For this week’s episode I spoke to Gloria and Mike Bates, who are the parents of a murdered soldier named Amanda Gonzales. Amanda had joined the Army and became a cook. She was stationed at the former Army base at Hanau, Germany. She had plans to return to Texas for Christmas to spend the holiday with her parents. She had a surprise for them. She was pregnant and expected to have her baby on Mike and Gloria’s wedding anniversary.

The couple was looking forward to becoming grandparents. Unfortunately, this joyous moment would never happen. On November 5, 2001, Amanda was found deceased in her barracks. Someone had beaten and strangled the pregnant mother to be. Instead of coming home for Christmas, Amanda would be coming to be buried.

If you know anything about what happened to Amanda, please contact the FBI field office in NY at (212) 384-1000 or you can go to their website at www.fbi.gov/tips. And if you would like more information about Amanda, please visit the family’s FB page at: PFC Amanda Gonzales Memorial Facebook. There is also a reward for $125,000 for tips leading to Amanda's killer.

*Video clip provided by KBTX (www.kbtx.com)

Please also visit my website for more information about my true crime and paranormal newspaper columns at www.themarcabe.com. You can also help support my podcast by making a Paypal donation to [email protected] at https://bit.ly/39iw6iz. If you would like to contact me about this podcast, please email me at [email protected].