BUFFALO, N.Y. — A local mother stood outside Buffalo City Hall on Wednesday afternoon and said she will continue to fight for justice for her daughter, 20-year-old Amanda Wienckowski.
Surrounded by family and community activists she said, "It's sad that it has to come to this. I just beg everyone to help me."
Wienckowski was found dead on Buffalo's East Side. Her nude body had been stuffed into a garbage tote outside a church.
The Erie County medical examiner ruled that she died of a drug overdose, but her mother, Leslie Brill Meserole, never believed that. She hired an independent pathologist to look into Amanda's death, and the pathologist concluded she had been strangled.
Brill Meserole has been advocating to have the medical examiner change Wienckowski's cause and manner of death.
"We are just asking Erie County to do the right thing here and change the cause of death to manual strangulation and manner of death homicide," activist Gavin Fish said.
Added Brill Meserole: "When I had Amanda Lynne's law passed, that wasn't for Amanda, it was for everybody, so there wouldn't be any more Amandas, and unfortunately there have been more Amandas. My daughter was murdered, and I fight everyday just to get closure, to be OK."
In 2017, Erie County District Attorney John Flynn told The Buffalo News, "We have no proof this death was a homicide, or that it was an intentional act."
A spokesperson for the Buffalo Police Department said the case is considered an active death investigation and asked anyone with information to call the Buffalo Police Department confidential tip line at 716- 847-2255.