Pine Bluff remembers missing children

By Mark Friedman/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF

To Laurell Hall, Sunday felt like it did five years ago.

On May 9, 1994, her 18-year-old daughter, Cleashindra Hall, vanished from Pine Bluff. She was last seen at 5309 Faucett Road, where she did clerical work.

"It never gets any easier," Laurell Hall said. Hall said she often wonders if her daughter is hungry. And when it's cold outside, she wonders if her daughter is warm.

Hall said she hasn't given up hope of seeing her daughter again.

Two percent of long-term missing children are returned home, said Colleen Nick, whose 6-year-old daughter, Morgan, was kidnapped from a little league ball field in June 1995.

Nick said there is still a chance that her daughter and Cleashindra Hall will be in that 2 percent.

Hall recently became a part of Nick's organization called Team Hope, which counsels parents of missing children around the country.

"When your child is missing, there is a pain in your heart that nothing can take away," Nick said at a "Service of Hope" ceremony held at St. Peter's Rock Missionary Baptist Church Saturday.

During the ceremony, Laurell Hall played a video that showed snapshots of Cleashindra Hall from when she was an infant to the poster announcing her disappearance.

Cleashindra Hall, a senior honor student at Watson Chapel High School, was days away from graduating in May 1994.

Laurell Hall said she couldn't believe that nobody knew where her daughter is.

Pine Bluff Police Chief Brad King said the detectives will follow up any new leads. Anyone who has any information about Cleashindra Hall's disappearance is urged to call the Pine Bluff Police Department Detective Division at 870-543-5111. Laurell Hall said anyone with information also can call her at 870-879-5461.