MONTICELLO, NY — Shaniece went missing from Rock Hill on May 29, 2017. Her parents were on a trip to Florida at the time; it was her sister, Tameka, who first knew she was missing. Tameka went to the Monticello Police Department the following day to file a report, and was told she had to wait 24 hours; when she went that evening to the Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office, she was asked why she had waited so long to file.

Dominigo Ramos, founder of Hope Alive 845, was there for the family since the beginning, says Tameka; he reached out and to offer support an hour after she put on Facebook that her sister was missing, an hour she says was the loneliest hour of her life. Ramos and the Harris family began looking for Shaniece, and founded Hope Alive 845 two years ago to advocate for other missing people in Sullivan County and beyond, to help bring awareness to the plight of missing people in Sullivan County. The organization held a press conference for Shaniece on March 21 with Ramos and the Harris family.

Coming on five years after Shaniece went missing, her family still has no answers. The press conference was, in part, a call for knowledge. The family called upon law enforcement to share their progress with the investigation, upon people in the community who knew what had happened and had not chosen to come forward.

“Ambiguous loss and unresolved grief is a real thing,” said Tameka. “How do you move on without knowing where she is?”

The Harris family called as well for more attention to be given to people who were missing, drawing attention to promises of support they had received and to a lack of support received.

Hope Alive 845 had talked with a lot of people who said they would be there in support, said Thomas Crump, Shaniece’s father. “Police. Investigators. Legislators. Senate people. Common councilpeople. None of them have come to help us. Why? Why are missing people not worthy of coverage, of our attention?”

“People have told us they were going to do all kinds of things for us and they haven’t done anything,” said Elvia Polanco-Crump, Shaniece’s mother. “[You] don’t even support an agency who could possibly help you, yourself, in the future, because it can happen to you.”

Hope Alive 845 has already helped bring a number of missing persons cases to a close. A wall of missing people’s pictures hangs in the organization’s offices; roughly half of those pictures are in the “found” column of that wall. The organization hosts events, including fundraisers and vigils, and has a podcast to talk about the missing on its Facebook page.  

The organization stands as a resource for the families of those who go missing, trying to bring a voice to the voiceless of missing people and their families. But at the conference, the Harris family and Ramos called as well for support from people who hadn’t experienced that trauma in their own lives.

“We need answers,” said Ramos. “We need closure. We need to find Shaniece Harris and the other people who are up here in Sullivan County as well.”