CLEVELAND — A $5,000 reward is now being offered for information regarding the whereabouts of Amanda Dean, a mother of four who disappeared more than five years ago in Huron County.
Cleveland Missing, a nonprofit co-founded by Cleveland kidnapping survivor Gina DeJesus and her cousin Sylvia Colon, pledged the money nearly two week's after Dean's family further discussed the case in a press conference. Dean was 39 years old in July of 2017 when she went missing, and loved ones have called the situation "out of character" for her.
"She would not leave her family. She would not," sister Shannon told those assembled at the Cleveland Family Center for Missing Children and Adults back on Jan. 4. "Amanda, if you can hear me, I love you. I know you would want to come home. I have faith that you will come home."
According to officials and those close to her, Dean was being abused by a boyfriend at the time of her disappearance. Huron County Sheriff Todd Corbin told 3News Investigates in 2020 Dean was, by his accounts, alive and safe while staying at a domestic violence shelter in the area.
"They explained to me the protocols that they have in place," Corbin claimed regarding the shelter, "that 'We don't normally relay that information, but for the purposes of what you're doing, we're just going to say that she is fine, she is in a good place, she is okay, she is being cared for.'"
However, Amanda's mother Caroline Tokar countered she does not believe her daughter would go this long without speaking to her family, and those suspicious have only increased as the years have gone by.
"They said we had to prove that she was in danger," Tokar said authorities told her. "I had told the deputy that my daughter has been missing five and a half years. That's danger enough to me. I'm her mother. I feel she's in danger."
The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation is now taking a second look at Dean's case. Anyone with information on here whereabouts is asked to call them at (855) 224-6446 (tips can remain anonymous) or email either Cleveland Missing Executive Director Sylvia Colon at sylvia@clevelandmissing.org or Board President and Newburgh Heights Police Chief John T. Majoy at jmajoy@newburg-oh.gov.
Editor's note: The above video originally aired on Jan. 5, 2023