Search For Missing UNT Student Picks Up Near Houston

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DENTON (CBSDFW.COM) - A field near Houston may hold the answers to a nearly two decades old missing persons case.

Detectives next week are expected to begin a new search for Kelli Ann Cox. The UNT student vanished in July 1997.

"There's not a day that goes by that I don't wonder, is today the day?" says Jan Bynum, Cox's Mother. Still, she says she won't get her hopes up until she knows more. Her long journey has spanned 19 years.

Cox was on a school field trip to the Denton jail in a busy area of downtown the day she vanished. She couldn't take her purse or personal belongings inside, so she hid a key under her car. When the key didn't work, she found herself locked out and walked to a nearby gas station to use a payphone.

"It was a busy time of day, a busy area," recalled Bynum. "It was a bee hive of activity over there. She wouldn't have willingly gotten into a car with someone she didn't know. None of it has ever made any sense. She literally just vanished."

Then last month, investigators began digging on private property near Houston. William Reece, a convicted kidnapper who had once been mentioned as a person of interest in Cox's disappearance was spotted near the scene. Walking around while in handcuffs, he could be seen gesturing to investigators seeming to indicate areas to be searched. Human remains have since been located. But, none so far have been connected to Cox.

"Whether it's with this William Reece or not, when we do have answers, it still won't really go away," said Bynum, giving in to the tears that she says still come often. "Every time there's another occurrence with another family, I'll hurt for them."

It's for that reason, she says, that she has developed disdain for the word 'closure.' It is overused, she says, and also non-existent.

"It doesn't go away. You remember. You hurt. You miss them… the thing that will go away is the worry: that she's out there in a situation and needs me and I'm not there as her mother to help her," and her blue eyes once again fill with tears.

Still, in spite of the grief, "crawling into a hole" was never an option. For the past 19 years, she has poured her love for Kelli into raising the toddler daughter she left behind. She says raising Alexis helped her and her husband Nyles focus and keep moving.
"And I want one of these days for Kelli to walk through that door and say 'thanks, Mom, you did a great job!' "

Now, for both Alexis and herself, she is pleading with Reece to provide answers if he has them: to end the agony for some family… even if it's not for hers.

And she also has a warning for others: "Don't ever think it can't happen to me… because it can: middle of the day in front of the police department."

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