Kimberley Amero

Status:

Open

Missing From:

Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada

Summary:

Kimberly Ann Amero vanished without a trace on September 3, 1985, just two days before her 16th birthday, while attending the Atlantic National Exhibition in Saint John, New Brunswick. She was last seen at the fair with friends and told them she would be right back, but never returned. She remains missing.

Vital Statistics

Circumstances of Disappearance:

On a September night in 1985, the Saint John, New Brunswick teen was at a fair in the city's east end. Kimberly Amero was last seen at the Atlantic National Exhibition in Saint John, NB. Tammy left early, leaving Kimberly with her friends. Kimberly's mother expected her to be back home by 11:00 pm but she never came home. She immediately assumed that something was wrong when one of her friends came to the home looking for her so she went to the police station and filed a missing child report. She told her friends 'I'll be right back,' and we've never heard anything since.

Additional Details:

When Amero didn't return home by midnight, her mother Lorraine Small contacted police to report her missing, but found her concerns weren't taken seriously by police. They told her that she was a runaway. Police initially suspected Kimberly was a runaway and officially labeled her as such. In 1999 or 2000, convicted serial killer, Michael Wayne McGray, confessed that he allegedly abducted and murdered Kimberly in 1985. He claimed he took her from the fair before murdering her and burying her remains on the Kingston Peninsula which was located between the St. John River and the Kennebecasis River. Some agencies state that authorities searched the area by digging but found nothing. However, Jaymee Splude, whose been investigating Kimberly's disappearance for quite a few years states it's unclear if police even dug in the area that McGray said she was buried in. The man in a cassette tape was later identified as Randolph "Randy" Manuel after his daughter listened to the tape. In the cassette tape, the individual who sounded like a man, gave specific locations and community names as to where Kimberly was held hostage for approximately five weeks. He lived in Saint John at the time of Kimberly's 1985 disappearance and actually lived just across the street from where the Exhibition took place. He at first said he wrote the letters and made the audio tapes in order to help Kimberly's family locate her remains and give them closure but his letters never led them anywhere. The case has been the subject of intense local and national media scrutiny, and a podcast, Finding Kimberly Amero by amateur investigator Jaymee Splude. Joseph Worden, who has spent countless hours combing through old newspapers, property records, aerial photographs and maps, has investigated the mystery of what happened to Kimberly.

Case Last Updated:

Sep 13, 2026