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Expecting a miracle: Vigil held for woman missing three years
Posted: 11.13.2012 at 9:56 AM
Updated: 11.14.2012 at 2:00 AM
KHQA Newsdesk
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Loved ones show support for Christina  / file photo
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HANNIBAL, MO. -- Three years have passed, still no answers.

Christina Whittaker of Hannibal disappeared three years ago Tuesday night.

She was last seen at Rookies Sports Bar on Broadway at 11:45 pm on November 13, 2009.

Tuesday night, pastors, family, friends and supporters prayed for Whittaker's safe return home at a prayer vigil in Central Park.

"It's just been a living nightmare," Whittaker's uncle Michael Elzea said. "It's never gonna end, and we're just hoping for a miracle. We have to hold out hope and keep praying. We're gonna get her back home."

Christina Whittaker's family says the past three years have felt more like 10.

"I went through depression," Whittaker's mother, Cindy Young said. "I've had a lot going on. I've been through counseling. I'm able to deal with things better now. I just feel like I'm here through the grace of God. I hope and pray he's blessing Christina. I hope and prayer that we'll be reunited with her soon."

Young has spent a lot of her time driving throughout the region, posting flyers and asking people if they've ever spotted her daughter.

"She's alive," she said. "I know it in my heart. I feel it in my heart. I've always known it. I know she's gonna be home. I don't know when. God does things in his own time. I've never felt that she's dead."

"I don't feel like Hannibal is as safe as everybody believes," Young said. "I just think things like this can in Hannibal, it can happen anywhere. We're just everyday people. People think it can't happen in their family, and we're proof it can."

This will be the fourth Thanksgiving and Christmas Whittaker's family will have to face without their loved one. Whittaker's daughter is 3 1/2 years old now and has never spent those holidays with her mother.

"We just want her home," Elzea said. "everyone misses her very badly. I just want to make a plea if someone knows something out there, step up to the plate one time. That's all where's asking. We don't want anyone in trouble."

If you have any new information, you're asked to contact the Hannibal Police Department at 573-221-0987.

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