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Familes, friends gather to commemorate Missing and Unidentified Persons Awareness Day

Joyu Wang
/
KBIA

About 20 people gathered at the State Capitol on Saturday to remember their loved ones who are missing. These family members and friends of missing people came from all over the state to share stories to mark the annual Missing and Unidentified Persons Awareness Day. Marianne Asher-Chapman is the mother of Angie Yarnell, who went missing 10 years ago. She said her daughter’s husband eventually claimed he killed her, but he never told where her body is.

“Just the not knowing is harder than anything," Asher-Chapman said. "I go, and I regularly go with the shovels to Ivy Bend, Mo., and I dig holes, and I look for my daughter every a couple of months. I used to be afraid I would find bones. Now, I pray I would find her skull.”

Asher-Chapman said in order to cope with her grief, she figured out what she could do to help other families with missing people. As a result, six years ago she co-founded Missouri Missing with Peggy Florence, who is another mother of missing daughter. Asher-Chapman said they aim to raise awareness and to educate people on the missing.