In a little less than three months, Elaine Nix would have turned 25 years old. But six years ago, someone or something saw to it that she would never reach her 19th birthday.
On Sept. 29, 1999, Nix was found dead in a wooded area at an industrial park in Buford, two miles from the Hall County line. Her body showed no signs of rape or torture.
Family members and friends plan to meet at 7 p.m. Thursday at Memorial Park Funeral Home to hold a candlelight vigil in her memory, an annual gathering since the teenager's mysterious death.
"Elaine was and still is one of my best friends and this year marks six long years since her murder," Jennifer Boyd, one of Nix's closest friends, said in an e-mail. "Family and friends still don't know anything surrounding her (death)."
Nix disappeared after midnight Sept. 21, 1999. She was seen last at a pay phone at Zack's Food Rack on Candler Road in South Hall. Authorities say phone records indicate she spent nearly an hour on the phone with her former boyfriend, Bobby Millwood of Cleveland.
Elaine's 1986 Toyota Celica was found later that night at the convenience store with the keys in the ignition and the engine still warm.
After her body was found, an autopsy revealed no obvious injuries or signs of sexual assault. Nix's cause of death still is undetermined.
"How can we go on?" asked Elaine's father, David Nix, three years ago. "Part of us is gone."
Six years have passed and no solid information has turned up to lead investigators to a possible suspect or cause of death.
Sgt. E.T. Edkin with the Gwinnett County criminal investigations division still takes calls on the case to date, but says there has been nothing significant in recent years.
"No new leads," he said with a sigh. "I still take sporadic calls on it but they haven't helped us any."
Edkin said the last call came in some time in July. He even got a Teletype on a possible serial killer from LaGrange, but he hasn't heard anything about that recently.
"We've had plenty of suspects, but there are no new ones," he said. "It's considered a cold case now. When leads come in we will look into it, but it's not an everyday investigation."
That hasn't stopped Becky and David Nix in the search for their daughter's alleged killer. A reward fund was created soon after Elaine's death, reaching $10,000 at one point.
But as years passed and the investigation became almost stagnant, some foundations pulled money out of the reward fund. Boyd said $5,000 is left in the fund for anyone with information that leads to an arrest in Elaine's death.
"Elaine's family and friends have had a really hard time dealing with all of this," Boyd said. "Her parents have almost lost everything they have and they don't have the money to hire a private investigator or put any more money up for the reward fund."
Hal Lowder, a private investigator with Eagle Watch Investigations in Gainesville, has volunteered to assist with the case. Lowder, a former fire investigator with Hall County, was returning from Louisiana last week and could not be reached for comment.
Boyd and Becky Nix also attended the "Montel Williams Show" last November looking for answers from psychic Sylvia Browne.
Becky Nix said following the show that Browne gave her a description and name of the man who may have killed her daughter, but she said she didn't know the name.
Edkin said last week that Browne's information did not lead to anything new, but he said another psychic e-mailed him after the show aired with his own theory of what happened.
Although there have been no answers to Elaine's death, family members and friends still hold on to the fact that somebody may know something.
"Awareness is vital and we want to let everyone know that Elaine is important to us," Boyd said.
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