Amanda Wienckowski: A Decades-Long Fight for Truth

Amanda Wienckowski: A Decades-Long Fight for Truth

Life was not always easy for 20-year-old Amanda Wienckowski. At one point, her friends and family had to watch her struggle with an addiction that had her spending time with undesirable people on the wrong side of town. But she was trying to get her life back on track, even enrolling in a criminal justice course at her local community college. However, on the evening of December 5, 2008, her life was cut short. According to Adam Patterson, Amanda was dropped off that night at Antoine Garner’s home, which was located in a dangerous neighborhood.

When a few days passed and she failed to return home, her mother reported her missing to the police. They interviewed Adam Patterson, the man who allegedly dropped her off at Garner’s home and he said initially he was going to wait for her to return to the car, but she called and told him he could leave - so he did. However, Antoine Garner, the man Amanda was seeing that evening, claimed she only stayed for a few minutes and then left with Patterson. Their stories did not match up and investigators believed Amanda may have been a victim of foul play. 

Then, approximately five weeks later, the police received an anonymous tip pointing them to a parking lot where they would find Amanda’s body in a garbage bin. She was found nude, face down, with her hair shaved off and covered in bruises. What looked like an apparent murder would be ruled an accidental opiate overdose, sparking a decades-long fight for truth.

It has been over 15 years since Amanda’s battered body was found in that garbage bin and her family continues to push to have her manner of death changed to homicide. Many believe that there is police corruption and a cover-up at play, and once we go through the details - I think you’ll see why.

Sources:

https://gavinfish.com/cases/amanda-wienckowski/

https://www.niagarafallsreporter.com/Stories/2015/SEP29/AmandasRole.html

https://buffalonews.com/news/local/crime-courts/witness-comes-forward-on-7th-anniversary-of-amanda-wienckowski-s-mysterious-death/article_1e858a80-18b8-5794-aa66-26564632c1bc.html

https://artvoice.net/issues/v10n5/amanda_wienckowski.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htMuLb6VpgY

https://www.reddit.com/r/TrueCrime/comments/ns9spr/amanda_wienckowski_was_a_heroin_addict_but_she/

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[00:02:13] I'm back with another true crime story to lowly to sleep or perhaps to give you nightmares.

[00:02:19] Life was not always easy for 20 year old Buffalo New York native Amanda Winkowski.

[00:02:26] At one point her friends and family had to watch her struggle with an addiction that had her spending time with undesirable people on the wrong side of town.

[00:02:35] But she was really trying to get her life back on track even enrolling in a criminal justice course at her local community college.

[00:02:43] However, on the evening of December 5th 2008 her life was cut short.

[00:02:48] According to Adam Patterson one of the last people to see her alive Amanda was dropped off that night at Antoine Garner's home which was located in a really dangerous neighborhood.

[00:02:58] She was supposed to be home later that evening but when a few days passed and she had failed to return her mother reported her missing to the police.

[00:03:07] They interviewed Adam Patterson, the man who had allegedly dropped her off at Garner's home and he said he initially was going to wait for her to return to the car.

[00:03:17] But she called and told him that he could leave so he did.

[00:03:21] However, Antoine Garner the man Amanda was supposed to be seeing that evening claimed she only stayed for a few minutes maybe 10 to 15 and then left with Patterson.

[00:03:31] Their stories did not match up and investigators believed Amanda may have been a victim of foul play.

[00:03:38] Then approximately five weeks later the police received an anonymous tip pointing them to Amanda's body in a garbage bin.

[00:03:47] She was discovered nude face down with her hair shaved off and she was covered in lacerations and bruises.

[00:03:55] What looked like an apparent murder would be ruled an accidental opiate overdose sparking a decades long fight between Amanda's family and the Buffalo Police Department.

[00:04:07] It has been over 15 years since Amanda's battered body was found in that garbage bin and her family continues to push to have her manner of death

[00:04:16] changed to homicide. Many believe that there is police corruption and a cover-up at play.

[00:04:24] And once we go through the details I think you'll see why. So let's jump right in.

[00:04:30] I want to take particular care in the way that I speak about Amanda because it's evident that because of her past struggles

[00:04:37] the story of her death it just hasn't received the attention and it definitely hasn't sparked the outrage that it deserves.

[00:04:44] It is no secret that 20-year-old Amanda Winkowski had battled with a serious heroin addiction,

[00:04:51] an expensive drug of choice that led her to turn to sex work in order to support that addiction.

[00:04:58] But she was so much more than some of her darkest moments. She was a beautiful young woman with long blonde hair,

[00:05:05] a daughter and friend to many. On the Justice for Amanda Winkowski Facebook group,

[00:05:11] her mother described her as her baby girl who quote,

[00:05:15] grew up so quickly and was my best friend. Her love for life was larger than life.

[00:05:21] Her love for people was unbelievable. Her smile, her crystal baby blue eyes,

[00:05:27] her laugh, my Amanda, what I would do just to hear ma. Oh my god she always put a smile on your face.

[00:05:35] The most amazing thing in life is I was her mom. Her family believed that shortly before her

[00:05:41] disappearance she was trying to get her life together. She had been trying to get clean from heroin

[00:05:47] and was working at a bar called cocktail bobs. She had even enrolled in several criminal justice

[00:05:53] courses at Niagara County Community College. Her mother would say that she dreamed of one day becoming

[00:06:00] a corrections officer, but she struggled to shake her addiction and all of the elements that came

[00:06:07] with living that kind of lifestyle. Amanda's roommate was a much older man named Adam Patterson

[00:06:14] who was said to be old enough to be her father. They lived together on the Tesco Roar Reservation.

[00:06:20] Patterson was known by the police to be involved in drug trafficking and sex work. And I have read in

[00:06:26] some sources that at times he acted as Amanda's Pimp. Living with a man like that, it would have

[00:06:33] been damn near impossible for her to stop using heroin all on her own. And so it is said that

[00:06:39] on the evening of December 5th, 2008 when Amanda received a call from Patterson while she was working

[00:06:45] the bar at cocktail bobs, it was to facilitate a drug deal. Heroin in exchange for sex.

[00:06:53] Amanda got another bartender to cover her shift and Patterson picked her up out front.

[00:06:59] The client Amanda would be seeing that night was a man named Antoine Garner who lived in East Buffalo.

[00:07:06] Garner was a large man weighing around 300 pounds who would have towered over the very petite Amanda.

[00:07:13] When they get to the house, Amanda jumps out while Patterson says he stays parked waiting for her

[00:07:19] to finish and to come back out. According to Adam Patterson, about an hour after waiting,

[00:07:25] he gets a phone call from Amanda who says that she's going to be there for a while so Patterson says

[00:07:31] he drove away leaving Amanda behind alone at Garner's home. But Amanda, she would not return home

[00:07:37] that evening. Two days later on December 7th when she still hadn't returned home and no one could

[00:07:43] reach her, her mother Leslie called the police to report her daughter as missing. The Buffalo police

[00:07:49] department would speak to her roommate and allegedly one of the last people to see her,

[00:07:54] also known as possibly her Pimp, Adam Patterson. He tells them the story of how he dropped her off at

[00:08:01] Antoine Garner's house and when she said she was going to be taking longer than expected,

[00:08:06] he went home. He said that he was home by 8.30 pm that night and he hadn't seen Amanda's sense.

[00:08:14] So the police interview Antoine Garner and he tells a completely different story. According

[00:08:20] to Garner, Amanda was there to facilitate a drug deal and she was only at his house for maybe

[00:08:26] 10-15 minutes before she took off and presumably left with Patterson. In an interview later with

[00:08:33] WIVB Buffalo, Garner would deny that the pair even had sex that night. He said that they had been

[00:08:39] together one time but definitely not that night. He'd say quote, it was basically thanks. I'll see

[00:08:46] you another time. That really was all that happened that night. We talked for a couple of minutes.

[00:08:51] It was basically catching up. Haven't seen you in a while. Couple of minutes of chit chat and then

[00:08:56] she was out the door. So now both Garner and Patterson were denying being the last ones to see her

[00:09:03] and their stories completely contradict one another. Knowing the caliber of these individuals,

[00:09:10] investigators were immediately worried that Amanda was met with foul play. Amanda's friends and family,

[00:09:17] particularly her mother Leslie, they jumped into action to try to find her. They visited all of her

[00:09:25] known hangout spots and they spoke to any acquaintances connected to her but no one had seen or heard from

[00:09:31] Amanda since December 5th when she was dropped off in that shady neighborhood. Five weeks would pass

[00:09:38] with little to no indication of what happened and then the police would receive an anonymous tip via

[00:09:45] phone call. This anonymous caller tells them that they'll find Amanda's body in a garbage bin

[00:09:51] that had been placed at the new covenant united church of Christ. Interestingly enough,

[00:09:57] this church was located just across the street from the home of Antoine Garner. So the police

[00:10:03] took this tip very seriously and went to investigate right away. On January 9th 2009,

[00:10:10] they found a large garbage bin in an alcove of the parking lot. Inside was the frozen,

[00:10:17] nude body of Amanda Winkowski. She was placed face down in the bin, basically folded in half.

[00:10:24] Her head had been shaved and her body had bruising all over it, including what looked to be

[00:10:31] finger marks on her throat. Whatever had happened to her was horrible as she had also bitten her

[00:10:38] tongue in half. Right off the bat with the way that Amanda's body has been found, this looks to be

[00:10:44] a murder and the police begin their investigation as such. In speaking with the pastor of the church where

[00:10:51] the garbage can had been found, the police learned that the bin had likely been placed in the parking lot

[00:10:57] at some point overnight because someone would have noticed if it had been there during that day prior.

[00:11:03] Unfortunately, there weren't any cameras around to capture who the culprit may have been,

[00:11:08] but soon after this grisly discovery, a neighborhood resident reported their trash can had been

[00:11:14] stolen off the curb of their home. So immediately you would be thinking Antoine Garner, I need to speak

[00:11:20] to him, but he fully denies that he has any involvement in her death and he even says like why would

[00:11:26] I be so stupid as to put her body in a trash can across the street from my house? He claims that

[00:11:32] he's being framed. Amanda's brother would be the one to identify her body. He would tell his

[00:11:38] mother, mom, I've never seen so much blood and she was scared to death you can see it in her eyes.

[00:11:44] She wasn't just beaten, there were marks everywhere to her head, to her throat, to her face.

[00:11:51] The following morning after the body was recovered and allowed to thaw overnight, an autopsy was

[00:11:57] performed and no one particularly Amanda's mother Leslie was prepared for the results.

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[00:16:09] The Medical Examiner's office listed Amanda's cause of death as an accidental overdose of morphine

[00:16:15] and coating. The report didn't mention any of the bruising or lacerations that had been noted on

[00:16:22] her body by investigators and everyone else who came into contact with the body. As you can imagine,

[00:16:29] this determination was shocking. Amanda was a known heroin addict, but the condition that her

[00:16:36] body was found in pointed towards someone physically hurting her before her death.

[00:16:41] Amanda's family weren't the only ones in complete disbelief over the results of the autopsy.

[00:16:48] The Niagara Falls reporter stated that they spoke to sources who were present at the autopsy.

[00:16:54] And allegedly there was an argument between several buffalo homicide detectives

[00:16:59] and the medical examiners there. The detectives believed that Amanda had not died from an overdose

[00:17:05] but from being murdered. But sadly, it didn't matter what they believed because once the report

[00:17:11] was written, there was no longer a crime to be investigated. Everything came to a full halt.

[00:17:17] Accidental overdose. Amanda's family asked for access to her full autopsy and toxicology report

[00:17:25] so that they could have an independent party review the results. What they discovered was that

[00:17:31] Amanda's listed cause of death wasn't the only strange thing about the report. It had been

[00:17:37] signed by four medical examiners, which apparently is completely unheard of in Eerie County.

[00:17:44] According to a law enforcement source who spoke with the Niagara Falls reporter,

[00:17:48] quote, I've looked at a lot of autopsy reports. Hundreds. This is completely unheard of.

[00:17:54] Very rarely you might find one signed by two MEs but Amanda's was obviously signed by people

[00:18:01] who weren't even in the building when the autopsy was performed. The autopsy report also seemed

[00:18:07] incomplete because it had none of the physical injuries on Amanda's bodies even noted in the report.

[00:18:14] So the family felt like something just wasn't right. They decided to send the toxicology report

[00:18:19] to an independent medical examiner named John J. College. Now when he reviewed the state's

[00:18:26] results, he came to a completely different determination. According to college,

[00:18:32] he did not believe that the amount of substances in Amanda's system would constitute an overdose.

[00:18:39] He didn't believe that it was a lethal amount. However, he did note that she had high levels

[00:18:44] of GHB which is also known as the date rape drug in her system and this wasn't originally

[00:18:51] even included in the analysis of the toxicology report. When the high levels of GHB were brought

[00:18:58] to the attention of the state's medical examiner's office, they amended the report to include it.

[00:19:03] This time, they included the GHB in their analysis. They even noted that it could have contributed

[00:19:09] to accidental asphyxiation, meaning they originally stated she had overdosed on morphine and

[00:19:16] coating which another expert disagreed with and they were now stating that it could have been the

[00:19:21] GHB which they hadn't even included in their original analysis. But they still weren't addressing any

[00:19:28] of Amanda's physical injuries. Her mother, Leslie, would later say that when she pressed law

[00:19:34] enforcement about it, they told her that she may have received those injuries during a fall

[00:19:39] or maybe even an arm wrestling match. Okay and what about the fact that she was found naked in a

[00:19:46] garbage bin or that her beautiful long blonde hair had been completely shaved off?

[00:19:52] Unfortunately, legally it didn't matter. With Amanda's death not being reported as a crime,

[00:19:59] the investigators' hands were mostly tied. But that wasn't stopping her family. They requested

[00:20:06] to have Amanda's body exhumed and examined by an independent medical examiner named Dr. Sylvia

[00:20:13] Comparini. This doctor would uncover even more shocking facts surrounding Amanda's death investigation.

[00:20:19] Amanda's organs were missing. Without ever notifying her family, her brain, heart, liver,

[00:20:26] trachea and high old bone had been removed and kept by the eerie county medical examiner's office.

[00:20:34] A thorough second autopsy couldn't be conducted without those organs so they had to petition

[00:20:39] the county to allow their independent medical examiner access. When access was finally granted,

[00:20:46] new details would be revealed. Details that had been kept from the family this entire time.

[00:20:53] There was DNA evidence recovered from Amanda's body, DNA that matched Adam Patterson and Antoine

[00:21:00] Garner, the last two people who had seen her alive, as well as two unidentified males and two

[00:21:07] unidentified women. The fact that DNA evidence, particularly from the last two men to see her alive,

[00:21:14] were found on Amanda's body and they still determined her death to be an accidental overdose

[00:21:20] is absolutely wild to me. After reviewing all of the evidence in the second autopsy,

[00:21:26] Dr. Comparini stated that she believed Amanda's body to be consistent with death due to strangulation,

[00:21:33] as indicated by the bruising that was found on her neck. She had also been beaten and there were

[00:21:39] signs of blunt force trauma, none of which had been indicated in the first autopsy report.

[00:21:45] Though Amanda's family felt vindicated because they believed all along that Amanda had been murdered,

[00:21:52] they would still need to fight to have her manner of death changed to a homicide in order to

[00:21:57] have this investigation restarted. Now you would think with this new report, it would be a no-brainer.

[00:22:04] Amanda had been murdered and her killer was still walking free, but those involved with her case,

[00:22:10] those working on her case they were not going to make it so easy. A third autopsy is ordered by

[00:22:16] the District Attorney's Office and this time the pathologist ruled her cause of death should be

[00:22:22] undetermined. Yet this new finding was still not enough for the county to change Amanda's cause of

[00:22:27] death so that something, anything could be done to find out what had happened to Amanda.

[00:22:34] They flat out refused to reopen an investigation into Amanda's death.

[00:22:40] In 2021, 13 years after Amanda had been killed, there still wasn't any movement in reopening a

[00:22:47] murder investigation. So her family decided to sue the county and the county's chief medical

[00:22:53] examiner. With this lawsuit, they were seeking one of three outcomes. To have a judge order Amanda's

[00:23:00] death homicide, to have her cause of death deemed undetermined or to have the medical examiner's

[00:23:06] office reopen in an investigation and make a new determination. Absolutely reasonable considering

[00:23:13] all the evidence and the circumstances. The judge who was overseeing the lawsuit tossed it,

[00:23:19] stating that it exceeded the statute of limitations. According to this judge's ruling,

[00:23:25] Amanda's mother would have needed to challenge her cause of death within four months of the medical

[00:23:30] examiner's office releasing her death certificate. It was another absolute punch in the gut.

[00:23:36] Can you imagine your child being found in such a state? She did not shave her own head,

[00:23:43] freeze her own body and then dump herself into that trash can. There have been no less than six

[00:23:50] different reviews to determine her cause of death. And each time it either resulted in a

[00:23:54] different outcome or it called into question the medical examiner's findings. And yet no one will

[00:24:01] do anything about it to help find out who possibly killed her. One has to wonder why because at

[00:24:08] this point it feels like a massive police cover-up. The theory, it's not as far fetched as you may think.

[00:24:15] In the months prior to Amanda's 2008 disappearance, she had actually worked as a police

[00:24:21] informant. She really enjoyed working with law enforcement and as I mentioned at the beginning

[00:24:26] of the episode, she had goals of having a career in criminal justice. And she had even enrolled

[00:24:32] in college courses to support this dream the day before she went missing. So did someone find out

[00:24:38] that she was a snitch? Was someone in law enforcement involved in her death? The same

[00:24:44] amount that Amanda disappeared, a local police officer by the name of Ryan Warme was arrested

[00:24:50] for sexual assault, assault and use of a police firearm in multiple felonies. He was known to

[00:24:58] tell criminals who the snitches were. He was also known to sleep with sex workers. And it's no secret

[00:25:06] that he would frequent the bar where Amanda worked. So they would have been familiar with one another.

[00:25:12] So was he involved in Amanda's death? Did he tip off Antoine Garner that she was a snitch? These are

[00:25:19] all valid questions when you look at the deliberate effort to prevent any further progress in Amanda's

[00:25:25] investigation. Speaking of Antoine Garner, the man whose house Amanda was dropped off at,

[00:25:32] prior to her death certificate being released, he was looked at as a person of interest in her case.

[00:25:38] But once the state concluded that she died of an overdose, they pretty much just stopped looking

[00:25:44] at him. However, his DNA was found on Amanda's body. He was one of the last people to see her

[00:25:50] alive and her body was found in a garbage bin located in a church parking lot across the street

[00:25:56] from his house. He says that someone is setting him up but maybe he's just an idiot. Though he was

[00:26:04] never charged with anything in connection to Amanda's death? In 2013, he was arrested on multiple

[00:26:11] counts of rape of a minor. He was also charged with assault and armed robbery. His victim was beaten

[00:26:18] and choked, similarly to what had happened to Amanda. He pleaded guilty to these charges and he

[00:26:25] was sentenced to 18 years in prison. And yet the police, they've never re-investigated his

[00:26:31] connection in Amanda's death. There was even an eyewitness who came forward to say that he saw

[00:26:37] Amanda's body which was still warm in Garner's apartment. And then he saw it again at a later date

[00:26:44] frozen inside a garbage can. In 2016, Thomas Woodman told Amanda's mother that on December 8th,

[00:26:51] 2008, three days after she was dropped off at that house, Garner called him and told him that he had

[00:26:58] killed Amanda. And now he needed his help getting rid of the body. Woodman claimed that he had seen

[00:27:06] her body with his own eyes, but he didn't come forward because he was afraid of retribution.

[00:27:12] He had only come forward now after Garner was behind bars and couldn't hurt him. Amanda's mother

[00:27:19] went to law enforcement with this tip and they interviewed him, but they pretty much dismissed

[00:27:24] Woodman as not a credible witness. And I get that. Woodman might have had a shady past and you

[00:27:31] can't just trust everything that you hear. But what does he have to gain from giving this information?

[00:27:37] He could have actually been implicated in her death, he could have had a target on his back

[00:27:42] even though Garner was in prison. And the information he gave it is supported by a lot of other

[00:27:49] evidence. Even if Garner hadn't killed her, it's possible that something happened to her shortly

[00:27:55] after she left his place. He lived in a crime-ridden neighborhood where she would have stuck out like

[00:28:02] a sore thumb. Her body was found in a bin located just across the street from his house. So did someone

[00:28:09] maybe jump her and hurt her shortly after she left? It has been over 15 years since Amanda

[00:28:16] Winkowski was found frozen, naked, bruised and battered with her head shaved. And the state

[00:28:22] continues to refuse to investigate her death as anything but a drug overdose. Much of the evidence

[00:28:30] points to Amanda being murdered, so why the pushback? Why the refusal to even have her cause

[00:28:37] of death be listed as undetermined so that at least it can be further investigated? In my opinion,

[00:28:44] it sounds like they thought Amanda was just another drug addict, a sex worker who wouldn't be missed.

[00:28:51] But that is just not the case. Amanda was very much loved and is very much missed by her family

[00:28:57] today, and they still demand to know what happened to her. I live this every day

[00:29:04] and I want Amanda to have just as she deserves the truth.

[00:29:09] So now I turn it over to you. Do you think that Amanda truly died from an accidental drug overdose?

[00:29:15] Or do you think that someone killed her? Do you believe that this could be a police cover-up?

[00:29:22] Or is it a case that has simply fallen through the cracks,

[00:29:25] plagued by red tape? Let me know what you think. That's it for me tonight. If you want to reach out,

[00:29:31] you can find me on Facebook at serial napper. I also have a true crime discussion group called

[00:29:35] Serial Society and I'll have a link in my show notes. I'd love to chat with you about this case

[00:29:40] and all of the other cases that I cover. You can find my audio on Apple or Spotify

[00:29:46] or wherever you listen to podcasts. I post all of my episodes in video format over on YouTube,

[00:29:52] so go check it out. And if you are watching on YouTube, I would love if you can give me a thumbs up

[00:29:58] and subscribe. I'm over on X, formerly known as Twitter at serial underscore napper,

[00:30:03] and I post things on TikTok, serial napper nick, and that's all one word. Until next time,

[00:30:09] sweet dreams, stay kind, especially in the comments. Bye!

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