Key facts
- Name: Amber Lynn Wilde
- Born: March 26, 1979, Campbellsport, Wisconsin
- Age at disappearance: 19
- Last seen: September 23, 1998
- Location: Green Bay, Wisconsin
- Height / build: 5’6″, 135 lbs, brown hair, brown eyes; pregnant (family says about four and a half months; the FBI ViCAP alert lists six months — sources conflict on how far along)
- Status: Still missing — investigated as a presumed homicide; no arrests, no body
- Case number: GBPD 9859126; FBI ViCAP alert issued
- Investigating agency: Green Bay Police Department, (920) 448-3200; Crime Stoppers (920) 432-7867
The diary under the mattress
On September 23, 1998, Amber Wilde got into a minor car accident near the University of Wisconsin–Green Bay. She’d been rear-ended — or rear-ended someone; accounts differ — hard enough to smash her head against the windshield. She went to the university medical staff with a headache. They told her she might have a concussion and that someone should check on her.
Her father, Steve, called through the day and evening. They spoke for the last time at 7:16 p.m., on the phone in her apartment. The next day Amber missed her 1:00 p.m. class and an optometrist appointment — completely unlike her. Her father drove over. No Amber. No car. He called the police.
Eight days later, on October 1, her dark gray 1988 Subaru turned up in a sports bar parking lot near Lambeau Field. It was unlocked. The keys were inside. Her purse was locked in the trunk. Her phone was left charging. And the odometer showed nearly 900 miles nobody could account for.
Then, searching her apartment, investigators lifted her mattress and found the diary.
Amber had been at UW–Green Bay for three weeks. She was 19, from Campbellsport, a full-scholarship pre-med student who wanted to be a pediatrician. She was also pregnant — her family described her as about four and a half months along (the FBI’s ViCAP alert lists six months; sources conflict), the baby due in February 1999. And day by day, in explicit detail, the diary laid out the last months of her life — including the identity of the man she said was the father: Matthew Schneider, a 21-year-old she’d met at a party in May, who was engaged to another woman.
“Her diary has been verified by phone calls, interviews, statements and events that have happened have all been verified,” said Green Bay detective David Graf.
What the diary said
According to the diary and her family, Amber met Matt Schneider at a party while attending college in West Bend. What followed was brief — then the pregnancy. When she told him, he was not happy. He was engaged to be married to a woman named Heidi, and he did not want his family or his fiancée to find out. He pressed Amber to have an abortion.
Amber considered it. Her aunt Laurie Enhert remembers: “Amber had looked into an abortion clinic. It was just something she felt she needed to do, you know, to satisfy him, I guess. But she wanted to have the baby. She wanted to have the baby, be a mother and go on with her life.”
Then Amber did the thing that may have sealed everything: she told Schneider’s fiancée about the pregnancy herself. She told his mother, too. She wasn’t asking for a relationship anymore — Enhert says by then Amber just wanted the child’s father to be present in the baby’s life.
When police questioned Schneider, he denied he and Amber had a sexual relationship. Detectives noted he “showed no concern for Amber being missing.” A friend of his later told police Schneider felt guilty about having sex with Amber — leading investigators to believe he wasn’t telling the whole truth.
By May 2016, police were confident Amber had been killed and were treating the case as a “first-degree intentional homicide.” In 2020, TMJ4 revisited the case with never-before-seen evidence and interviews — including, for the first time, the wife of the man investigators considered the main suspect. “Somebody definitely knows what happened,” said detective Lee Kingston. “Somebody knows something.”
No charges have ever been filed. Matthew Schneider has never been arrested in connection with Amber’s disappearance, and the presumption of innocence applies fully. In 2023, reporting confirmed he had been the uncooperative figure in the early investigation. “We have a lot of questions that are still unanswered,” Graf said. “Could he be able to answer them today? I hope so. That’s up to him.”
The family that won’t stop
“I never would have thought we would have been waiting for answers this long. Never. It’s unbelievable,” Laurie Enhert said. Her cousin Nichol Siem, who was Amber’s close friend: “I don’t think she would have wanted to leave us. I don’t think it was her choice.”
The family believes Amber may be buried beneath Highway 29. Repeated searches have produced nothing. “She’s still missed as much as she was from day one,” Enhert said. “We’re just hoping that someday we’ll get answers.”
Twenty-eight years. A diary that named names. A car with 900 miles nobody drove — officially. A pregnancy, an engagement, a secret told. And a young woman who wanted to be a pediatrician, gone since the night she bumped her head and called her dad.
Theories: what might have happened
She was killed by someone connected to the pregnancy. This is the investigation’s working theory — by 2016, police were treating it as intentional homicide. The motive, as investigators see it: Schneider was engaged, didn’t want the pregnancy exposed, and Amber had just told his fiancée and his mother. The 900 unexplained miles and the wiped-clean… no — the car wasn’t wiped; the purse in the trunk, phone charging, and keys left inside suggest someone drove it and walked away, unconcerned about being neat. What undercuts a charge: without a body, without forensic evidence tying anyone to the car’s extra miles, prosecutors have never brought the case. A diary is not a witness, and suspicion — even strong, documented suspicion — is not proof.
The car accident is connected. Amber hit her head on September 23, hours before she was last heard from. Could a concussion have left her disoriented — wandering, getting into the wrong car, driving those 900 miles in confusion? It’s the kind of theory that explains the strange car evidence without a villain. What undercuts it: the diary’s documented conflict, the pregnancy secret freshly told, and the fact that nothing about the car’s condition suggested a confused driver — it was parked, locked up, purse stowed.
She left voluntarily. Nothing supports this. She missed classes she cared about, left her purse and phone, and never contacted the family that had promised to help raise the baby while she finished school. The diary, her aunt said, was itself a red flag against this theory: “a red flag that she didn’t leave intentionally for a long period of time.”
Have information?
Contact the Green Bay Police Department at (920) 448-3200, or Crime Stoppers at (920) 432-7867. You can also contact FBI ViCAP at (800) 634-4097. In an emergency, dial 911.
Timeline
- March 26, 1979 — Amber Lynn Wilde is born in Campbellsport, Wisconsin.
- 1997 — Graduates Campbellsport High School on a full scholarship; studies pre-med.
- September 1998 — Transfers to UW–Green Bay; moves into her apartment three weeks before she vanishes. Four and a half months pregnant.
- September 23, 1998 — Minor car accident near campus; possible concussion. Last speaks to her father at 7:16 p.m.
- September 24, 1998 — Misses class and an optometrist appointment; her father finds her gone and reports her missing.
- October 1, 1998 — Her Subaru is found near Lambeau Field: unlocked, keys inside, purse in trunk, phone charging, ~900 unexplained miles.
- Fall 1998 — Diary found under her mattress details the relationship with Matthew Schneider and the pregnancy.
- May 2016 — Police announce the case is being treated as first-degree intentional homicide.
- 2020 — TMJ4 revisits the case with new interviews, including the suspect’s wife.
- 2023 — Reporting confirms the baby’s father was the uncooperative figure in the early investigation; no charges filed.
- Today — Still missing.
FAQ
Is Amber Wilde still missing?
Yes. As of October 2026, Amber Wilde has been missing for 28 years. Green Bay police treat the case as a presumed homicide, but no arrests have been made and her body has never been found.
Was Amber Wilde ever found?
No. Despite extensive investigation, an FBI ViCAP alert, and repeated searches — her family believes she may be buried beneath Highway 29 — no trace of Amber has ever been found.
How old would Amber Wilde be today?
Amber was born March 26, 1979 — she turned 47 in March 2026. Her baby, due in February 1999, would be 27.
What did Amber Wilde’s diary say?
Found under her mattress, the diary gave a day-by-day account of her final months, including her relationship with 21-year-old Matthew Schneider — whom she identified as the father of her unborn child — his engagement to another woman, his pressure on her to have an abortion, and her decision to tell his fiancée and mother about the pregnancy. Police verified the diary’s contents against calls, interviews, and events.
What happened to Amber Wilde’s car?
Her 1988 Subaru was found October 1, 1998, in a sports bar parking lot near Lambeau Field — unlocked, keys inside, purse locked in the trunk, phone left charging, with about 900 miles on the odometer that no one could explain.
Was anyone charged in Amber Wilde’s disappearance?
No. Matthew Schneider, the man Amber identified as the baby’s father, has been the investigation’s main person of interest and was described as uncooperative early on, but he has never been charged. The presumption of innocence applies.
Sources
- Official / law enforcement: FBI ViCAP alert, “MISSING PERSON – Green Bay, WI: AMBER LYNN WILDE” (GBPD case 9859126; Lt. Keith Knoebel, (920) 448-3319).
- News: TMJ4, “Amber Wilde cold case revisited, never-before-seen evidence” (2020); Green Bay Press-Gazette (Aug 28, 2016); Thomas Grey, “Amber Wilde: Missing in Green Bay” (todayintruecrime.com).
- Reference: The Charley Project; Unsolved Mysteries podcast, “Secret Diary of a Missing Girl” (case file PDF).
- Media: Unsolved Mysteries (podcast, ep. 61); Prime Time Krime podcast.
Found an error? Tell us via the About page and we will fix it promptly and note the change here. Last verified October 2026.
Corrections (October 2026): Amber’s aunt’s surname corrected from “Ehnert” to “Enhert” (per the Unsolved Mysteries case file transcript and TMJ4). A source conflict is now disclosed on how far along Amber was: family/diary sources say about four and a half months; the FBI ViCAP alert lists six months.