June 12, 1991, is a day Tammy Tacho will always remember. It was the final day she ever noticed her 12-year-old little brother earlier than he disappeared as she and her mom pulled out of the driveway.
James Hendrickson – generally known as Jimmy to his household – had reached into the automobile to kiss his mom goodbye, Tacho recalled.
“To me and my mom, that’s a horror movie to us, because that’s the last peck, or that’s the last kiss, and that’s the last hug, and that’s the last touching his hair that she got to do,” she informed NCS.
More than three decades later, Jimmy has by no means been discovered, together with his lacking particular person case nonetheless open and chilly.
Jimmy is simply one of a number of folks within the Tucson area who have been lacking for over a decade with out answers.
A more moderen disappearance within the space has drawn national attention: that of Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mom of “Today” anchor Savannah Guthrie.
Nancy Guthrie vanished from her prosperous neighborhood within the Catalina Foothills on February 1, and practically a month after she disappeared, officers have but to search out the lacking girl or cost somebody in connection to her obvious kidnapping.
President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social he was “deploying all resources” to search out her, and the Pima County Sheriff stated he had “over 400 cops out here working every minute of the day” on the case. Her household on Tuesday introduced they’re providing as much as $1 million for info resulting in her restoration, and Savannah Guthrie additionally introduced a $500,000 donation to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, saying she hopes the eye given to her household will lengthen to others nonetheless in limbo.
As the search for Nancy Guthrie stretches into its fourth week, families like Jimmy’s have been waiting years for any new details about their family members.
A ‘mama’s boy’ who cherished church and enjoying outdoor
On that summer season day in Tucson, Tacho and her mom have been heading to Douglas, Arizona, to satisfy her then-boyfriend’s household, she stated. Jimmy didn’t need to go.
“He was at that age. It was summer, he wanted to be out there playing and doing what boys do, and so he stayed behind,” she stated.
Tacho remembers her brother as a “mama’s boy” who cherished going to church, enjoying exterior and was often sporting pink sweatpants — his favourite coloration.
“The worst thing is to drive out and watch him just wave at us,” Tacho stated.
They left him with a household pal that they had recognized since they moved to Tucson in 1987, Tacho stated, and their two-day journey stretched into three after the automobile broke down.
When they lastly received again into city, that’s when “the nightmare begins,” Tacho stated.
Jimmy’s mom filed a police report instantly when she came upon her son was lacking, however Tacho stated the case wasn’t taken critically instantly. She recalled police thought Jimmy was only a runaway, however she stated her household knew that wasn’t true. It took a number of weeks for her brother to be acknowledged as a lacking particular person, she stated.
“It’s been brought up during the initial investigation and subsequent theories, and that was that Jimmy walked away of his own free will and just was a runaway. That’s absolutely not what happened in this case. He didn’t leave his family of his own free will. He had no money to provide for himself, no transportation,” Tucson Police Department Detective David Miller told NCS affiliate KOLD final yr.
There are a number of tales about what occurred the evening of June 11 and the following morning, Tacho stated, which has left her household with extra questions than answers.
The household pal watching Jimmy let him and one other baby go to her relative’s home to repair a fence, Tacho stated. The other baby informed police that Jimmy was enjoying video video games when he went to mattress and heard noises throughout the evening, however didn’t assume something of it, in response to Tacho. The grownup on the home stated Jimmy left within the morning to go eat breakfast at a close-by faculty, she stated, which was common for her and her siblings to do.
Now, practically 35 years later, Tacho continues to be pushing for answers. She nonetheless calls the police division and has hosted vigils and occasions to convey consideration to her brother’s case, she stated.
“I worked at the job my mom worked at and hope that one day Jimmy would walk in there,” Tacho stated. “I’ve come to accept … I’m not going to find him alive, but we need to find him.”
When her mom died a couple of years in the past, she “left not knowing” what occurred to Jimmy. “I don’t want to leave this world not knowing,” Tacho stated.
She stated she nonetheless lives in Tucson, simply in case Jimmy ever comes again.
It’s a heavy burden the household of Karen Grajeda, who was 7 years previous when she disappeared from her condo complicated in Tucson in 1996, is bearing too: The balancing of hope and attempting to grieve.
“I still hang our Christmas picture every year,” her youthful sister, Alejandra, wrote in a message to Karen posted by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. “My daughter is named after you. If you’re out there, if you’re alive, we’re here. Your whole family loves you and if you can come home, please do. We’ll always be waiting for you.”
Karen was final seen enjoying exterior her house on January 11, 1996, in response to NCS affiliate KOLD.
The FBI and Tucson Police Department started looking out for her instantly, and household and neighborhood members joined the trouble, however after months with few leads, there’s nonetheless no hint of what occurred, the NCMEC stated. The group works with legislation enforcement and other officers to search out lacking kids, together with publishing age-progression photos.
“She was just an innocent child. That’s the memory I have of her, an innocent child who was always smiling. As her father, that’s the image I hold onto,” Karen’s father, Andres, informed the group.
Karen’s case is “in long-term missing person status,” the Tucson Police Department informed NCS, and legislation enforcement continues to research the case as a non-family abduction and asks folks to come back ahead with info, in response to NCMEC.
“There’s nothing more innocent than a child, and they’re the most vulnerable people that had everything in front of them to be happy about, and it was all taken away from them, from their families,” Miller, the Tucson detective, told KOLD of the case in 2023. “Anybody who has kids probably feels the same way and that level of trust, I think, in a community when something like that happens, it diminishes it.”
Nearly 30,000 kids have been reported lacking in 2024, in response to NCMEC.
Adults within the 20-39 age group are additionally in danger for abductions and kidnappings within the United States, according to data from the FBI. From February 2025 to February 2026, 53% of all abductions have been of individuals in that age vary. Nearly half of all abductions occurred between present or former romantic companions, the information exhibits.
Marlana McElvaine’s household believes she’s not alive however continues to be asking the general public to come back ahead to assist them lay her to relaxation.
The 28-year-old and mom of two was in a relationship the place she skilled home abuse when she went lacking in 2010, her sister informed NCS affiliate KGUN. Her boyfriend, whom she was dwelling with on the time of her disappearance, is in jail on unrelated costs, KOLD reported.
“It’s a matter of someone coming forward and being brave and giving information. We ask that if it was their sister, their daughter, their child’s mother, that they put themselves in our shoes,” Janean McElvaine, her sister, informed KOLD in 2023.
Marlana McElvaine’s automobile was discovered deserted, together with her keys and work badge nonetheless inside, the station reported.
“You have no closure and there’s just this void in our hearts. We go on, we do the things we have to do, but we have no answers and we’re just hoping that someday … we can give her the proper goodbye that she deserves,” her mom Dian McElvaine informed KOLD.
Dian McElvaine stated in 2023 the household was engaged on getting a loss of life declaration to assist with the grieving course of. Tucson police informed KOLD on the time that when it’s signed, the case will change from a lacking particular person case to murder.
Tucson police informed NCS that the case continues to be presently categorized “in long-term missing person status.”
People do go lacking, Tucson Police Detective Doug Musick told KOLD at the time of her disappearance, however “it’s pretty rare for people to just abandon their children, their job, their family, their life.”
Marlana McElvaine’s household thinks so, too.
“I knew from that moment that I got that call, I knew she was gone. Because I knew she wouldn’t have walked away from her life, she wouldn’t have walked away from her kids, she wouldn’t have left us — we’re all so close. I knew from that moment, I started grieving from that point forward because you know what, there’s no way she would have just left,” Dian McElvaine informed KOLD.
Her household nonetheless talks about her and celebrates her birthday, her sister informed KOLD. They additionally planted a tree in her honor.
The families, together with the Guthries, are going by trauma that solely other families who have been waiting for answers can perceive, stated Jimmy’s older sister Tacho, looking for some form of closure.
“Nobody knows how we feel unless we’re going through it,” she stated. “It’s so much pain and ache.”
“I look for answers like if it was the first day, the second day, six months, a year, you know — we’re just never going to give up. We’re never going to give up,” Tacho stated.