Eldon, Missouri wakes to a grief heavier than winter air after 35‑year‑old Amanda Rodgers was found dead early Monday morning, Feb. 2, 2026, in a remote wooded stretch off Highway 54 near Howser Road, officials say. Rodgers had been missing for more than a week, and her disappearance had shaken this close‑knit community to its core.
Rodgers was last seen before dawn on Jan. 26. She left the Eldon area around 3 a.m. to pick up her children in nearby Camdenton but never arrived. Friends and family reported her missing when hours passed with no word. By Saturday, Jan. 31, law enforcement had issued an Endangered Person Advisory as search efforts intensified.
Her vehicle was found hidden beneath a fallen tree in a wooded area off U.S. Highway 54, just west of town, after a Miller County Sheriff’s deputy spotted it while combing the roadside. The tree blocked the car from view, making it nearly invisible from the highway.
The Miller County Coroner’s Office pronounced Rodgers dead at 1:43 a.m. near Howser Road. Officials said there was no sign of foul play and that the evidence points to an accidental crash. The cause of the wreck is still under review as investigators follow Missouri law for traffic fatalities.
Rodgers’ absence rippled through the community. In a place where neighbors know one another by name and faces linger at every local stop, the worry grew hour by hour as loved ones clung to hope. Her car’s sudden disappearance under that fallen tree transformed that worry into sorrow.
Friends describe Rodgers as a devoted mother whose last known drive was meant to be for her children. That heartbreak — a mom heading out in the darkest hours to care for her family, then not making it home — is what many in Eldon are still struggling to grasp.
Local law enforcement extended deepest condolences to her family and thanked those who shared information and searched alongside them. In small communities like Eldon, news like this lands with a weight all its own, the kind that lingers in conversation long after the sirens have faded.
Her passing leaves a quiet ache across Eldon, and the memory of her last drive — out into the night with her kids in mind — will stay with those who knew her long after winter thaws into spring.
