The FBI’s underwater search team recently examined Round Pond in Burrillville, Rhode Island, in connection with Andrew Amato’s 1978 disappearance. Officials described the target only as specific evidence. The bureau has not said what investigators sought or whether they found anything, The Valley Breeze reported. The FBI describes its Underwater Search and Evidence Response Team as a group of agents tasked with searching for and recovering underwater evidence, but that general role does not identify the target or outcome of the Round Pond operation, according to the FBI.
The FBI and Webster Police are offering $25,000 for information leading to an arrest and conviction, The Valley Breeze reported. The renewed search follows a 2003 investigation in Burrillville, after police received information about a Rhode Island laborer’s alleged deathbed confession to abducting and killing Andrew. That search produced no evidence, the outlet reported.
Andrew was four when he disappeared on September 30, 1978, after entering woods near his Webster, Massachusetts, home with his sister, Michelle, and their cousin, Jeannie, according to The Valley Breeze. Despite an extensive search, he was not found.
Published accounts provide different snapshots of the search’s scale and duration. NBC 10 News reported that the initial search covered six square miles of woods and swamp and ended after nine days. The Valley Breeze reported that more than 10,000 volunteers joined searches in the following weeks.
What missing-person figures show
The FBI reported 93,447 active missing-person records in the National Crime Information Center nationwide as of December 31, 2024. That end-of-year figure is not specific to Massachusetts, according to the FBI.
How national records and alerts are counted
In the same 2024 report, the FBI said 533,936 missing-person records were entered into NCIC nationwide and 537,446 were purged during the year. These are record counts, not a Massachusetts tally; the FBI says records remain on file until the person is located or the entering agency cancels the record, so annual entries and purges are distinct from the year-end active-record total. The first AMBER Alert plan began in the Dallas-Fort Worth area in October 1996, well after Andrew disappeared, according to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.
Anyone with information about Andrew’s disappearance is asked to contact the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI or Webster police at 508-943-1212, NBC 10 News reported.
