and once she was pregnant our family would insist that we get married. then i listened to everyone except my own feelings. and once they were married, she said, he demanded sex whenever he wanted it. whenever he, like, touched me i would feel sick and i would i would tell him to stop. there were times when he would get angry and frustrated and then he would force himself on me. and right beside sleeping children in their one small bedroom he would duct tape me, duct tape my mouth, duct tape, you know, my wrists to the leg of a share, and just to keep me quiet. i was very afraid and, again, i was young. much too afraid to tell. and while detectives search for more clues in amber s death here then one day in late january 2007 as she watched tv she saw the news of amber s murder. and i said, look at this.
had maybe some anger towards me. but blame her, no. they knew she was a victim, too. in fact, giovanni pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting veronica. they already know, they were grateful that i said something, that i did the right thing. we don t have any ill feelings. she s a wonderful girl. they are, they told us, broken, still, and always will be, and they cling now to amber s best friends, ashley and monica. our daughters, our adopted daughter, amber s friends through thick and thin. they each named daughters after amber and they hang on to memories like gold. it s like you have to put it in a box and then just keep it there for safekeeping, because that s what you have, and that s what you hold on to. it hurts.
over 600 people. and the ones that couldn t get into the chapel waited in the lobby and in the parking lot. was that a comfort? a very big comfort, that she touched that many lives. they loved amber. they said, we love amber. as amber s parents watched, they could not stop seeing in their heads another scene, the one in the back room of the video game store, the way she was killed. they told me it was personal. she had to be so frightened, and when she tried to pick up the phone i know it was to call us and he yanked the phone out of the wall. was it brandon beale? by the day of the funeral they were sure. we definitely thought brandon did it. everything pointed to him. and then as mourners filed by to pay their respect, suddenly
try to get some kind of evidence on brandon, and there was none there. yeah. there was none there because he didn t do it. that alibi about helping his fiance s parents checked out. and his phone records revealed he was miles from the store when amber was murdered. finally, brandon beale was cleared. did you at some point think, i m going to be charged with murd sner. murder? yes, i did. the memory is still fresh. had nightmares of going to jail. it was hard to sleep. that terrible day my whole process was, let me get this store open because, you know i screwed up? yes, i screwed up. maybe is store was messier than others. brandon was 23 then and terrified. i m just thinking, you know, just they re really trying to
there s no surveillance video in the store. there s none in the strip center that the store is located in. there s no video anywhere. there was video at the starbucks next door, but it only showed the front door and that s it. you don t see anything. who would know that? who would know it was the video game company s only store in san antonio not equipped with cameras? the answer was obvious, thought the detective. an employee would know, just like an employee would know amber hadn t taken the cash to the bank yet. then mariano told the detective about encountering brandon and that he couldn t understand why brandon didn t look for amber until he, mariano, arrived. his first thought should have been i think there might have been a robbery, let me make sure, first of all, the robbers are not still in here and can hurt me, but also let me see where amber is. just what the detective was thinking. he talked to amber s co-workers. they said she had issues with brandon. they had ne