‘If I Ever Go Missing, Look at Frederick Reer’ — Amanda Dean’s Chilling Text Proved Prophetic as Family Fights for Justice After Boyfriend’s ‘Slap on the Wrist’ Sentence

Amanda Dean knew something was wrong long before anyone else did.

The 36-year-old mother of four sent a text message to a friend in the months before she vanished — a quiet, desperate warning that would take years to be taken seriously.

“If I ever go missing, look at Frederick Reer.”

On July 11, 2017, she sent a final message to her sister saying she planned to leave her boyfriend. Then she disappeared entirely.

Six Years of False Hope

When Dean’s family filed a missing persons report with the Huron County Sheriff’s Office, they were told something that derailed the investigation for nearly a decade: Amanda had been located. She was in a safe house. She was fine.

The BOLO alert was canceled. Her name was removed from the missing persons database. Birthday cards and Christmas messages were passed through the sheriff’s office in hopes she would receive them.

“It was almost like we were being told she doesn’t want to contact her family,” her sister Shannon recalled. “And that hurt.”

For six years, Dean’s mother Caroline, her children, and her siblings lived with the belief that Amanda was alive somewhere — and had chosen silence.

Dean’s sister never accepted it. “Amanda just didn’t seem like that person who would simply abandon her mom, her sister, her children.”

She was right. Amanda had been dead since the day she disappeared.

What Frederick Reer Did

According to investigators from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, Reer killed Dean inside the small shack where the couple lived on his parents’ property in Collins, Ohio — a structure with no indoor plumbing, no kitchen, just a living area and a makeshift bar.

A neighbor reported visiting the cabin in July 2017 and finding blood everywhere, with Reer cleaning the scene with rags. Witnesses described seeing Reer burning items at a fire pit for four consecutive days.

He later admitted during a proffer — a confession made under a limited-use agreement — that he had dismembered Dean’s body, burned the remains, and when he discovered bones would not disintegrate in the fire, he placed what was left in a bucket and dumped it into a creek off a bridge.

Amanda Dean’s body has never been recovered. Her family has nothing to bury.

“We don’t even have a single piece of her,” Shannon said. “Nothing.”

The Case That Almost Stayed Closed

The investigation remained dormant until December 2022, when Dean’s family contacted Cleveland Missing, an advocacy organization for families of the missing. Within weeks of their intervention, the Ohio BCI reopened the case.

In November 2023, investigators executed a search warrant on the Reer property — bringing excavators, cadaver dogs, and forensic tools. They re-interviewed witnesses, including members of Reer’s own family.

One interview proved pivotal. Reer’s brother, who is non-verbal and autistic, was asked what happened inside the cabin. Unable to speak, he acted out what he had witnessed.

Reer was indicted in February 2024.

A Sentence That Outraged a Family

In December 2025, Reer pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter, two counts of tampering with evidence, and gross abuse of a corpse. He was sentenced to 14 years in prison.

But it was the gross abuse charge that exposed a gap in Ohio law that Dean’s family cannot accept: the maximum penalty for that offense — regardless of dismemberment, mutilation, or burning — is just one year.

“It feels like a slap on the wrist for what this man did to Amanda,” Shannon said. “To cut up another human being and put them on a fire? That is a different kind of evil.”

At sentencing, Reer offered a brief apology to the Dean family, to his own family, and to the community. Observers described it as hollow.

“On a scale of 1 to 100 for sincerity, I would put it at negative 50,” one official said.

When Reer’s attorney then requested a contact visit with his brother — and Reer asked for a hug from his mother — the Dean family’s reaction was immediate.

“She’ll never be able to hug her mother,” Shannon said. “Why should he get to hug his mother?”

Amanda’s Law

In the wake of sentencing, Ohio state representatives introduced Amanda Dean’s Law — legislation that would significantly increase penalties for gross abuse of a corpse, with escalating charges for dismemberment, mutilation, and concealment of a crime.

“Consequences must match the crime,” said Representative Kellie Deeter. “We have a responsibility to ensure our laws reflect human dignity and respect for life.”

Dean’s son Josh, who addressed Reer directly in court, told him everything the family had lost — graduations, weddings, grandchildren — and everything that could never be returned.

“I want people to know there’s always a way out,” Josh said. “Even though our mom did not find a way out — there is always someone you can go to, someone who can help.”

Amanda Dean was 36 years old. She had four children and a singing voice her family says could fill any room.

She named her killer before he killed her. It just took the world eight years to listen.

If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, available 24/7.

Source: Compiled from various sources