If there’s one thing Amber Hollowell Trimpe knows how to do, it’s advocating on behalf of someone else.
The North Carolina native works as a health advocate for people experiencing domestic violence.
But in June 2025, Amber’s work became personal when her sister, Jennifer Hollowell Watkins, went missing from Washington, North Carolina.
Since then, Amber has become her sister’s advocate in the family’s search for answers.
“Jenny was bubbly and bright and laughed and had this huge imagination,” Amber said. “She was super talented, super creative.” Jennifer had worked for the North Carolina Estuarium, an environmental education center, in Washington, North Carolina, near where she and Amber had grown up in Blounts Creek. “We spent a lot of time out in nature learning; my dad taught us flora and fauna, how to respect the land,” Amber remembered. “Working at the estuary was her way that she applied all those things we had learned as a kid.”
According to Amber, Jennifer suffered a major back injury around 2017, left her job after that and transitioned to life as a full-time mom to her three sons. “Her boys were her lifeblood,” Amber said. “Everything in her life was about her boys. That’s what she was most proud of.”
According to Amber, at the time of her disappearance, Jennifer had custody of her youngest son, and a domestic violence protective order (DVPO) was in place against the child’s father, Samuel Foster. Amber says that on the night of June 24, Foster went to the residence where Jennifer lived with a roommate, and Jennifer reached out to her former stepmother, Janet Windley, for assistance.
“Dateline” spoke with Windley, who said that when Jennifer called her that night, she, in turn, called the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office and went to Jennifer’s residence. According to Janet, deputies arrived at the scene and arrested Foster.
Janet described herself as Jennifer’s safe place and said it was normal for her to watch Jennifer’s youngest son for short periods of time. Jennifer asked her to babysit her son because she was upset.
According to Janet, Jennifer left the residence with Samuel Foster’s cousin, Sarah Waller, saying they were going to the beach to look for jobs. “She needed a change of surroundings,” Janet said. Janet said she then brought Jennifer’s son back to her home to look after him, with the understanding that Jennifer would call when she returned.
Jennifer never called.
Around 10 p.m. June 26, Jennifer was seen on security cameras at a Speedway gas station on the west side of Washington. “That’s the last time she’s pictured on camera,” Amber said.
Janet told “Dateline” that by the morning of June 29, Jennifer still hadn’t returned, so she reported her missing to the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office.
The sheriff’s office BCSO provided “Dateline” with the incident report, which confirms that Janet reported Jennifer missing that day and told officers about Jennifer’s plans to travel to the beach with Waller on June 24.
According to the incident report, the sheriff’s office issued a be-on-the-lookout alert for Jennifer and pinged her cellphone. Its last ping was in the area of VOA Road on June 26. The sheriff’s office could not get an updated location because the phone had been turned off.
Investigators made contact with Waller, who told them she was last with Jennifer on June 27, 2025. According to the incident report, Waller said she was sleeping in her vehicle, parked at the end of Ponderosa Road off VOA Road in Washington, when a man named Bobby Nixon approached and woke her. Waller said that was when she realized Jennifer was no longer there and that she did not know where Jennifer had gone.
According to the incident report, investigators spoke with Nixon, who said that when he observed Waller’s car parked on Ponderosa Road, the passenger door was wide open. The incident report does not state Nixon’s connection to Jennifer, but he told investigators he had not seen her since June 24.
According to the incident report, Samuel Foster contacted the sheriff’s office and said he heard Jennifer was missing and wanted his son. When asked if he had seen Jennifer, Foster told investigators he had just been released from jail and had not seen her. Investigators searched Foster’s property and “could not locate Jennifer or anything out of the ordinary,” the report states. “Dateline” contacted the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office for further details but has not yet received a response.
“Dateline” left voicemails for both Samuel Foster and Sarah Waller seeking comment. Foster has not responded. Waller responded by text saying, “Do not call this # again.”
The Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office has not named any persons of interest or suspects in Jennifer’s case.
Amber asks anyone with information on what happened to Jennifer to come forward. “It doesn’t really matter if — how minuscule a detail. If it’s something that happened leading up to those final days in June of 2025, come forward with it,” Amber said. “Because we don’t know what — what speck of information might be the bridge we need.”
On Dec. 22, Beaufort County Crime Stoppers announced a $10,000 reward “for information that leads to solving this case.”
For Amber, finding answers is especially important for Jennifer’s sons. “I want to be able to give them answers. I want to be able to give justice to my sister,” she said. “I don’t want them to question where their mother is.”
Jennifer would be 46 years old today. She is 5’ 1” and weighed 115 pounds at the time of her disappearance, with shoulder-length brown hair and blond highlights. She has two large birthmarks, one on her right shoulder and another on the back of her left thigh.
If you have any information regarding Jennifer’s disappearance, please contact Beaufort County Crime Stoppers at 252-974-6400 or submit your confidential tip online at www.p3tips.com/195.
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic abuse, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 or visit https://www.thehotline.org/ for more resources.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This article has been updated to clarify Janet Windley’s timeline of events on the night of June 24, 2025, into the early morning of June 25.
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