Texas Center for the Missing hosts 7th Annual National Missing Persons Day
HOUSTON - The Texas Center for the Missing, in partnership with The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, is shining a light on missing persons cases. On Saturday, the organization held an event to bring awareness about lost loved ones for Houston Missing Persons Date.
The event allows families and friends of missing persons to share their stories and get their faces in front of a wider audience. This year is also the 7th year of National Missing Persons Day.
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"Some of these cases go back 50 years and just keeping the publics interests in these missing families, missing loved ones, it's just critical to get those new leads and bring those loved ones home," said Mel Turngust, the CEO of the Texas Center for the Missing in Houston.
Natalie Vargas’s grandson, Joshua Davis Jr., went missing back in 2011 at his home in New Braunfels. He was one and a half years old at the time.
"13 years, that’s a long time," said Vargas. "It’s really hard to get up everyday, put your life in order," said Vargas.
She said the toddler was watching a movie with his mother when he got up and walked out of the room. The mobile home full of family members said they never saw him leave, but he was never found again.
"The local, at that time, search center from San Antonio was on call, came out and made sure all bases were covered and to this day, he as not been found," said Vargas.
Vargas said, although the case has gone cold, she’s not giving up hope to find her grandson.
"They don’t have any concert evidence or anything that was ever found of Joshua’s, so that just leads me to believe that they just haven’t found him. He’s out there somewhere," said Varags.
Vargas is one of many families bringing awareness to missing persons and speaking up at Saturdays event.
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"The numbers continue to rise for our missing persons," said Turngust. "10,000 people are reported missing each year and so there are some investigators that get 100 new cases each week."
"We do what we can. We come to these events, but again, because there’s been nothing found, I don’t know one way or the other what the outcome is going to be," said Vargas.