the night, but would regularly communicate with her mother that she would be back later, meaning she would be back in the morning. Because there was no communication, Joanne said her disappearance makes it uncharacteristic.
This little piece of information was a sticking point for Chitwood to reexamine the case.
“She was a constant. If she was gone a day that was a long time. Four years leads us to believe in foul play,” he said, adding that the department is now focused on finding a body.
Chitwood appealed for information from Amanda’s friends.
“One of those (friends) knows what happened, so they’re not telling the truth,” he said. “They need to get up off the information and let this family have the closure that they need.”
Joanne said the message cannot die.
“When it dies out, I‘ll lose her and I’ll lose any chance of being able to find her,” she said.
Department Detective Leo Henshaw and Sgt. Phil Lydon have been assigned to the case full time. A $5,000 reward from the Police Foundation has been posted. Call Upper Darbypolice with tips at 610-734-7684 or submit tips to Pennsylvania Crime Stoppers at www.crimewatchpa.com.