Jul 6, 2007 7:50 pm US/Central
Chicago Marks 6 Years Since Sisters' Disappearance
Girls' Family Holds Out Hope For Their Safe Return
by Pamela Jones
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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Shelia Bradley-Smith, the girls' aunt, joined marchers on the sixth anniversary of their disapperance.
CBS
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Tionda and Diamond Bradley
CBS
Chicago marks a sad anniversary Friday night – the young Bradley sisters disappeared six years ago.
As CBS 2's Pamela Jones reports, Diamond and Tionda were not forgotten at a South Side prayer vigil.
"It's been six years today, the exact day of the week that Tionda and Diamond was taken from us," said the girls' aunt Shelia Bradley-Smith. "And I think that it's really unfair to anybody to have to endure this kind of pain, because the community has failed to tell what they know."
She joined a string of supporters marching to where the girls disappeared from their apartment complex near 35th Street and Cottage Grove Avenue. The family's private investigator marched as well.
"Diamond is about 10 years old now. Tionda is about 16 or 17. If you're watching this, please call 9-1-1," private investigator Jim Miller said. "We're looking for you. We love you."
The girls' aunt says someone contacted her through the family's Web site in January and revealed a clue that's renewed their hope of finding the girls alive.
"Someone e-mailed me, and one of the emails said 'This iz Tionda,'" Bradley-Smith said.
And from that e-mail she says she found a photo of a girl resembling Tionda on a major Web site she won't name.
"I had to really dig like two or three days in a row to get to it," she said.
Tionda and Diamond's last communication was a note saying they were going to play at a park.
Their mother prays for them anxious to hear their voices again.
"This is going to still continue out here. This is not going to stop," Tracey Bradley said. "It's not the beginning and it's not the end."
The family says demonstrations like this were held daily at first, then monthly and now yearly. But privately, they say they have expanded their search even worldwide to bring the girls back home.
The family also says that the safe return of Missouri teen Shawn Hornbeck also gives them some promise -- he was missing for four years before he was reunited with his parents in January.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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