Manchester Woman Goes From Missing To Arrested

MANCHESTER, NJ — A Manchester Township woman who was missing for nearly four months earlier this year has been arrested and charged with aggravated assault and assaulting a police officer, according to Manchester police.

Amanda R. Picard, 25, of Manchester, was arrested Sept. 8 by Patrolman Steve Wendruff on Broadway Boulevard, according to police blotter released by the department on Friday.

According to Ocean County Jail records, she is being held on charges of aggravated assault with serious bodily injury; aggravated assault with a deadly weapon; unlawful possession of a weapon; resisting arrest by physical force or violence; possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose; resisting arrest by physical force or violence; three counts of aggravated assault/simple assault on a law enforcement officer; and theft by unlawful taking.

Further details on her arrest were not immediately available.

Picard went missing Feb. 5, after she was dropped off by her parents at her grandmother’s home in Holiday City at Berkeley in Berkeley Township, and was the subject of an intensive search effort that included multiple searches near her grandmother's home.

In late May she turned up in Pittsburgh, and police there notified Manchester police that she had been found safe and sound, Capt. Todd Malland said at the time. Malland said Picard had been unaware that people were looking for her.

According to jail records, the theft charge Picard is held on is from Burlington County in 2015. Picard was charged by Mansfield police with a series of car burglaries in February 2015.

Amanda Picard, top photo via Ocean County Corrections Department