A California father made a desperate plea for help in finding his missing daughter on Thursday, just days after police received video of their primary suspect, her boyfriend, rapping about murdering someone.
Rick Custer spoke at a press conference with police on Thursday afternoon, begging for the public’s help in the search for 31-year-old Amanda Custer, who vanished last week after an alleged domestic violence dispute with her boyfriend.
The dispute took place on July 29 at the home of her boyfriend, Robert Camou, 27, who is suspected in her kidnapping, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. Authorities responded to a call about a possible domestic violence incident at Camou’s home in Monrovia, California.
There were no signs of the couple, but officers said they found blood at the scene and evidence of a dispute. Witnesses said they saw Custer's limp body being placed in the back of Camou's gray Toyota Prius after the alleged dispute, according to police.
Camou was later captured on video at a downtown Los Angeles bar, rapping about being on the news, killing a woman and burying her in the dirt, police said.
"I killed my b---- and buried that b---- in the f------ dirt," he said while staring into the camera. Police said they received a copy of the video and confirmed that it was Camou.
Police located Camou's vehicle about a mile away from the bar where the rap video was taken and found him lying in the back seat.
Blood and a digging tool were located in the vehicle, police said. The source of the blood is still being analyzed.
Camou was arrested on unrelated charges from a domestic violence case, and is being held without bail. Police would not specify what those charges were.
Police said Camou has not provided any information on the whereabouts of Amanda Custer.
He has not been charged in connection with Custer's disappearance.
"He is our prime suspect in the disappearance of Amanda Custer," the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s homicide Lt. Scott Hoglund told reporters Thursday. "We need the public's assistance and locating Amanda. She's still not been seen nor heard from by family members and this is very uncharacteristic of her behavior to not be heard from for over 10 days."
Rick Custer, the victim's father, pleaded on Thursday for anyone with information to come forward.
"This is basically a plea to anybody out there, especially on Monday, the 29th of July, that was hiking or fishing, or mountain biking and might have seen anything out of the ordinary," Rick Custer said. "It might not have seemed important at that time, but it does now."
"Somebody out there had to have seen something and now would be a good time to call it in. We just want to bring Amanda home," he added.
Investigators said the couple, who had dated for about two years, had a volatile relationship and “numerous domestic violence incidents.”
A restraining order filed by Custer in February 2019 included details of Camou's alleged obsessive behavior, according to ABC's Los Angeles station KABC.
"He has made over 100 (phone) numbers to verbally bash me," Custer said in a court document at the time, according to KABC. She went on to describe an uninvited visit to her home by Camou: "He turned around, came running at my window, and broke my double-pane window with the hatchet."
