GAINESVILLE – They continue to gather, every year on September 29th, because they hope it won’t be necessary for them to gather the next September 29th.
Such are the sentiments of over two-dozen people standing beside a simple grave marker in Gainesville’s Memorial Park Cemetery. Most are wearing shirts bearing the image of Elaine Nix, born December 17, 1980; died September 29, 1999.
Friends, former classmates, family and neighbors know Elaine is gone but they are determined to keep alive her tragic passing and the myriad of unanswered questions surrounding her final days. For twenty-one years the “how and who and why” of Elaine’s death have remained unanswered and this group pledges to continue their annual vigil until the answers are found.
“They don’t even have a cause of death,” Nix’s cousin Stephanie Reese said.
“No cause of death,” Reese repeats empathically. “We’ve got an inconclusive autopsy.”
Since Nix’s body was discovered in Gwinnett County nine days after her unexplained disappearance from her east Hall County home, Gwinnett County Police have been, and remain, the lead investigative agency.
Reese says it appears that efforts are no longer being made by Gwinnett Police investigators to find out what happened to Nix, and that is why the annual vigil is held. “You don’t ever get an answer, you don’t get a call back,” Reese said of her years-long ongoing effort to get answers from the agency.
Becky Nix, Elaine’s mother, agrees. “It’s been years since we’ve talked with them.”
Reese said her persistence did result in one telephone call from a detective with Gwinnett County Police in 2016 who promised to come to Gainesville and meet with her, but that never happened.
Becky Nix said, “A lot of people think, ‘Why don’t they just quit and give up?’, but we can’t rest until she can rest.” A grieving mother’s look of steeled determination covered her face and filled her voice.
Jennifer Boyd knew Elaine well and continues to be another driving force behind the effort to get answers regarding her friend’s death, to keep the investigation going. “People think that this case has been solved,” Boyd said, “but it hasn’t. I’ve actually had people tell me that they thought this had been solved.”
Boyd said she’s confident one day new evidence will turn up and the mystery will be unraveled. “Somebody knows something. Somebody has told somebody something. People can’t keep a secret this long.” And until that time arrives she said she and her friends plan to keep the case as forefront as possible.
Becky Nix also maintains that confidence. “She had a lot of missing items that someday might be found.”
“Take time every day of the year to try and bring awareness,” Reese said in the moment just before dozens of white, star-shaped helium-filled balloons were released into the clearing, windy sky. “Unless we are persistent and continue to call and get them to do something they are still not going to do anything.”
“Maybe we can get this solved one day,” Reese said.
Until that day comes expect to see a crowd gathered in the waning moments of daylight near the rear of Memorial Park Cemetery each September 29th.
