Christopher Daniel knows exactly what the family of 15-year-old Elizabeth Thomas is going through.
He's been living the same horror for nearly five years.
The 54-year-old Shelbyville, Tenn., man's son and stepdaughter are among four missing children at the center of three active Amber Alerts in the state. They're also among 74 children reported missing in Tennessee, state records show.
Gage Daniel and Chloie Leverette vanished the night of Sept. 23, 2012, after a fire destroyed their grandparents' Unionville home — less than 30 miles east of Columbia, Tenn., where Thomas disappeared just over two weeks ago.
After the fire, remains of the children's grandparents were identified by forensic scientists. But after a long list of law enforcement agencies found no trace of the children, ages 7 and 9 then, they were classified as missing.
"It's just the same thing over and over and over again," Daniel said as a multistate manhunt remained in effect Wednesday for Thomas and her 50-year-old teacher Tad Cummins, wanted on an aggravated kidnapping charge in connection with her disappearance. "It never gets any better. I wish I knew what to do, but it's been five years. I feel for her family. For their pain."
Of the state's missing children, 65 percent are girls and 26 are featured on the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation website — including some who disappeared nearly four decades ago. Their cases are the result of parental abductions, considered "at risk" or are those whose cases could benefit from publicity.
Of those cases, one endangered child alert has been issued for Eva Alejandra Lopez, who disappeared Sept. 22, 2015, at her home in Franklin County. Winchester police believe she is in the company of 25-year-old Avaro Gamez Martinez, wanted on six counts of aggravated statutory rape.
In addition to Gage and his sister, the TBI features one other pair of siblings — Carlos Edwardo Simon, 6, and his brother Manilo Baldimir Pena Castro, 1 — last seen at their Knoxville home a little less than a decade ago. Knoxville police say they were taken by their noncustodial mother, Leticia Castro, on May 28, 2008.
Knoxville Police Department spokesman Darrell DeBusk said although the case remains open and active, no leads have arisen in some time.
Of the more than two dozen missing children featured by the TBI, half are now age 18 or older, including Tonetta Carlisle, who disappeared while returning home from school on March 15, 1989.
"She would be 43 this year," her mother, Nonie Sturdivant, said Monday. Chattanooga police believe the girl was abducted by a group of men at age 15.
Thomas' case, which has garnered national attention, evokes a flood of memories for the 65-year-old wounded woman.
"It brings me right back to her. What I could and should have did back then," Sturdivant said. "I wish I hadn't been at work that day. She was walking home from school and just never arrived."
Police say witnesses saw a group of men jump out of a car and force the girl into the vehicle. The car came back to Jeffrey Jones, who served eight years for rape before her disappearance. Jones killed himself within a few days of the girl's disappearance and her body has never been found.
For now, the case is frozen.
Although, as time passes and she wonders if her daughter is still alive, Sturdivant has never given up hope.
Jonnie Carter still doesn’t know what to make of the story her ex-husband told about exactly how their daughter went missing on a cold, rainy day more than 16 years ago.
It was March 4, 2001, and Larry and Bethany Markowski were driving back from Little Rock, Ark., where they’d been visiting one of his friends. They decided to stop in Jackson, Tenn., to visit the Old Hickory Mall, Markowski would later tell police. Markowski let Bethany out to go shopping, then curled up in the truck for a nap, he said.
As far as anyone knows, that was the last time Bethany, who’d turned 11 just a month earlier, was ever seen.
“He had stated that he took her to the mall and he was asleep in the van, and let her go inside. And yet she was not seen on any of the videos at the mall,” said Carter, a West Tennessee native who now lives in Mt. Juliet just outside Nashville.
When asked if she believes that story, Carter hesitated for a moment.
“Not a hundred percent. I think if anybody (knows anything), he does. How can you explain that she was not seen on any of the surveillance cameras?” she said. “I don’t know if he knows where she is today. You would think if he did, he would come forward.”
Efforts to reach Markowski this week were unsuccessful. Carter said she hasn’t spoken to him in years.
"As with all long-term missing children in Tennessee, we continue to investigate all tips that come in, in the hopes we can reunite these families," TBI spokeswoman Susan Niland said. "In the last five years, we have seen a number of people found who have been missing for decades. That’s what gives us the inspiration to keep investigating these cases, even after extended periods of time."
As Daniel waits for more leads to come in on his children's case, he tries to remain optimistic.
TBI Special Agent Haidy Grigsby, who's handling the case, got a couple of tips as recently as a month ago, according to the TBI.
So far none were credible.
"They say they have leads, they follow up and do what they can, but they haven't had anything that proves conclusive," Daniel said. "But my father always reminds me the TBI is the best at what they're supposed to do so hopefully they'll find them."
Meanwhile, as the search for Thomas continues, Daniel encouraged the Thomas family to keep hope.
"Keep your chin up and hope for the best. It's all you can do," the father said, his voice firm. "I just keep hoping. It's all I can do."
The Commercial Appeal contributed to this report. Reach Natalie Neysa Alund at 615-259-8072 and on Twitter @nataliealund.