In the late summer or early fall of 2001, a sixteen-year-old girl named Amber Jenkins disappeared from Kankakee, Illinois, under circumstances that remain unclear. There is some discrepancy regarding the exact date she was last seen; some sources state she was last seen at her home on September 11, 2001, while others report the last sighting of her was on July 3, 2001. At the time of her disappearance, Amber was a student at Kankakee High School, where she was enrolled in the SALT program, an alternative educational path for students at risk of expulsion. After that last sighting, she was never heard from again.
Amber Rene Jenkins was born on April 19, 1985. At sixteen, she stood at five feet one inch tall and weighed between 125 and 130 pounds. She had brown hair and brown eyes. Amber had a couple of distinctive physical features: a tattoo of her initials, 'AJ,' on her upper right thigh and a burn scar on her left upper arm. She was also known to frequently wear a tennis bracelet on her left wrist. In addition to English, Amber was fluent in Spanish.
The details surrounding Amber's disappearance are scarce, and her case has received limited public attention over the more than two decades since she vanished. The Kankakee Police Department is the investigating agency, but there has been little information released about the investigation. A flyer from the police department once mentioned a possible unconfirmed sighting of Amber after she was officially last seen, but no further details have been made public, and it is not clear if this lead was ever substantiated. Despite the passage of time, Amber's case remains open, leaving her family and community without answers about what happened to her. The lack of information and progress has been a source of ongoing pain and uncertainty for those who knew and cared for her.
Last Seen: Sep 11, 2001
