Amanda Gallion Went Missing And So Did Her Boyfriend, Patrick Ghering, A Few Days Later.

Amanda Dawn Gallion

She enjoyed playing the violin and singing country and western music.

Amanda was born on September 13th, 1983.

During the early morning hours on October 13th, 1997, she was 14 years old when she allegedly started her way to school in Gillette, Wyoming. She never arrived for classes that day. The school didn't notify Amanda's parents she was absent and it wasn't until 6:00 p.m. that her family realized she'd never made it to class. 

Her bicycle was discovered by the side of the road near the I-90. 

And suspicion fell on her 20-year-old boyfriend,  Patrick Lee Ghering. 

He was born on May 28th, 1977.

When questioned about Amanda's disappearance, Ghering said he had last seen her at 7:15 a.m. the day she vanished. Police believed he was concealing her, but he denied it.

On October 18th, just six days after Amanda went missing. Ghering too disappeared. 

Both Amanda and Ghering have never been seen or heard from again.

Although police initially believed the pair ran away together and some agencies still classify Amanda as a runaway, foul play is possible in their disappearances. Their cases remain unsolved.

In 2000, Amanda's case was reopened after Wyoming authorities were contacted by Montana investigators. At the time, a child predator named Nathaniel Bar-Jonah was the prime suspect in the disappearance of 10-year old Zachary Ramsay in Great Falls, Montana in February 1996. It was believed that Bar-Jonah, whose real name was David P. Brown had eaten Zachary’s remains and served them to guests at cookouts. On October 12, 1997, the day before Amanda’s disappearance, Bar-Jonah had made an unexplained 450-mile road trip from Great Falls to Gillette and checked into a motel at 8:00 p.m. Bar-Jonah was next seen at an antiques mall in Billings, Montana at 2:00 p.m. the following day before he returned to Great Falls that evening. 

Bar-Jonah had an extensive history of abducting and sexually assaulting pre-teen boys. Amanda did not fit his typical victim profile, but she did sometimes get mistaken for a boy while riding her bicycle. 

21 crushed bone fragments were found buried in Bar-Jonah’s garage, but DNA testing ruled out the possibility that they belonged to Amanda or Zachary Ramsay. Due to lack of evidence, Bar-Jonah was not charged with Zachary’s murder, but he received a 130-year prison sentence for his attacks on other children. He died of a blood clot in a Montana prison in April 2008, at age 51.

In 2007, when a jailhouse snitch named Aloysius Black Crow claimed that a cellmate named James Strahl had confessed to raping and murdering Amanda. At the time, Strahl was awaiting trial for the 1998 murder of a man named William O’Hare and denied any involvement in Amanda’s disappearance. Black Crow testified as a witness at Strahl’s trial, but was not allowed to mention Amanda, and Strahl was found guilty of O’Haire’s murder.

Black Crow was a witness in many trials and his testimony has come into question. In 2008, it was discovered that Black Crow framed a cell mate by getting someone to pose as them confessing in a tape recording.

At the time of her disappearance Amanda was 5'2" tall, 100 pounds
with blonde hair and blue eyes. Amanda's hair was dyed black at the time of her disappearance.

At the time of his disappearance Ghering was 5'5" tall, 160 pounds

with brown hair and brown eyes. His right ear was not fully developed. He had a one-inch scar on his right temple. His hair was in a crew cut at the time of his disappearance.

If you have any information on Amanda or Ghering's disappearances please contact the Campbell County Sheriff's Office at 307-682-7271.