Amber Eichner, a 34-year-old Ohio mom, went missing on April 14 — leaving her four daughters behind.
“Family means too much to her for her to do something like this,” Eichner’s sister, Brittany Stiles told WTOL 11. “So we feel like she’s in danger.”
And sadly — she was. Police would later discover Amber, buried in the backyard of a home in Toledo.
Her estranged husband, John Eichner, was arrested on Tuesday on a warrant by the Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office. He is charged with murder and tampering with evidence in connection with the death of his wife. He is also charged with four misdemeanor charges of endangering children.
It all began on April 14, when Amber went missing.
Her cousin, Amanda Kimbrell, shared with NBC24 how Amber was trying to find a domestic violence shelter to stay in when she vanished.
“With her being a victim of domestic violence, and she has been for a very long time,” Kimbrell revealed “we fought really hard to help support her to get away and the only thing I could say is she finally got the kids away from him. It wasn’t the way we wanted but she’s finally free.”
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And while Amber had full custody of the couple’s four daughters, John dropped them off at a relative’s house in Tennessee on April 21.
On April 23, her cell phone pinged off of a tower in Tennessee at 1:45 p.m. and then off of another tower in Tennessee west of that location at 3:30 p.m. — that same day, police received a report that John had gone missing and that he had “abandoned” his four children in Tennessee.
Allegedly, John left them at the relative’s house with six bags of clothes before leaving. John was missing until he was arrested by police on April 27.
“During the course of the investigation, police received a tip from a friend of John that he had recently requested and been granted permission to bury his deceased dog on the friend’s property,” Vaneerten says in the statement. Police dug up the yard and found human remains.
“Although the body has not yet been positively identified through DNA analysis, it is believed to be the body of Amber Eichner,” Vaneerten says in the statement.
An autopsy shows that the cause of death of the victim whose body was found was strangulation. Eichner remains held in the Ottawa County Jail on $1,070,000 bond as he awaits his next court date.