The Spierer case is a reminder to a family who has been waiting 23 years to find their sister, daughter and loved one.
Lola Katherine "Kathy" Fry disappeared in November 1993, after a night partying with friends. She was 28 at the time. Investigators never found a crime scene, Fry's car, or her body.
The Indiana State Police list Fry as one of their cold cases, a presumed murder victim.
At the time of her disappearance, Fry's then boyfriend, told investigators that after a night of partying with friends, he and Fry returned to his Greenwood home. He told police he went to work the next morning, believing Fry was heading to her sister's in Fort Wayne. She never showed up there.
Fry's older sister, Darlene Pitts said the people with her little sister that last night were questioned by investigators, but never charged or named as suspects. Some of them, said Pitts, have since passed away.
"There are still people out there that know," said Pitts.
Fry's family eventually had her declared legally dead, but have never given up hope that someday, someone would find her remains or someone involved in her disappearance would finally come forward with the truth.
"It's not gonna be final until someone says, here she is," said Pitts.
The never ending hope those answers will arrive comes up every time Fry's family hears investigators are looking somewhere, for someone, like last week in the case involving missing IU student Lauren Spierer.
"You sit there and think, 'Well, it's probably not going to be her because it hasn't been for 23 years,'" said Pitts of staying grounded each time she hears about a new search.
Over the years, Pitts has learned when to pay close attention to the news remains have been found.
"If they say they found skeletal remains, then you know you need to watch," explained Pitts.
It's taken time though, to realize when not to get your hopes up, only to be let down.
"The first few years, you look like there's no tomorrow. You fight with a furry. You jump on every lead. You call every person," said Pitts.
"My dad, at one point, got hooked on fortune tellers because he had nothing to lose," she added.
Fry's parents eventually both passed, without ever knowing what happened to their youngest daughter.
Pitts hopes that won't be the case for her siblings.
"I always try to picture in my mind, 'How am I going to act? How will I feel? Will I get the chance to feel when she's found?' That's a hard one," said Pitts, choking up.
In all of it, only one thought comforts this woman, after more than two decades of not knowing what happened to her little sister.
"We may not know where she's at, but the angels do," said Pitts.
