The Final Moments at the Mine

“He was alive in the mine. I started feeling sleepy and he walked me back to the car. When I went to sleep he told me as I was coming out to the car he said, ‘Don’t leave the car running.'”

It started as a plan to party at an old coal mine in Boone County, West Virginia. Amanda Pennington, Wes Blackburn, and a man named Gary headed up the hill in the early morning hours, navigating through a hole cut into a cage-like structure. Amanda remembers the details of the night clearly, from stopping for peanut butter and bread at a gas station to downloading music for Wes on his phone. When she started feeling tired, Wes personally walked her back to the vehicle to make sure she was safe. That was the last time she saw him, standing 100 percent alive outside the mine entrance.

Confronting the Rumors

“There is no amount of money that anybody could give me to take a life. I just couldn’t live with myself with that. I could not do it.”

In the years since Wes disappeared, the rumor mill has been working overtime in the community. Some whispers suggested Amanda was paid $5,000 to be involved in a hit, or that she was seen driving Wes’s car after he went missing. Amanda addresses these claims head on, stating she didn’t even have a bank account at the time and would never participate in taking a life. While she admits that things “didn’t add up” regarding the circumstances, she clarifies that she cannot say for certain what happened once she fell asleep in that car, only that she was not involved in any violence.

A Long Road to Recovery

“He was a great person and this world is a darker place without him in it because he was amazing. He was sarcastic and he could be a smartass but he was great.”

Today, Amanda is living a very different life than the one she led in 2019. She has been in recovery for several years and is focused on being a grandmother and finishing school. The weight of that night still hangs heavy, especially the regret of falling asleep. She describes Wes as a loyal friend who stayed with her in difficult times and someone who thought the world of his mother. While she no longer lives in West Virginia to avoid the “bad memories” and triggers of her past, she remains willing to cooperate with investigators if it means finally bringing Wes home to his family.

Want to hear the full, uncut conversation for yourself? You can watch the original interview right here: