Family of Harrisburg woman missing for 20 years asks for help solving case
Decades have passed and a family is still left with a tormenting question: What happened to their loved one?
Diane Thomas Scott has not been seen in 20 years and her family is asking for help to give them closure.
Meanwhile, law enforcement is also still searching for answers.
"We've come to the firm conclusion that she is the victim of murder. We're never going to let it go," Dauphin County District Attorney Fran Chardo said.
"There are near perfect crimes, but there are not perfect crimes," Harrisburg Police Commissioner Thomas Carter said.
Scott was known to be a church-going woman and a great mother.
"She was thunder but she was a sweet person," Scott's pastor, Winston Palmer, said.
She was 4 feet, 8 inches tall, and fierce.
"She was a little bit of a fireball, but she was still the kindest person ever," her son, Kenneth Magobett, said.
Scott was last seen dropping her kids off at school in May 2001.
"I would have hugged her tight, held her close and tell her that I love her and that I will always be there for her, no matter what," Magobett said.
Former lead investigator Victor Rivera said the case was suspicious from the start.
"Some neighbors heard her on the phone arguing with somebody," he said.
When Scott didn't show up to pick up her daughter from school, her best friend, Sonya Palmer, knew something wasn't right. Palmer went right to Scott's home on Jefferson Street in Harrisburg.
"The white sweater was on the floor, and her slippers were kind of askew in the living room. The TV was on. Her purse, her keys, everything was there," Palmer said.
"This was not a person who left that home voluntarily," Rivera said.
Investigators say they have a person of interest in this case. The person has never been charged.
"The comments, statements that were made throughout the course of the investigation were completely out of place for a person who lost a loved one," Rivera said.
Investigators said they are suspicious of a missing cooler from the home of the person of interest.
"It's large enough that you could fit someone in it if they were small, and this was a very small woman," Chardo said.
Chardo said he believes the perpetrator got lucky and deposited Scott's remains in such a way that she will never be found.
Investigators want to close the case that's taunted them for years.
"We think we know what happened," Chardo said.
"We have an excellent opportunity of solving this case now," Carter said.
But no one needs answers more than Scott's loved ones.
"Please just give them whatever you can so we can bring closure to my family. I just need to know. I really do. I need to know," Magobett said.
Police said no detail in this case is too small.
If you saw Scott before she disappeared or have any information that could help, you're asked to call Harrisburg police at 717-558-6900.