“All these agencies came together to stand on the bank of the river and watch Shaffer’s Towing give somebody two decades old answers,” she said. She described bringing closure to family members as a “one in a lifetime chance,” one that brought her pause on the riverbank last week. “I thought about finally being able to tell this family ‘I never gave up.'” I would write things down and then email people,” she said. “Some of it is just when you’re at home and your mind starts to wander and the what ifs. While working the case, she admits she thought about it constantly. “You’re looking for a needle in a haystack in a field of haystacks.” “You’re not only looking for a needle in a haystack,” she said. Many of the original investigators had retired. She left money to her parents for funeral expenses.įor the last 19 years, police searched the river but also spent significant time investigating the theory that the note may have been a ruse. Investigators with Delhi police said Nguyen left a note saying she was going to drive into the Ohio River. Everybody deserves to be found,” she said. “I wanted to see if with the improvements in technology and with things like that, if we could beat the clock to the 20th anniversary because everybody deserves to come home. She took interest in the case around the time she joined the department in 2014, not knowing at the time it would become the biggest case of her career to date.Įight months ago, she asked to re-examine the case. “The more time elapses sometimes the farther you get from being able to find a resolution and the answers that you want,” said Delhi Township Officer Heather Taylor. Her children, 4-year-old Kristina and 3-year-old John, were last seen alive in the backseat of her car. The 1997 Nissan Pathfinder belonged to missing mother Stephanie Van Nguyen, who was 26 when she disappeared in April 2002.
The condition of the vehicle was in bad shape, obviously, being underwater for close to 20 years,” said Indiana State Police Sgt. Officials with the Indiana State Police announced Tuesday that a human bone has been located inside of a vehicle that was pulled from the Ohio River Thursday near Aurora, Indiana.