TIME IS NO HEALER FOR MISSING GIRL'S FAMILY

By Donna Loyd / Of the commercial staff

Laurell Hall remembers the last time she saw her daughter, just like it was yesterday.

"I dropped her off at work. She didn't have a car, her purse, any money, ID, anything," she said of her 18-year old daughter, Cleashindra. The family called her "Clea."

That was May 9, 1994, seven years ago.

Mrs. Hall dropped Clea off at work at 5309 Faucett Road, where Clea did clerical work. Clea hasn't been seen or heard from since.

"It's hard to put it into words, Mrs. Hall said. "After seven years, it's hard to imagine that nobody seems to know where she is, or if they do, they won't come forward," she said.

"How can they live with themselves?" she asked.

Cleashindra Hall was two weeks away from her high school graduation. The weekend before she disappeared, she had attended her senior prom and a sorority dance. That Sunday had been Mother's Day, Mrs. Hall said, and Clea had given her a gift and card at church that day.

"Clea was funny," Mrs. Hall said. "She loved children. She was always trying to baby-sit for people. Her plan was to be a pediatrician."

Clea was "a typical teen-age girl," her mother said, who liked to talk on the phone and spend time with her friends. But she was also very involved in school and church activities.

"She liked music," Mrs. Hall said. Clea was in the school and church choirs as well as in the school band, Mrs. Hall said.

"She like to read. I guess that's why she was an honor student. If she didn't feel like doing anything, she would read."

So much has happened to the Hall family since Clea disappeared, Mrs. Hall said.

Both of Clea's grandmothers have died in that time. She now has a niece named after her middle name, "Denise."

Capt. Ivan Whitfield of the Criminal Investigation Division of the Pine Bluff Police Department, said Clea's disappearance is still "an open case," and he has been reviewing it, checking to see if anything else can be done.

"We're still looking at leads, and hoping for more information," Whitfield said.

In the past, the Hall family has held prayer vigils to remind the public about Clea's disappearance. But this year, they won't, Mrs. Hall said. The family will probably "just release some balloons from home," she said.

"We did the service to remember Clea, but also to remind people about all the children who are missing," Mrs. Hall said.

Mrs. Hall has joined with other parents to help each other through the experience.

She has worked on projects with Colleen Nick, mother of Morgan Nick, who disappeared six years ago in Alma, and who a stateside notification system is named for.

Both participated in the "Arbor of Hope" project, kicked off Tuesday in Little Rock. The project includes the names of 500 children missing from Arkansas.

This year, Mrs. Hall did a safety fair at a local discount store, reminding parents that the same thing can happen to them."One lady came up to me and said she thought Clea had been found," Mrs. Hall said.

"People have forgotten."