Hilary Sessions

Grandmother,Tiffany & Hilliary. Tiffany Sessions

Tiffany Sessions was a 20-year-old second-semester Junior at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida. She promised her roommate that she would be back before the roommate had to leave for an exam, and went out for a power walk on February 9, 1989. She has not been seen since. Tiffany's car, wallet, keys, and all personal effects were left in the apartment because she promised to be back. The only traceable item Tiff had with her on the walk was her Rolex watch, which was unique because it was an anniversary edition and had a blue face. Although a $250,000 reward was posted for her safe return; only bogus information was received and two people were caught and are serving time in jail for extortion. Tiffany is Hilary's only child.

Despite distributing nearly five million Tiffany flyers, locally, nationally, and internationally; Tiff still has not been found. Because she was over the cut-off age for a "missing child"; there was only one agency nationally who would take her case: Missing Children HELP Center - because they would not accept any Government funding and as a result they were able to take Tiff's case. It wasn't until Tiff had been missing for nearly eighteen years that the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) and the passage of Suzanne's Law in 2003 allowed Tiff to be entered on NCMEC's database along with an age enhancement at age 39.

Over the course of more than two decades that Tiffany has been missing, her case has gone from hot to cold, from Alachua County Sheriff's Office (ACSO) to Florida Department of Law Enforcement, and back to Alalchua County. The case is currently listed as one of the twenty-eight cold cases in ACSO. Over 3,000 leads have been followed up and even today, new leads are coming in because of photograph distribution, publicity, newspaper articles, TV shows and interviews on the case.

Because Tiff would only know to come back to my house; I have not moved since before she disappeared. I do not plan on moving until the case is solved and I know what happened to her. I believe the most difficult issue with a long-term missing child is not knowing and teetering between the euphoria of a possible live return and the depression and grief of remains being found. I chose to live with the hope of a live return because I cannot imagine the other. I also chose not to be a victim and allow the actions of another person to hinder my assistance to other families.

Unfortunately, in April 2009 the missing children charity, Child Protection Education of America, I ran for over five years as Executive Director, lost most of its funding when President Obama said he was going to tax contributions to charities and the charity Board of Directors chose to dissolve, rather than go through a bankruptcy.

Even after more than 20 years since Tiff disappeared, people still know her story because of the ongoing publicity. Every day I make it my mission to do something for (1) Tiff's case specifically, (2) help another family with a call, assistance, a contact, or encouragement or (3) an educational speaking engagement, a fingerprinting event, or promoting the radKIDS Program.

I want to thank every law enforcement officer, tipster, churches with prayer chains, and the general public for keeping Tiffany in their hearts for all the time she has been missing.