Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Online community advocating for slain Las Vegas boy hoping to make a lasting difference

Vigil for Amari Nicholson

Steve Marcus

Andrea Sanchez lights candles that spell out “Amari” at a vigil for Amari Nicholson, 2, outside the Emerald Suites on Paradise Road on May 12, 2021.

Quickly after Metro Police announced that a toddler had vanished from a Las Vegas apartment last month, the name and photo of the curly haired, wide-smiled 2-year-old boy began to circulate on Facebook and YouTube.

More than 24 hours passed before police sought the public’s assistance, and there was some ground to cover to find Amari Nicholson. 

Compelled by the case, strangers hit the streets to search and pass out flyers. But even more people congregated online, where web sleuths — amateur investigators — mobilized to float theories and post heartfelt messages about the boy they hadn’t met.

Wishes of a positive outcome were slashed days later when Terrell Rhodes, Amari’s caretaker, admitted to beating the boy to death and disposing of his tiny body, according to Metro.

Vigils promptly replaced search parties on the Las Vegas streets. It was the same online, where members of the Justice for Amari Nicholson Facebook group posted about their grief and anger.

The private group, recently renamed MISSING JUSTICE, has pivoted to something more than a discussion board and a digital memorial for Amari, and it has swelled to more than 7,500 members and over 1,300 posts.

It’s advocating for “Amari’s Law,” circulating a petition that has garnered more than 1,400 signatures. The proposal, according to the language of the petition, would hold accountable parents who leave their child to the care of someone with a “history of abuse or neglect.”

It would also improve missing children reporting systems, such as the Amber Alert, and reform Child Protective Services agencies. Members are also seeking volunteers to maintain a memorial that’s popped up outside the extended-stay hotel where the boy was allegedly killed, 3684 Paradise Road, about 400 feet from where his body was recovered May 12.

Jessica Bowers, president and co-founder of Save the Little Ones, a nonprofit that aims to raise awareness about human trafficking, created the Facebook group while police were exploring Rhodes’ version of events that suggested Amari had been kidnapped.

For the mother of three boys, searching for Amari felt personal.

“I had to do everything” to find him, Bowers said, and she “would want someone like her looking for my baby, too.”

A Facebook search shows about a dozen more groups dedicated to Amari, ranging from 50 or so followers to 3,200 members.

• • •

A quick browse through hundreds of posts in Bowers’ group demonstrates just how much Amari’s case resonated with sleuths and observers.

An early post when Amari was still deemed a missing person, featured Amari’s grandmother writing from Colorado, engaging with members, and answering their questions. At a vigil the day Amari’s body was found, someone video streamed a call with the emotional woman, showing her how many people had arrived.

A video shows a woman singing a version of “In the Arms of an Angel” by artist Sarah McLaughlin, dedicating it to the boy, closing her remarks with a “Rest in heaven Amari. We all love you.”

Click to enlarge photo

This undated photo shows Amari Nicholson, a Las Vegas toddler reported missing on May 5. On May 11, Metro Police, who circulated the image in a missing persons flyer, announced the 2-year-old was dead and booked his mother's boyfriend on a count of murder.

Members in Las Vegas continue to document themselves driving by the memorial, which was dotted by stuffed animals, balloons and welting flowers.

Some have made artistic renderings of Amari with halos above his small head, while others have written poems and songs about him. A person posted a photo of a candle, writing “can’t get you off my mind baby boy,” while another offered to ship stickers of Amari’s image.

Still, some continue to speculate and theorize about the case, and have purportedly contacted people connected to it, leading moderators to update the rules, and asking for civility.

Bowers said she created the group because she “wanted people to feel what she was feeling” and that administrators try to maintain the discussions neutral.

It’s not her first run at a group and has learned about what hashtags to use to propel her pages. But she’s had others shut down by Facebook when they start to grow, due to bickering between members, who then retaliate by reporting each other and the page, she added. 

Bowers said that as the group grew, it started being littered with images of fake text messages and emails.

“It is really hard to babysit everyone,” Bowers said about the five people moderating the page. “In a perfect world people would be responsible for themselves and understand the goal and stick to the goal.”

The endeavor can not only be taxing, but also daunting, Bowers said, when people start sending videos of children getting abused, with people asking for help. Bowers said the group encourages people to report the abuse to authorities, but that it can be the “stuff of nightmares.”

Asked how much time she spends with her efforts with missing children, Bowers responded it wasn’t unhealthy, but it was “enough to make my husband a little concerned.”

But Bowers added that she and her team know their limits and understand they must balance their personal responsibilities. She searches when her children are in bed or in school. When she went out to pass out flyers, Bowers’ mother watched them.

Bowers thinks Amari’s case resonated because of his age and how vulnerable he was.

The tragedy is a story she’s “heard over and over and over again,” Bowers said. “We’re tired of it, there’s too many resources out there, too many opportunities, shelters.”

• • •

Natalia Pennington, professor of communications studies at UNLV, said that groups such as Amari’s can be a positive way for people who the case “struck a chord with” to grieve. She called it the “online equivalent” of people placing flowers or stuffed animals at a memorial.

It can also attract people who’ve experienced similar tragedies, she said.

Although there are many cases similar to Amari’s, media coverage and timing, including a lull in news, could propel a story like his into national audiences.

Pennington, who’s studied grief, warns that too much focus on a tragedy can negatively affect a person’s psyche.

Stephen D. Benning, associate professor UNLV’s department of psychology, said that he supposes a person attracted to such a group is someone with a heightened empathic concern, who is responsive to others’ distress.

“That when they see other people feel bad, they feel bad themselves,” Benning said. “Joining a group like that might give them an outlet for the responsive distress; allows them to do something productive (about) it,” such as search for justice.

Amateurs who joined to probe the disappearance are likely altruistic in their methods of helping others, Benning said. They likely also have a propensity to problem solve, and “would want to apply their minds to solving puzzles they find around them.” 

Basing his hypothesis on Metro allegations against Rhodes, Benning thinks Amari’s case garnered widespread attention due to the “extreme malice and interpersonal coldness that would allow someone to kill a child in such a vicious manner,” he said. “That kind of extreme antisocial, mean personality is something that people might view as dangerous and also something that is so extreme and unusual (that it) deserves closer inspection.” 

If the case doesn’t impair members’ day-to-day functions or cause distress, participating in such a discussion can be harmless and part of the human experience, Benning said.

The internet “allows them to organize and share both a collective outrage and grief rather than feeling as if it must be bottled up internally,” he said.