Video of US Woman Missing in Puerto Rico May Help Search

A video shared by police investigators might show the last location where Amanda Webster, the Indianapolis elementary teacher who went missing in Puerto Rico earlier this week, was seen before disappearing.

The teacher’s disappearance was reported by the owner of the place where she was staying on vacation on Puerto Rico, according to friends who spoke with the local police.

The owner called law enforcement after realizing Webster had not completed the check-out and had left her belongings and a rental car at the property, according to a Facebook post shared by the Puerto Rico police.

Friends of Webster said on Friday that the 44-year-old woman never came back home from the Caribbean island, as reported by Fox 59. Webster is a resident of Indianapolis, Indiana, where she is an art teacher at Thompson Crossing Elementary School.

Webster’s friends told 13 WTHR that she had arrived in Puerto Rico on Monday and was sharing pictures of her holiday with them—until Wednesday, when she went missing.

In response to Webster’s disappearance earlier this week, Puerto Rico Police Commissioner Antonio Lopez Figueroa activated an “Ashanti Alert,” which asked all residents to take part in the search for the teacher. The alert, named after Ashanti Billie, a 19-year-old woman who was kidnapped and murdered in 2017, establishes a voluntary nationwide communication network aimed at supporting the search and recovery of missing persons aged between 18 and 64.

“Amanda Lynn Webster was reported missing on Wednesday by the landlord of the place she is staying at, after realizing she failed to leave the home as agreed upon and left her belongings and a rented car on the property,” the Puerto Rico Police wrote on Facebook.

“She was seen for the last time at the Casa Parcha guest house near El Yunque National Park in Naguabo,” officers said at the time. Another post published by the Puerto Rico Police said Webster was reported missing by her father, Thomas R. Webster.

Naguabo, a city on the east side of the island, is quite far from the house where she was staying. Police officers are focusing their searches in a wooded area where she was spotted by another person who caught her on camera with their smartphones. Puerto Rico Police investigators have not released the footage to the public.

A missing-person poster shared by the local police says that Webster is 5 feet, 6 inches tall; around 147 pounds; and a white woman with blue eyes and blonde hair, though a picture shows her with long blue hair.

An investigation has been launched into Webster’s disappearance involving the Criminal Investigation Corps of the local police, State Emergency Management staff and the U.S. Forest Service.

Anyone with information about Webster’s location or disappearance, or anything that could help investigators can call Puerto Rico Police’s confidential line at (787)343-2020 or (787)793-1234, ext. 2464 or 2463.