Woman was on her way home, then gone
After working her overnight shift at the Coca-Cola bottling plant in Downey early last week, Amber Lee Hill called her boyfriend to let him know she was heading home.
She never made it.
Orange County sheriff’s investigators said the 38-year-old woman’s Jan. 9 disappearance remains a mystery, one that grew more ominous Saturday when her wallet, car registration and other items that appeared to be from the glove box of her dark blue 2001 Dodge Stratus were found scattered on a hiking trail in Whittier.
Hill, who lived in Stanton, was in the process of filing for divorce and trying to gain full custody of a stepdaughter. She was also a witness in a sexual-harassment case at her job at the bottling company, where she worked as a lab technician.
Authorities said that, as a matter of routine, they were checking all leads, including the sexual-harassment case.
The hunt for Hill began when she failed to pick up her 12-year-old stepdaughter from school that afternoon. Her boyfriend, Antonio King, called police and filed a missing persons report.
“No one has heard from her. There have been no visits to the ATM. Her car is missing,” said Jim Amormino, spokesman for the Sheriff’s Department. “It’s totally out of character.”
Hill and her husband, Robert Hill, a San Bernardino contractor, were planning to file for divorce this week, said Amber Lee Hill’s daughter, Jennifer Uribe, 22.
She also hoped to get custody of his 12-year-old daughter from a previous relationship, Uribe said.
The couple met online about two years ago and had been married for a year, Uribe said. Hill filed a domestic-violence complaint against Robert Hill in 2004 in Los Angeles County. It’s unclear how the case was resolved.
Hill met her boyfriend nine months ago when she began working at the soft drink bottling plant, Uribe said. They soon moved in together in Stanton, she said.
The sexual-harassment complaint at the bottling plant targeted Hill’s friend and a co-worker. Hill was a witness to bathroom graffiti.
Uribe said she talked to her mother several days before her disappearance.
“She was happy, and there didn’t seem to be anything wrong,” said Uribe, of San Bernardino.
Hill spent her free time with Uribe’s two children and was attending classes at Chaffey College in Rancho Cucamonga, hoping for career advancement.
“This is all really weird,” Uribe said. “She’s not like that. She doesn’t just disappear.”
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