Jacksonville Florida

Our last Florida rally stop is being held for our Tour Honoree Missing Michael Austin Davis. Florida State Outreach Coordinator and Austin's mom, Christy Davis, is our host at Memorial Park on the St John's River (10/10/13 2:30pm) in Jacksonville.

The tables are set up with photos, poster boards, missing person information, and the normally seen missing flyers, but at this stop there's more. Approximately 15 huge photos of some of Jacksonville's missing. Blown up pictures of big, bright and smiling faces, a powerful reminder of happy ordinary people who have simply vanished.

Austin's sister, Anita Sullivan, begins the program by explaining how you become part of a new family when you have someone missing, something she initially found surprising. She's standing up there for her new family, even those whose nuclear families could not be present. She names them all, slowly reciting 20 names of those missing from Jacksonville.

Missing Mark Degner's grandmother tells us the story of how Mark went missing at the age of 12 in 2005 along with Missing Bryan Hayes (age 13), neither of them to ever be seen again. It's been 8 years and 8 months since the day that 2 students left middle school together in broad daylight. Where could they have gone? What could possibly have happened to them? I look over at their age progressed photos showing what they could possibly look like now.

Missing Rosemary Day's parents are next. Rosemary's mother standing stoically beside her husband as he speaks about their missing daughter. I remember the raw emotions they exhibited at the 2011 vigil when Rosemary had been missing just a few months, back when it was still considered a fresh case. 2 years later they appear just as heartbroken. In fact, we are told how they did not want to come today. How hard it is for them to show their vulnerability, to open up their pain which is clearly visible to everyone present.

Missing John Rowan's mom, Peg, speaks of living in limbo since her son went missing at the age of 34 in 2001. The son, husband and father of 2 simply left for work one day, (12 years and 1 month ago), never  to return home again. 10 months before he vanished the beneficiaries of  his 3 million dollar life insurance policy changed from his family to his 2 former business partners. A handwriting expert hired by law enforcement believes his signature was forged. To date no charges have been filed. Peg laments about her frustration with the lack of evidence in his case. She tells of living for media coverage, and how this Jacksonville group of families of the missing never seek publicly individually, always including one another whenever they can.

Christy explains how having Austin featured on the tour has renewed her hope in receiving information that could help locate him. Austin has been missing since 2007, when the then 26 year old bought a shotgun, put it into a duffle bag and ventured off on foot never to be seen or heard from again. How does someone simply walk off  and vanish? Reading Christy's letter in the press package gave me a true sense of Austin, so much more than just the facts of his disappearance. She also wrote "My heart is broken that my son is out there somewhere, and that we've not been able to bring him home...My hope is always that we find Austin". She continued "One person can make the difference...Between never knowing what happened, and being able to bring a missing loved one home".

Austin's father, Jim, told us how days after Austin's disappearance he was printing flyers when someone told him about a Reader's Digest article featuring Monica, thus bringing CUE in at the initial stages of their search. He also spoke about the tour restoring his hope for resolution.

Monica once again explained how having a missing loved one is the one event in life that has no resolution. If there's an accident or someone dies there is resolution, but when someone disappears their family lingers in an unknown state of what ifs.

Anita announces that the program will close with a flower toss into the river. I can feel my apprehension grow. As I try to get my emotions under control she explains the symbolism of tossing flowers into the water. To paraphrase, the flowers will continue to exist long after being tossed, even after they disappear out of view. This is also true of our loved ones. With that one explanation I was soothed .

Elisa