ASHEVILLE — Priscilla McLaughlin prays for her missing cousin every morning. She goes for a walk and then gets on the phone, trying to do something — anything — to help find out what happened to April Pickens.
This has been McLaughlin’s routine since Pickens, a 30-year-old mother of five, went missing in December.
“I just can’t sit still and wait knowing this child is missing,” McLaughlin said.
Pickens’ family recently recruited the help of a private investigator.
Tom Chickos started working on the case last week and made new fliers for the family to post in West Asheville and Arden.
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Chickos said so far he has talked with Asheville Police Department detectives, who have built a few hundred pages of statements and supplements.
“They’ve done an outstanding job,” he said. “I’m basically duplicating everything they’ve done and hoping I get a different result. I’m trying to find things they haven’t, and I haven’t come up with anything so far.”
Chickos, a private investigator since 1996, said he’s talked with family members to see if they can remember any new details.
But nothing new has been discovered, he said.
On the afternoon of Dec. 26, Pickens set out to meet a male friend. She stopped by her sister’s apartment to borrow perfume but didn’t say whom she was meeting. Family members say they haven’t heard from her since.
Although family and police have been cooperative, Chickos said the community has not been helpful.
“I’ve been tracking down the same leads the police department has, hoping they’ll be more forthcoming with me than they have with them,” he said. “So far, that has not happened.”
McLaughlin is pleading with the community to cooperate with Chickos. She believes someone did something to Pickens and somebody in the area has information that can help the case.
“We’re trying to do everything we can to find April, but nobody is working with us,” she said. “We just need to know some names to pass on to this detective.
“He’s not out there for harm. He’s looking for April,” she added. “This man is doing it pro bono. He needs a break.”
Chickos said family members plan to submit DNA samples to the police department today. Detectives will then register the samples with National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, a database that tries to match DNA samples of family members with unidentified bodies.
McLaughlin thinks she’s getting closer and closer to getting answers. She’s determined to bring some closure to the situation for everyone involved, especially Pickens’ children.
She has been reaching out to different agencies and businesses, trying to get school clothes and supplies that the family can’t afford.
McLaughlin received $75 in gift cards Monday at Walmart. “It’s not a whole lot, but it’s a start,” she said.
Chickos said any new information, no matter how small, may help the case.
“I do prefer they contact the Asheville Police Department first and me second with any information about the case,” he said.
