GREENWOOD, Ind. (WTHR) - A well-known portrait studio shut down without warning, leaving countless families stuck, wondering what happened to their pictures and their money.
One family is out hundreds of dollars after a daughter tried to give a thoughtful Christmas gift to her mother.
"There's nothing she could have given me that could have been more," said Jayne Sinclair.
But a professional photo shoot of Sinclair and her five grandchildren ended the way she never expected. That's because Portrait Innovations shut down their stores nationwide, without warning, including the one at Greenwood Park Mall.
Customers like Sinclair are out of their pictures and hundreds of dollars.
"Why take the pictures and leave you standing with no money and no pictures?" she asked.
Sinclair, who lives in Anderson, said her daughter flew to Indiana from California to surprise her with a professional photo shoot. Everything went according to plan, until she called to find out where her portraits were.
"They said, 'the printer is broken. We have somebody we called in to fix it. You'll have your pictures before Christmas,'" Sinclair said.
That didn't happen.
"I called and couldn't get through," Sinclair said of her follow-up efforts.
The phones were disconnected and there were no signs on the business. If you search for Portrait Innovations on the web, it no longer exists.
"They spent like $367 on a huge package, because we have to get pictures for everybody," Sinclair said.
For three different families, it was one opportunity for a memory to last a lifetime.
"I can't just have those pictures retaken. The moment has passed and my daughter is back in California now," Sinclair said.
So she awaits a new opportunity to recreate that special family moment.
Portrait Innovations is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. We tried calling their number to get a statement, but the line wasn't working.
We're now working with our sister station in North Carolina to get answers from the corporate office.