LEXINGTON, S.C. — June 6 is a day the Gutierrez family can't forget.
It's the day that they found their 4-year-old was missing from her room.
The Lexington community turned out and frantically searched for little Jessica Gutierrez who vanished from her bed in the middle of the night.
Thirty-five years later, investigators are still working on a case that many wouldn't just consider cold, but frozen.
Case #8614106 for the past 15 years has been Sergeant David Pritchard's case and even he is 20 years late to it, “my immediate impression was that it’s a good case… it’s a solvable case," he says.
Even though the last decade and a half has seen changes for Pritchard, going from investigations and into training, but he just can't let go of case #8614106.
He continues to work it today.
He says, “there were just some things we had to work through, and believe it or not, we’ve been trying to work through those things for the last 15 years.”
He looks at the case everyday.
He reads the story over and over and over again.
It begins he says like this, "Thirty-five years ago today, a mother wakes up and finds that her 4-year-old daughter is missing. All the evidence we have points to the early morning hours, someone entered the residence through a broken window, ended up taking the child from her bed and exiting out the front door. And the child has not been seen since," Pritchard explains.
According to the original incident report, Jessica went missing from her home on S. Lake Dr.
She was last seen wearing a pink and white sleeveless shirt and reports say she has a birthmark on her left backside.
The Lexington county sergeant is confident this case can be solved.
He says that he needs the community’s help, "what we’re hoping is that with the 35th anniversary and the coverage that we’re getting is that people will see this and it may spark something in their past that they remember that they may have discounted years ago but now they think – hey this may have something to do with it. We’re really hoping that it can generate some new and fresh leads for us," he says.
This is an aged progression the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children did of Jessica in 2014.
If she looks familiar, or if this story sounds familiar, leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers by calling 1-888-CRIME-SC or by going to their website.
“Because it may be the piece that we’re looking for that can solve the puzzle that we need. So if anybody has any information- please call, please let us know," says Pritchard.