ANSON COUNTY, N.C. — A grieving mother in Pennsylvania is finding closure in laying her daughter to rest four years after she disappeared in the Carolinas.
“It was bittersweet. It was still like it just happened,” Sharon Johnston said. “We finally got closure, and I got to bring her home.”
In March, Anson County investigators told Channel 9’s Gina Esposito Amber Rae Johnston disappeared in August 2021.
They say she left a trip to Arizona and never got on a bus in North Carolina to Pennsylvania like she had planned.
Her phone pinged at a Union County truck stop then deactivated in Charlotte the next day.
Three days later, a trail camera captured her walking off Anson High School Road in Wadesboro.
Her body wasn’t discovered until the following year, and Johnston didn’t connect the dots until 2024. She saw the photos on a missing person’s website, followed by a possible DNA match.
“That was the hardest, difficult one that broke me down,” her mother said.
The Anson County Sheriff’s Office identified the body as Amber’s, and investigators say they don’t suspect foul play. They are still waiting on the official cause of death.
“I know what I feel, it’s not going to bring her back,” Johnston said. “And I kind of have to move forward and accept it.”
Johnston said she still wants to know how Amber got to Anson County.
“All I know is, she didn’t get down there by herself, but what happened when she got down there?” she said. “That might be a different story.”
While she waits, Johnston is focused on remembering Amber.
“She was very, very kind,” she said. “Everybody loved her.”
Johnston says she’s grateful because she knows there are other families who never get answers. When she retires, she said she hopes to help others in similar situations get closure.
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