Amore Joveah Wiggins
I don't know about you, but I've had this case in my mind for quite a while.
And I don't know why, but it still seems unreal that this poor innocent child, a little girl who had her life stolen from her at a tragically young age, now has her name back.
She was formerly known as the "Opelika Jane Doe".
I remember first finding about her case through a YouTube video made by the now-deactivated channel "Cayleigh Elise" (reuploaded here). I have no idea why her case particularly stuck with me, but I mean... any true crime case involving a murdered child just haunts me in particular, and especially if that child suffered a horrible, tragic life of abuse before being killed.
Her remains were discovered on January 28, 2012 - the day I turned twelve years old. It's chilling to know that while I was celebrating another year on this Earth in a stable home with caring parents, this little girl would be discarded like trash by people who were (as far as we all knew at the time) supposed to care for her, never to see another year in the world.
Her death was determined to be a homicide and, based on the state of her remains, it was believed she died between the summer of 2010 to 2011. She was discovered to have been abused a great deal, having been malnourished and suffering an injury in one of her eyes that left her blind. The eye injury in particular was of key interest since it should have been very distinct and anyone who knew the girl would have likely been more able to identify her based on this detail.
The problem was, nothing would really come of this case for about four years after the little girl was discovered.
In 2016, there was a light of hope in the case: an employee at the Greater Peace Church came forward with photos showing a child resembling the Opelika Jane Doe. This child appeared in photos taken during a Vacation Bible School session in 2011, and she bore quite a jarring resemblance to the Jane Doe. She appeared to have the same eye deformity as the Jane Doe, but unfortunately, the church employee did not remember her name. The child reportedly had an unkept appearance and kept to herself, which supports the investigators' findings of the Jane Doe being malnourished and neglected. Though we now know the Jane Doe's name, it is still unconfirmed whether she is indeed the same child in these photographs.
In late 2022, after several years of DNA testing and releasing facial reconstructions to try and identify Opelika Jane Doe, investigators were able to narrow down several locations where she could have been from, leading to them tracking down her father. He was enlisted in the Navy though was born and raised in Opelika. When he was notified of his daughter's death, he apparently didn't even know who she was or who her mother was.
But just last month (December), Opelika authorities found the child's biological mother. She was a native of Norfolk, Virginia, and gave birth to a daughter in January of 2006. She named her daughter "Amore Joveah Wiggins".
In 2009, legal and physical custody of Amore was given to her father and his new wife, and visitation rights from her biological mother were suspended.
Despite never enrolling Amore in school or even reporting her as a missing person, her father and stepmother still received child support from her biological mother. The father and stepmother have since been arrested for felony murder and failure to report a missing child.
Amore's case still remains under investigation, including her relationship with her father and stepmother as well as what exactly happened to her in Opelika.
Take one more look at this precious, innocent child.
Her mother clearly loved her. She looks no more than three years old in these photos (the age when she would have been sent to her father and stepmother) and appears happy and healthy.
Even her name means "love".
She would have - no, should have turned seventeen years old this year.
She should have been in her junior or senior year of high school, ready to go on to college if she wanted.
Her mother must have waited so long for her to turn eighteen, when she would have been able to reunite with her mother if she so chose to.
Her mother diligently paid child support despite being estranged from her spouse and prevented from seeing her child due to the custodial arrangements.
Amore's mother loved her. She kept and willingly showed all the documents related to her, and remembered her name nearly eleven years later.
Rest in peace, Amore Wiggins.
May her beloved mother find peace and solace.
There is a reason I follow true crime, and that is to see justice given to those who tragically lost their lives as well as those who have otherwise seemed to vanish off the face of the Earth.
Cases involving children unnerve me the most.
Children deserve a stable home with loving, supportive parents and friends, but unfortunately, that's not always ideal.
These children could have grown up to potentially become someone who'd be able to make a difference in this world, but their lives were snuffed out far too soon.
In recent years, I've seen a lot of breakthroughs in decades-old missing and murdered people's cases. The Boy in the Box case has also stuck with me for a while, and he was identified just last month (December). There are quite a few other cases I hope will be solved, including those that have been deemed unsolved cold cases: the murders of JonBenet Ramsey, the St. Louis Jane Doe, and the disappearances of Timmothy Pitzen, Anthonette Cayedito, and Relisha Rudd, to name a few. Heck, Joseph Zarelli (the Boy in the Box) didn't get his name back until 65 years later. Who's to say that technology will be further developed in the future which will enable us to finally solve these cases?
