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The 14-year-old Schenectady High School sophomore was last seen alive the day after Thanksgiving 2022, when she snuck out of her Schenectady home to meet her abusive ex-boyfriend near the city’s Mohawk River, relatives said.
Investigators spent months fruitlessly searching the water and surrounding park with K9 units and dive teams before Humphrey’s body was finally recovered in February 2023, as Daily Voice reported.
The medical examiner’s report stated that the girl’s cause and manner of death was undetermined, but Schenectady Police said the case was being investigated as a homicide.
While no suspects had been arrested as of Tuesday, Feb. 18, Humphrey's family has alleged that she was the victim of domestic violence.
“She met her abusive ex-boyfriend in a park a half hour walk from her home in the middle of the night. He is a young man with a violent past whom Samantha was forbidden to see,” Humphrey’s aunt, Nica Joy, wrote on a Facebook page she created to help solve the murder. “We are determined to seek justice for Samantha and keep her memory alive.”
Schenectady Police have not named the teen as a suspect.
Schenectady High School sophomore Samantha Humphrey, age 14, was found dead in the Mohawk River on Wednesday, Feb. 22.
To increase awareness about the case, Humphrey’s family has placed billboards and yard signs across Schenectady touting a $20,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.
“We’re not gonna sit at home and wait for Sam’s killer to be arrested or not and just kind of live our lives that way. We’re gonna take what we view as the most effective route and the one that engages the most people,” Samantha’s father Jeff told Inside Edition.
“And a lot of people don’t like seeing a picture of a dead teenage girl who they know was murdered and thrown in a river.”
Beyond a conviction for his daughter’s killer, Mr. Humphrey hopes he can convince New York lawmakers to enact better protections for victims of juvenile domestic violence, he told the outlet.
“If we get any sort of legacy out of this, besides individual justice, I would love to talk to our lawmakers about what we could do to make it easier for mothers and fathers to defend their daughters and sons against predators like this.”
Anyone with information in the case is asked to contact the Schenectady Police Department at 518-382-5200 or visit the agency’s website.
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