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An 18-year-old embarks on a cross-country adventure to reconnect with her past, but a chance meeting leads her into the shadow of darkness. By journey’s end, a vibrant young life is silenced, leaving her family with grief — and questions that linger.
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00:00A young woman embarks on what should be the trip of a lifetime.
00:11Of course I was concerned about her hitchhiking.
00:14I knew that she was not the best judge of character.
00:17Nobody knew we wouldn't see her again.
00:20Life on the road promises freedom.
00:23She said she felt like she was accepted to be herself.
00:26But there's a darker edge too.
00:28We have incredibly low rates of violence, but like there are other things like stabbings.
00:34I can certainly understand giving someone a ride, but to then take them to their house.
00:40You know, some people have anger management problems, right?
00:43She's on an unpredictable journey.
00:46There's something wrong.
00:47People aren't who they seem.
00:49Everybody has a different idea of what the rainbow gathering is.
00:52Why are there so many people missing from this event?
00:55Something unthinkable and unfathomable had happened.
00:59Who's the last person that heard from Amber?
01:01And safety and danger blur with every passing mile.
01:05This is one of the most brutal cases that I've ever witnessed.
01:11Amber Robinson struts across her high school stage in 2018, clutching her diploma like it's a one-way ticket to freedom.
01:32It's that feeling everyone knows at that age.
01:38Invincibility.
01:39And Amber, her first big move?
01:42A solo cross-country trip to California, 3,000 miles away, to visit her mother and sister.
01:49Amber was very interested in seeing Iris, her older sister, and her mother after she turned 18.
01:58She talked a lot about going to meet up with them, traveling a bit with them.
02:04She hadn't seen my mom since she'd been put in foster care.
02:09Nothing but the open road, a little bit of optimism, and the sense that life is just getting started.
02:16Or so she thought.
02:18When Amber and I were kids, our lives were very chaotic.
02:25I think they had like nine different schools that they had been in over like a 10-year period of their time.
02:35My dad was addicted to pretty much everything.
02:42He was just addicted to being high, you know?
02:45He was always trying to bully Amber to try to drink and smoke weed with him.
02:49Yeah, it was definitely like my dad was like extremely abusive in like all the ways that a person can be abusive,
02:55including sexually abusive to me specifically.
03:00The dad was arrested for, they called it indecency with the child, but in our state we called it child molestation.
03:09Yeah, he ended up going to prison for that, and he's no longer in prison, but I don't communicate with him.
03:19The children were living with mom, and mom struggled with addiction.
03:24They were very bonded with their mother, but she wasn't able to care for them in a way that the state deemed as safe,
03:31and so they were all removed from their mother's care.
03:35Amber and her older sister Iris spend the next five years lost in a revolving door of foster homes,
03:42each one a mix of temporary affection and neglect.
03:46Foster care was a very, that was scarier to me than any of the other things that I went through.
03:54Even the sexual abuse that I endeared from my dad.
03:59I knew what to expect from him, but when I went to foster care I had no idea like what was going to happen,
04:05and I'd never had to been like separated from Amber.
04:09In 2017, Amber is living in a group home for teens when she meets Amy Elliott Villegas.
04:19Amy makes a choice that will ripple through Amber's life in ways no one could have seen coming.
04:25In the group home, I rarely saw an occasion where I thought that I could adopt one of the girls.
04:35But Amber is one that I remember clearly watching her tie her shoes one day and just thinking about how precious she was,
04:45and thinking I could take her into my home.
04:49She was expressing, she's like, I'm so happy, you know, I get to get out of here,
04:53get to get out of the foster care system, and I get to go live with Miss Amy.
04:56So, she was very excited about it.
04:59When Amber came to us at the group home, she was 15.
05:03And then I had her until almost before her 18th birthday.
05:10While Amber's settling into life at home with Amy, Iris slips into adulthood with little fanfare.
05:18At 18, finally free from the state, she's determined to live a nomadic existence on her terms.
05:28So, I had just, like, actively chosen to become homeless because I had aged out of foster care,
05:35and there was just a lot of things that occur in foster care that made me just even more distressful about society.
05:40And, you know, eventually I just started being like, man, like, everything that I'm, like, working towards, like, going to college,
05:48just kind of realizing that, like, there's other choices.
05:51You know, you only get one life, so you might as well actually, like, do whatever would genuinely make you happy.
05:57Despite the miles between them, Amber and Iris remain close.
06:02Their lives play out through Facebook messages.
06:05Daily check-ins that keep their connection alive.
06:08Yeah, we were extremely open with each other and extremely close.
06:12Keeping each other up till 4 o'clock in the morning, talking to each other all night long.
06:16Amber looked up to her big sister.
06:19She was like a role model.
06:21She saw the things that her big sister Iris was doing and how happy she was and how free she was.
06:26Nashville, Tennessee was, like, there was, like, a massive, like, homeless encampment there and it was, like, easy to be homeless there and stuff.
06:37And so that's when I actually discovered the culture around travelers, train hoppers, you know, people, van lifers and everything like that.
06:45I met other people who actively, like, wanted to be homeless and they told me about the rainbow gathering.
06:52The rainbow gathering is basically a big camping trip, you know, involving people who all have the same collective idea.
07:15That we're all one and that we're all connected.
07:34In 1972 the first rainbow gathering was held in Colorado.
07:38After this meeting, we want to gather with spirits to share the body, the mind, the soul, the mind.
07:59I have been going to rainbow gatherings since 1980, almost every year, ever since, all over the country.
08:06A lot of the early rainbows were returning Vietnam vets mixed with peace activists.
08:11Everybody has a different idea of what the rainbow gathering is.
08:15They all blend at the rainbow gathering.
08:18Everything happens and nothing happens.
08:20They get together all these diverse countercultural groups, everything from bikers, hobos, you know, rainbows, conservative people, like, whatever, right?
08:33Loving you.
08:34Loving you.
08:35Loving you.
08:36Loving you.
08:37You got a belly button?
08:39You got a belly button?
08:40Yeah.
08:41Guess what? You're welcome here.
08:42The invitation's to everyone.
08:43It was very magical for me to, like, for lack of a better words, describe, like, discovering, like, the culture, um, and all of the, like, just amazing people and all their skills, how talented they were, like, magic is real.
08:59And so I go and I dance around this fire, and, um, there's a woman who shows up all of a sudden, she's dressed in animal pelts, she, like, has this massive horn, and she blows it and then starts singing.
09:10I help people heal their trauma and work through, like, repressed emotions, um, by, uh, using their voice.
09:33I first discovered the ability within myself to sing like that, um, at a Rambo gathering, um, when I was 18.
09:46Before college starts in the fall, Amber decides to follow in her big sister's footsteps.
09:52She wants to get a feel for her life on the road.
09:55Her destination?
09:57California, where their mother is now living.
10:01Amber did talk about her mom quite often.
10:05I remember when Amber got her learner's permit, she started driving, and immediately she said,
10:10I wish my mom could see me now.
10:12Amber, you know, hadn't seen my mom in a long time, you know, since we got put in foster care and everything like that.
10:20And she heard that her mom was clean, and so she was hopeful but also skeptical, I guess.
10:26She just wanted everything to be okay.
10:31When Amber's friends and family hear about her plan to swing by the annual Rainbow Family gathering on her way out west, no one is surprised.
10:40It's classic Amber, chasing after her sister's shadow.
10:44But maybe more than that.
10:47She's looking for something else.
10:49A place to feel like she belongs.
10:51I think it's really common to get a lot of young people, you know, just graduated high school.
10:56They come to a gathering where people hug you and take care of you and are, you know, supportive.
11:01It took me a lot of pain to rid things out of my body that I was attached to, that I'd grown accustomed to and gotten into habits with.
11:11But now, through the love, I mean, here, people surround me with enough love and knowledge to heal myself.
11:21And nowhere else on this face of the universe have I gone and found that for free and with love and with such a high energy happening around it that my whole total being gets healed.
11:33I was concerned about the drug use at the Rainbow Festivals, but I felt Amber had a really strong foundation in her decisions about drugs and alcohol.
11:47It really wasn't her thing.
11:52Everyone who cares about Amber says they support her independence.
11:55But when she casually drops the news that she's planning to hitchhike, there's a moment, a collective anxious pause.
12:05So, of course, I was concerned about her talking about potentially hitchhiking.
12:11Any parent, I think, would be concerned.
12:15I used to do a lot of hitchhiking back in the 70s.
12:19But I think over time, it's not quite as safe as it used to be.
12:22Typically, with hitchhiking, it's really best to, like, have a really keen intuition and stuff, which is why I never really suggest it for Amber.
12:31I knew that she was not the best judge of character.
12:37I think that she was willing to trust and forgive everybody.
12:41She's extremely innocent.
12:43On June 19th, Amber Robinson sets off on her journey full of bold determination.
12:49She really didn't pack a whole lot.
12:52She had, like, a backpack with, like, the essentials.
12:55She had her ukulele very, very minimal, to be honest.
12:59I gave her one last hug and sent her on her way.
13:05Like, it was nothing.
13:06Like, it was just any other day.
13:08Because it was at the time.
13:10That was between her and God, what was going to happen.
13:17Nobody knew we wouldn't see her again.
13:19Amber Robinson, fresh off celebrating her 18th birthday, is headed to the annual Rainbow Family gathering in rural Georgia.
13:36She's almost made it, with a quick detour in Atlanta, where she's hoping to finally meet 20-year-old Joseph Capstraw, a Facebook friend who feels like he could be more.
13:50Amber was very involved on social media, and Joseph and Amber first connected online.
14:01It almost feels like fate.
14:03Joseph just happens to be passing through Atlanta at the same time as Amber.
14:07She's never actually met him before, but when he agrees to meet up in person, she's thrilled.
14:14They click instantly.
14:16And soon enough, they're making plans to trek the 80 miles together to the Rainbow Family gathering in the Chattahoochee Oconee National Forest.
14:25I know her well enough to know that she always needs someone with her, to hear that she was with Joseph Capstraw.
14:35I just felt like they would be safe together.
14:39I was upset because I was like, you met him online, you don't really know him and stuff, you know, and she's like, yeah, well, you know, I need somebody to protect me.
14:47He made her feel safer.
14:51He was approximately 6'3", about 190, had what I would call an athletic build, probably what some folks might call a handsome young man.
15:02Joseph always carried himself politely, very deferential.
15:07Joseph never seemed to stay anywhere too long, seemed very transient, going to different festivals.
15:13The first time Amber ever told me about him, she was referring to him by the name Shaggy, which immediately I already didn't like that because all the travelers that I've met that call themselves Shaggy are usually like really gross dudes.
15:28It's a weird archetype thing that I witnessed on the road.
15:32She began to call him on social media her road dog, which is like, my understanding is like a person who travels with you when you're hitchhiking and going different places.
15:43Joseph was an abused child.
15:48He was food deprived, abused, in and out of foster care.
15:54In fact, he and Amber were kindred spirits in that sense.
15:59I think that the idea of the trauma bond between Joseph and Amber is real.
16:06She cared about people deeply and she would have opened up to someone who had been through the same things as her.
16:16He just looked like to me like something who does drugs, you know, so that kind of sketched me out.
16:21She was like, oh, no, that's not the case.
16:24He's so awesome when he plays guitar and he's this and that.
16:27I remember messaging with Amber.
16:30I was like, OK, I'm glad you at least found someone to travel with.
16:35I was like, I miss you.
16:36And she was like, I love you.
16:38Like, miss you, too.
16:44Joseph and Amber show up at the gathering a full six days before the official start.
16:50The early crowd calls this prelude seed camp, a week where they spread out across hundreds of acres.
16:56Slowly transforming the land into their version of paradise.
17:01Setting the stage for whatever comes next.
17:04And so seed camp basically is that week or so before the gathering.
17:09We only gather national forest land.
17:11Our taxpayer money has bought these public lands, right?
17:14And it's written into our constitution, right?
17:16The right for peaceful assembly is written into the constitution.
17:19The biggest problem is there's a lot of pre-gathering propaganda put out by federal law enforcement agencies.
17:28So a lot of times they get their locals really freaked out bad.
17:33Like just the seed camp is kicking in.
17:35When I first went, I was very overwhelmed because I didn't know a lot of their, like, rules.
17:44Like, I remember there was one point where I wanted to pee.
17:47And, you know, I'm like in the woods already.
17:49So I'm just like, I'm just trying to pee.
17:50And they're like, no, you can't pee right here.
17:51I'm like, oh, okay.
17:52All right.
17:53Like, I don't know where any of this were.
17:54Like, I just felt really socially anxious.
17:55You know, I was like, what in the world is going on here?
18:01There's really nobody in charge.
18:02And so what makes, it's a self-organizing event.
18:05And like, our kitchen is completely self-funded.
18:07We pass a hat around.
18:09And then that money goes into people that will drive out of the gathering every day by food.
18:15What you got cooking?
18:16We got cooking here millet with oatmeal and we're going to put bananas and raisins and honey in it.
18:22That's pretty good, yeah.
18:25Sounds great.
18:26What is this, breakfast?
18:27Yeah, this is going to be breakfast.
18:28Still a little late, but it's coming together.
18:30This is the first time I've been here.
18:31They're two hours late today, though.
18:33I was out there doing Tai Chi and they said,
18:36if somebody doesn't come do some kitchen help, there's not going to be any breakfast.
18:42So, doing it.
18:45Food's really good.
18:47Yeah, they put a lot of love into it.
18:48I've been working in the kitchen every now and then.
18:50It's really nice.
18:51A good kitchen at a Rainbow Gathering can easily feed 1,500 people.
18:56And there'll be about 30 people working in the kitchen at any given moment, day and night.
19:03Six days after Amber and Joseph settle in, the annual Rainbow Family Gathering kicks off on July 1st.
19:10It's everything you'd expect.
19:135,000 people pouring in.
19:15The energy, a mix of chaotic joy and free-spirited optimism.
19:19Freedom!
19:20Freedom!
19:21Freedom!
19:22Freedom!
19:24Freedom!
19:29Freedom!
19:30Freedom!
19:31Freedom!
19:43She told me that she loved the gathering because people were kind.
19:49She said she felt like she was accepted to be herself and she's like, everybody's saying they love me and saying, welcome home. It's so cool.
19:58I had a lot of concerns for Amber because Amber quickly, quickly saw what was good in people.
20:06She would notice red flags and take action on those red flags too late.
20:11We have incredibly low rates of violence. It's a really kind of a peaceful focus.
20:17But, you know, some people have anger management problems, right?
20:21Despite Amber's newfound calm and sense of belonging, the 2018 Rainbow Gathering grabs the headlines for all the wrong reasons.
20:30Today, we posted this story on our Facebook page about another missing man from the Rainbow Gathering up in Lumpkin County.
20:37And we had a lot of comments like this one asking, why are there so many people missing from this event?
20:43Suddenly, Utopia doesn't feel quite so peaceful anymore.
20:49We were all talking, figuring out, like, hey, we haven't heard from Amber in a few days.
20:53Like, hey, have you heard from Amber? Like, who's the last person that heard from Amber?
20:57I texted her and I'm like, bro, you know, you can't just disappear.
21:01You gotta let someone know you're okay.
21:03I was telling her, I'm like, um, no, I don't trust Shaggy.
21:08You literally just met him.
21:11All I did was worry.
21:12Amber Robinson has taken an unexpected detour on her cross-country trip to California,
21:26heading to the Rainbow Family Gathering, a counterculture festival deep in the Chattahoochee Oconee National Forest.
21:33But now, her friends are starting to worry.
21:37It's been nearly a week and no one's heard a word from her.
21:40Well, I messaged her a few times.
21:43I bugged her.
21:45I was like, you know, you gotta let me know what you're up to.
21:47And I'm just already, like, freaking out.
21:54When Amber wanted to go to the Rainbow Festival, I was concerned about the behaviors of other people there.
22:01Amy's concerns aren't exactly unfounded.
22:04Beneath all the peace signs and good vibes, something unsettling is brewing.
22:10C.J. Elliott, along with another man, vanished into thin air.
22:15He is my world.
22:17I just want to know that he's okay.
22:19Alice Elliott has spent the past six days searching the forest.
22:22I want my son back.
22:24Every minute that goes by, I'm more concerned with this.
22:27This isn't the first time darkness has found its way to the Rainbow Gathering.
22:36Back in 1980, two women were shot and killed while hitchhiking to the festival in West Virginia.
22:42The two women who got shot, it affected us very heavily.
22:48But there are other occasional things like stabbings.
22:52In 2014, Leilani Novak Garcia stabbed a man during a gathering in Utah's Uinta National Forest.
23:00Then came 2015, when things took another deadly turn with a fatal shooting at a Florida event.
23:08No one can say for sure what Amber knew or didn't know about the darker side of the festival.
23:17What we do know is this.
23:19For reasons no one can quite pin down, Amber and Joseph Capstraw, the guy she showed up with,
23:25make a quiet exit before the Rainbow Gathering even finishes.
23:29I texted her again.
23:32Sent her a little smiley face, you know, thinking about you, like, let me know something.
23:38And she still didn't text me back.
23:39For another 24 and some odd hours, she texted me the next day.
23:46She told me that she was safe.
23:54Amber's friends and family can't shake the worry.
23:56She's hitchhiking across the country with a man she barely knows.
24:01But hearing from her gives some comfort.
24:05Still, they're left in the dark about what's next.
24:08And that uncertainty lingers.
24:11She said we left Rainbow to head to Cali and that she was going to Nashville,
24:15which never really made sense to me.
24:19She told me that he wanted to go to Nashville.
24:22I do remember her telling me that she doesn't want to leave him all alone,
24:25you know, that he doesn't have a family and, like, he has nobody that cares about him.
24:31And, you know, she cares about him.
24:32And, you know, I remember just being, like, frustrated, you know, like,
24:38just do whatever's good for you.
24:39I didn't hear from her again until after she was in Nashville.
24:56And I said, don't put yourself in a bad situation.
25:01Just be safe.
25:11Amber was definitely nervous.
25:14She's really upset because she's like, we don't have any food.
25:16What are we supposed to do?
25:17And I'm like, for one, you could have food at the gathering.
25:18Why did you leave the gathering?
25:20I'm like, okay, whatever.
25:21I'm, like, really upset.
25:22And then I'm telling her, I'm like, okay, set up with your ukulele and play and busk,
25:28you know, which is just a term for playing music or performing to make money.
25:36She said homeless people are everywhere.
25:38There's no way we can make money by playing our music.
25:42She said I'm stuck here in the city sleeping on the ground because there's no place to camp.
25:48She's like, please try to get me money for a bus ticket.
25:50And I'm like, I don't have any money.
25:53And then, yeah, the next day, you know, she messages me saying,
25:57okay, no, we're just both, like, me and him, me and Shaggy are hitchhiking,
26:00you know, to Kentucky.
26:02And I'm like, okay.
26:04What no one's telling Amber is that they all harbor serious doubts
26:08about the stranger she's traveling with.
26:10This laid-back peace and love routine, it all seems too good to be true.
26:15The question is, who is the man Amber is traveling with, really?
26:21Joseph had an incident in Florida where he was involved in an altercation with another man.
26:28He was charged with attempted murder.
26:36But ultimately, it turned out that that case was dismissed
26:40because there were multiple witnesses that stated that Joseph had been himself assaulted first
26:47and was in the act of defending himself.
26:57Joseph and Amber were hitchhiking on Dixie Highway,
27:01which is a road that you can take from Nashville to Louisville.
27:07They were given a ride by Jacob Barnes.
27:14Jacob Barnes took them in his car to his house in Elizabethtown.
27:23And the next day, they were going to be taken to Interstate 65
27:27where they could continue their trip to wherever they were going.
27:32Jacob Barnes might seem like a good Samaritan to Amber,
27:38but there's a darker side to the stranger offering them a ride.
27:42His past is littered with drug-related offenses,
27:46a trail of trouble with the law.
27:49What does he really want with this young couple?
27:52I can certainly understand somebody giving someone a ride.
27:57We've all, I've been there.
28:00But to then take them to their house.
28:04And that's when I felt like there's something wrong.
28:10I'm just like, that is not where you should be at all.
28:13And I felt really sick to myself.
28:14I'm like, worried.
28:16Like, he needed to get out of there.
28:18Amber Robinson and Joseph Capstraw didn't think twice
28:29about accepting a ride from a stranger on an empty Kentucky highway.
28:34They had no idea, of course,
28:37just how quickly things were about to spiral out of control.
28:41Joseph had gone to a neighbor's house feverishly looking and banging on doors,
28:53screaming, yelling, I need help.
28:58Police in Elizabethtown responded to a call from a neighbor.
29:04When they got there, they found Joseph covered in blood.
29:11Not long after settling in at Jacob Barnes' place,
29:21Amber and Joseph finally let their guard down.
29:23It's a relief, really.
29:25A desperately needed pause after hitchhiking nearly 130 miles from Nashville.
29:32Jacob invites a couple of friends over,
29:34eager to introduce them to the so-called travelers.
29:37They were playing music.
29:40They were drinking alcohol.
29:43You know, she's like, these people, you know,
29:46they seem really nice.
29:47They're just smoking weed with us.
29:49You know, they seem so cool.
29:51Eventually, she ends up messaging me again, though,
29:53saying that they were doing hard drugs.
29:55She doesn't like to be around hard drugs.
30:02Amber has seen how drugs can change people.
30:06She's seen how drugs can tear families apart.
30:12She just remembered, like, all the times of growing up around drugs,
30:16specifically with my dad, trying to pressure her to do drugs.
30:20And, like, selling our toys, like, literally trading our things for drugs.
30:28And so that was, like, a very deep, like, you know, vicious wound for her to just be, like,
30:34the man in my lifetime, like, wanting to protect me is now over here doing drugs
30:37and, like, trying to get me to do them when I don't want to.
30:41So it's, like, literally a direct reminder of my dad trying to pressure her to do drugs
30:45and her witnessing him doing it to me.
30:48She said, they're paranoid because I'm not doing it, and they're mad at me.
30:51You know, I'm like, that sounds awful.
30:53Like, you need to get out of there.
30:55But she was very anxious, obviously, and scared.
30:57She's still just asking me, like, please try to get me money for a bus ticket
31:01out from here in Kentucky.
31:03At this point, my mind was reeling.
31:05I'm going to have to ask somebody to give me money to get her a bus ticket.
31:11The last thing she had said to me was she just wanted to leave, and I'd never heard from her again.
31:22I have known Amber.
31:23When something goes wrong in a situation, she gets out of the situation.
31:28She was ready to leave.
31:29All her stuff was packed up by the door.
31:33She was ready to get out of there.
31:34But Amber would never leave.
31:38On July 7th, police answer a 911 call that leads them straight to Jacob Barnes' front door.
31:46The scene tells its own story.
31:49The room was covered in blood.
31:50Joseph was covered in blood.
31:54Ms. Robinson had been beaten to a pulp.
32:00Amber was beaten so badly that she couldn't be identified.
32:04The police, they said that there was a body girl they had, and they thought that she was Amber, and that because I was the last person to see her,
32:27they asked me to describe her, her face, her hair, her nose piercing.
32:36I had taken Amber to the dentist sometime in 2017.
32:40Those dental records from that appointment are what allowed the police to finally determine it was Amber Robinson that they had.
32:50The teen was from Florida with only grandparents and a sister in other states given the bad news.
33:01This is one of the most brutal cases that I've ever witnessed.
33:07These cases always take a little bit of your heart and your soul out of you.
33:12But I think the real question was who killed Ms. Robinson and why.
33:2018-year-old Amber Robinson is dead.
33:36The story behind the gruesome scene is anything but simple.
33:40Now the police are questioning everyone who was at Jacob Barnes' house that night, including the one person who should have been looking out for her, Joseph Capstraw, the man she'd been traveling with.
33:54When Elizabethtown police arrived at his crime scene, he was outside, frantic, covered in blood.
34:01Not long after police arrived, they talked to Joseph and took him down to the police station for questioning.
34:09Visibly shaken, Joseph recounts the events to investigators, unraveling a story no one is prepared to hear.
34:16It was about 1 a.m. when everything kicked off.
34:26He said they were playing music, they were singing, and then Jacob and another person decided to go to Louisville on a drug run.
34:37And that left Amber and Joseph at the home by themselves.
34:40At some point, Amber became, for lack of a better term, disillusioned, disappointed that they had gone to purchase illegal narcotics.
34:54They were going to pick up drugs, and that infuriated her.
35:00Joseph became upset with that.
35:03Joseph thought that she was unfairly judging these folks who had given them a chance to, I'm going to use the term, crash at their place.
35:10And from there, it appeared that an argument ensued.
35:18She and Joseph got into an altercation.
35:21Joseph was yelling and screaming.
35:23He said she attacked him with a knife, and he ended up having some cuts on his arm.
35:30One thing led to another, and Amber was killed.
35:36She was beaten to death by the hands of Joseph Capstra.
35:40He said he was defending himself in the altercation.
35:46He said it was self-defense.
35:49But forensic experts said the wounds on his arm couldn't have possibly come from Amber.
35:55That was the only defense that he was attacked by Amber.
35:59When, in fact, the cuts on his arm were self-induced, he cut himself.
36:08The medical examiner's office said he also stomped on her face and her skull with his feet.
36:16Just brutal.
36:18That was not an act of self-defense.
36:21It was monstrous.
36:28It was just a brutal attack by a gentleman who was 6'3", 190 pounds, on a young lady who was 5'3", and 90 pounds.
36:37And he beat her relentlessly with his hands.
36:43I'll never be able to understand a lot of the whys.
36:50There's a friend of ours, friend of the family.
36:52Her name is Linda.
36:53Linda, she's been a part of the kids' lives ever since they were born.
36:58I was at home, and Linda gives me a call.
37:05She just basically ripped the bandage off to start with and said, Amber's been murdered.
37:10I mean, I was just in denial at first.
37:18I was like, no, that can't be true, you know?
37:22And I was just like, that literally can't be true.
37:24I didn't want to believe that it was real.
37:28I hate that she's not here experiencing the rest of her life with the rest of us.
37:35You know, I couldn't wrap my mind around Amber being harmed.
37:38And I screamed, just one of the most gut-wrenching screams.
37:48I've never felt so much pain at the thought that she had been murdered.
37:57Joseph was indicted.
37:59He was charged with the murder.
38:02He pled not guilty to the charges.
38:04Fast forward almost a year and a half to February 2020.
38:10Joseph Capstraw is finally on trial.
38:13When he steps up to the stand, his story shifts.
38:17It's a twist of words, just enough to make it seem like he didn't mean for any of it to happen.
38:23Joseph testified that he loved Amber, thought the world of Amber.
38:27Amber didn't remember any of this.
38:30He blacked out.
38:32And when he came to, immediately realized that something terrible, terrible, unthinkable and unfathomable had happened.
38:44I didn't believe him at all.
38:46I can't imagine someone caring for her and doing what he did.
38:49The jury, after hearing the evidence, after deliberating, they found Joseph guilty of murder.
38:57There were no winners or losers on this case.
39:07Everybody lost.
39:10Everybody lost.
39:14Amber Robinson has justice, but that doesn't make her family any more whole.
39:21I just, I think we all could have done better by these young people.
39:29Joseph Capstraw is sentenced to 50 years in prison.
39:34Just to think that the person that she'd entrusted herself to, I think was so evil, really makes me sad.
39:44But despite her decisions to hitchhike or to be with Joseph Capstraw or to go to the Rainbow Festival,
39:53there is nothing that Amber did or chose to do that deserves to be murdered.
40:02These things upset us a lot, especially as peaceful people.
40:08We hope that we have an influence on people, that when they leave the gathering,
40:12they don't have that urge for acts of violence.
40:15But, you know, some people, that's their natural state of being, I hate to say.
40:20It's a shame.
40:21We hope that those people can learn from gatherings.
40:23If I would have known everything that I know now, I mean, I would have just tried harder to buy Amber a bus ticket.
40:34If I could change reality, like, that's what I would do.
40:38She was truly a remarkable soul in this world, and it is a shame that she is not here.
40:46Her physical body is no longer here, but she is not a victim to this dude.
40:54She's magical and empowered and beautiful, and I wish that I would have told her that.
40:59This is an excerpt from a letter that Amber had written that was never mailed, saying,
41:04Trust me, I want to be happy.
41:07I want to be something, and have kids, and make their childhood better than mine has been.
41:12And that will happen.
41:14Life can be so great if you let it be.
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