Texas Cold Case: Who Killed Amanda Goodman?
The 13-year-old was abducted and murdered while walking home from school.
Amanda Goodman waved goodbye to her friends and started on her one-mile walk home from school on Tuesday, May 16, 1989. Amanda, an eighth-grade student at Brownwood Junior High School in Brownwood, Texas, always walked the same route from school to the apartment she shared with her mother, stepfather, and two younger brothers. On this day, she never made it home.
When Amanda hadn’t arrived at the Southside Village Apartments by 4:15 pm, her mother, Barbara Nejtek, was slightly annoyed. She had told Amanda to come straight home after school that afternoon and initially assumed that Amanda had disobeyed her and had gone off with some friends. Barbara got into her car and started to drive around Brownwood, looking for her daughter.
Heavy rain started to fall while Barbara was searching for her daughter, and she didn’t see anyone walking along the route that Amanda would normally take to get home. After driving around for about an hour, Barbara gave up and returned to the apartment. She hoped that Amanda would be waiting for her inside, but there was no sign of her.
Not long after Barbara got back to the apartment, there was a knock at the front door. When Barbara opened it…