Missing people can't advocate for themselves. So, a new group in northeast Texas is aiming to become their voice.
Click here to listen to Group Aims To Become Voice For Northeast Texas Missing.
On July 24, 1986, the family of a young man from northeast Texas named David Glen Bratton discovered his vehicle in a different county.
"That was the day Hell started for our family," David's younger brother Tim told a packed pavilion Saturday in Greenville, TX.
Bratton was speaking at a candlelight vigil for missing people like David. His brother's case was the oldest of six mentioned at the event.
Along with five others this year, Lori Easthom started a volunteer group called Texas Advocates for the Missing. The vigil was the group's first event.
"It just really impacted me when I saw that these families were so alone and, you know, didn't have help and needed to get the word out," Easthom says.
She says the group's immediate plans will include organizing events and fundraisers connected to the six individuals remembered at Saturday's vigil.
"Michael Chambers is coming up, (the) anniversary that he went missing in March. So, we would like to try to be able to help them, possibly with a vigil."
Michael Glenn Chambers is a retired Dallas firefighter who disappeared in March 2017 from Quinlan, a small town in southern Hunt County.
His daughter Suzy Losoya was one of the speakers at the event in Greenville, the seat of Hunt County. But first, she watched as five others spoke on behalf of people who have been missing from the same county for over a decade.
"You'll never know what it's like to have a family member go missing unless you experience it. And I hope and I pray that you never do," she said.
"Please pray that each family here can see justice served in our lifetimes. And finally, please play for a miracle: That even one of us might have a happy ending."
