Roanoke agencies to participate in Missing Persons Day event

Missing Persons Day is April 29 statewide

ROANOKE, Va. – The number of missing person cases in Virginia has grown to more than 600. In an effort to remember the missing, a day dedicated to them will be held this weekend in Roanoke.

Help Save the Next Girl and the Roanoke Police Department will help families of the missing.

This year will be the first Missing Persons Day, to try to bring hope to family and friends of those who are missing.
   
Family members say it's important to keep searching for closure for their loved one. Dozens of poster pictures of the missing have been set up as a memorial so the public won't forget. But forgetting is hard for many family members.

"It's heartbreaking and it really is. There is a constant fear that you may not never know anything and not be able to bring him home. He is a hard pill to swallow," said Bobby Walker, whose father, James Walker is missing.

On April 7, it was 17 years since James Walker disappeared from a Food Lion in Bedford.

"We have a collection of DNA (that) will be offered and child ID services," said Gil Harrington, of Help Save the Next Girl. Harrington started Help Save the Next Girl after her daughter was murdered after attending a concert in Charlottesville in 2009.

"To maintain hope and brace for disaster at the same time, it's really debilitating. Our daughter Morgan was missing for 101 days and that was the worst part of our journey," said Harrington.

Carol Byer is also trying to maintain hope. She last saw her sister, Joan Cook, in 2010.

"So that's another thing. I didn't just lose a sister, and my mom didn't just lose a daughter," said Byer.

Byer and Walker say they are going to continue looking for leads to bring their relatives back home.

The Missing Persons Day event is Saturday at the Roanoke Police Training Academy from noon to 4 p.m. with a candlelight vigil starting at 4:30 p.m.


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