thecrimeshop

Amy Sue Pagnac Missing

Amy vanished August 5, 1989 from a gas station in Osseo, Minnesota. The Charlie Project lists the case as a “non-family abduction.”

At approximately 4:30 PM Amy and her stepfather stopped at a gas station while on the way home from a trip to family farm up north. Amy and her family lived in Maple Grove, MN in what some would describe as deplorable conditions.

Amy’s stepfather went to use the bathroom at the gas station, upon his return to the car, 13 year old Amy was gone.

Initially, the case was treated as a runway as Amy was known to have “issues” and run away. Amy was also known to suffer seizures so one thought was, that she had suffered a seizure while her stepfather was in the gas station and wandered off after disoriented and confused.

While both ideas have been pretty much dismissed by police, they have since put the family in the cross-hairs of sleuthing sites across the globe.

A very popular theory is that the stepfather murdered Amy in cold blood that day and disposed of the body so well that the police have never been able to find it. A lot of individuals have tried to tie the case to the Jacob Wetterling abduction but have been unsuccessful in doing so.  

It is very unlikely the the two cases are connected.

The case is odd for sure. It has been said that neighbors and friends of the Amy’s describe the home life as rather deplorable. The family is said to have been emotionless about Amy’s disappearance as well which to most of us would be considered odd and cold.

Individuals have written about the case quite a bit on Websleuths, one account got my undivided attention however.

From Websleuths: 5-25-2014, 07:58 PM #220 ewesea; 

“This case has me intrigued as I lived on that street within a dozen houses away when Amy went missing. I vividly recall that house and the general state of disrepair it was in at that time and it appears from photos and video that the situation has not changed.

I moved out around the end of 1989, I had no knowledge that this girl had gone missing at the time. My daughter who was 9 at the time casually knew the younger girl. I recall telling her strictly that she was forbidden to go into that house after she reported she had been in there.

At the time Amy went missing, my daughter tells me that the inside of the house had no carpeting. She also states that it appeared to be a hoarder situation or close to becoming one.

What disturbs me is this: I remember that as we were preparing to move, the appearance of some heavy landscaping equipment, and also the night digging. This was not 1993. This was 1989. I recall thinking “why are they doing landscape when the house clearly needs to be painted, windows repaired, etc?” Then I pondered the urgency of the night digging, the lights being on on the loaders, etc. Around that time the front landscaping project appeared, the stacked wall containing the birch. And I remember thinking “so they spent all that money on renting equipment and the end result looks shoddy at best?” I must apologize for my judgmental thoughts however it just didn’t make any sense to me, to lay out that type of money for a landscape project and to have an amateur at best end result.

My question now is, from the looks of what I can gather, where they dug was behind the garage. Why didn’t they dig up that front area with the raised stacked stone work and the birch trees? That and the perimeter landscape was the focus of that landscape project within the next 60 days after her disappearance. The house sat on that lot wide open as you can see from the other homes on that street until Amy disappeared. Then the landscape project ensued. I drove past this house twice a day for at least 4 years, nothing changed until the end.

Also, the brick work on the front of the house. On the far right, next to the lower window, that is the original brick work. The brick on these homes was decorative only. What would necessitate them to tear off 3/4 of the brick, and then replace it with shoddy mismatched brick?

One last question and this has been bothering me. It was pointed out to me that on the step dad’s facebook page, he posted a link to an article regarding the Jacob Wetterling case on what appears to be the same day police interviewed the Pagnac’s in their home. Just days before the search warrant was issued.

Any insight would be welcome. Thank you”

——-

The problem with this person’s detailed account of everything is that number one, they made no attempt what-so-ever to tell police of their concerns back in 89 as they claim to have witnessed some sort of odd nighttime landscaping involving heavy equipment, after the strange disappearance of the families daughter.

But what is most important to point out here is that this person’s post did not appear on Websleuths until after the police had announced that they had obtained a new search warrant in May of 2014 to search the family home and grounds.

Amy’s case however is interesting in that, she has never been found however through the years supposed sightings of Amy have surfaced across the US.

What happened to Amy?

In Amy’s case as sad as it is to say she is most likely dead, however I would suspect that in Amy’s case her death was a result of an accident. Amy’s family for what it’s worth seems to have some sort of developmental issues mentally, therefore it is highly improbable that they would purposely cause harm to her.

In all likelihood, something happened during the family trip that weekend that resulted in Amy’s death and the family was left covering it up out of fear they would be accused of murder.

With accidental death, most of the time a reasonable individual will still report it knowing they did not set out to cause harm to another. When people don’t or are incapable of thinking clearly they panic and try to cover it up.

In 2014 the police obtained a new warrant to search the family home, they searched the wrong area, they would do well to retrace the steps of the family the day Amy went missing. I doubt they will get much information out of the family. In this case they need the body.

It is also unlikely that Amy just ran away, even if she suffered from anger issues, seizures as well as other issues.

The police would do well to retrace the steps of the family at this stage and try to locate the body of Amy that way. They need to take a hard long look at the stepfather and the entire family. How do they put things together mentally? That may just be the key they need to unlock the mystery as to Amy’s disappearance.  

Cristal M Clark

@thecrimeshop

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