Yellow balloons were released in a north-side neighborhood Friday evening for Jimmy Hendrickson — a 12-year-old boy who disappeared 24 years ago.
Tammy Tacho, Jimmy’s sister, said she needs answers and will not give up hope in finding out what happened to her little brother.
Every year since his disappearance she has held or attended events — including vigils and news conferences about cold cases of missing children.
It was no different on Friday, the date Jimmy went missing more than two decades ago.
She released the balloons — hoping someone who knows what happened to Jimmy comes forward and talks to Tucson Police Department detectives who work cold cases.
The only difference is that Tacho, 41, a local hotel manager, released the balloons in front of a house in the 700 block of West Paris Promenade — a house where Jimmy spent the night on June 11, 1991 — before he vanished. It was the home of the sister of his baby sitter.
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The neighborhood is north of West Grant Road and east of North Fairview Avenue.
“I went back to that house to bring Jimmy back into the picture. Someone knows something. We need answers and I need my baby brother back,” said Tacho through tears.
“This time of year is very emotional,” said Tacho, who was 17 when Jimmy disappeared. She said her mother, Debbie McCrackin, 62, and her brother Paul Hendrickson, 39, are broken over Jimmy’s death.
McCrackin left Arizona for years because she didn’t want to live in the state, but returned nine years ago. Paul Hendrickson is a factory worker in Thomasville, North Carolina, refusing to move back to Arizona.
“The emotional toll on my family has been devastating. We were very close, but now we are separated,” said Tacho, a mother of five who said her children have endured her being an overprotective mom.
“I feel he is dead,” she said of Jimmy. She yearns to know the truth about her brother, and she wants his remains. “I want to put him to rest, and be able to go to a grave and be with him.”
Tacho relives the days after Jimmy’s disappearance every year. She remembers her family, except Jimmy, going to Agua Prieta, Sonora, for a week’s vacation. Jimmy chose to stay with the family’s baby sitter, a trusted friend.
When the family returned a week later to Tucson, she said they were informed by the baby sitter that Jimmy was missing. She said no report had been made to police.
Jimmy’s mother rushed to the main police station downtown and filed a report. Fourteen days after Jimmy went missing, police began to investigate, said Tacho, adding that Jimmy originally had been classified as a runaway.
Police searched junkyards and desert areas around the north-side neighborhood where he was last seen.
Reportedly Jimmy disappeared when he was staying with a relative of the baby sitter’s at the Promenade address. He was last seen June 11, 1991, about 10 p.m. when he was playing video games.
Police believe Jimmy left the house the next morning before 8 and headed to his home in the 200 block of East Delano Street. Jimmy may have been spotted at the Circle K at West Grant Road and North Oracle Road about 8 p.m. June 12.
When Jimmy disappeared, he was 5 feet 5 inches tall and weighed 140 pounds. He had a fair complexion with blue eyes and light-brown hair. He was wearing a white T-shirt with a design on it, blue shorts and white shoes. His hair was cut in a buzz.
“I don’t want Jimmy to be just a file in a basement of the police station,” said Tacho.
Anyone with information is asked to call 88-CRIME.
