YUMA, Ariz.-It’s been three years since a local teen disappeared and her family is still searching for answers.
Throughout the last three years, investigators have conducted dozens of interviews and have followed leads in Arizona, California, and across the border, but Emily Hieber is still missing without a trace.
Emily’s mother Jenny Jimenez said, “I would give anything to hear her voice, I would give anything to hear ‘Hi Mom’.”
Jimenez said,“There’s a part of me that’s missing, I’m dying inside.”
Hope has kept Emily’s mom searching for answers. Emily’s last post on Facebook was February 3, 2013. Since then no phone calls, no texts, all contact from Emily stopped; that wasn’t normal behavior for her.
Yuma Police Department Detective Melissa Norred said, “The family said she had regular contact with them, call, text, and going to visit with them.”
Jimenez believes Emily was using meth, leading her to another life on the streets where she would leave her home from time to time.
Jimenez said, “When two weeks went by, that was a little strange it was off.”
On March 23, 2013, Jimenez filed a missing person’s report. Jimenez said, “Because of her age and what she was doing they weren’t going to file it at first. Who cares what life she was living who cares what she was doing on the street, she was a person and deserved to be found.”
Norred said, “Even with illegal activity we will file it, but we have to consider, is this a person who wants to be found? Sometimes they don’t want the family to find them.”
When Emily’s family out she was using meth they tried to intervene.
“She hung out with people and it kind of snowballed into that, We tried everything we asked people for advice,” Jimenez said.
Jimenez said she just wants Emily home. “We hope you’re safe, I pray that you’re okay. I have so many regrets. There’s always that what I should have done, should I have done this.”
Many rumors have been swirling around town about Emily’s disappearance, but police still have no solid leads that have lead them to her. Jimenez says her biggest fear is that someone hurt Emily.
Dave McDowell, private investigator, said, “We’ve got leads that Emily has been taken to Mexico held against her will, that she’s gone someplace else in the United States.”
McDowell says they have come up with 150 names of people associated with Emily.
McDowell believes the people who have the best information aren’t disclosing it. “We have some leads, a guy in El Centro, but his attorney wont let him speak.”
McDowell says there are hundreds of groups of people involved in the meth underworld, and Emily was out of place.
McDowell said, “Emily was in a place she shouldn’t have been for whatever reason. It’s a very dark, dangerous society.”
Jimenez begs, if you know anything to please come forward, “There’s people out there who know where she is.”
Norred said, “The family still has hope that they’ll find her and we still look for leads no matter what the outcome may be.”
Jimenez said, “I say a prayer that we find her, I light a candle every day, I will do that until we find her.”