Video: After Missing For 16 Years Family Still Remembers Loved One

ALICEVILLE, Al. (WCBI)- A missing person’s case in Aliceville, Alabama remains a mystery, but family members are holding out, and hoping they’ll one day get some answers.

September 1, 2016 marks 16 years since 29 year old Sheila Hughes first went missing.

She was nine months pregnant and was last seen with the boyfriend.

“It’s still painful now, but we’re dealing with it and bearing with it more,” said Debra Hughes, sister of Sheila.

Debra remembers the last conversation she had with her younger sister the night she went missing.

“Her last words to me were, she used to call me ‘Bone’ so she said ‘Bone’, if you don’t see me anymore, don’t worry about me, know that I’ve lived my life to the fullest,” said Debra

The next day, Debra says Shelia went missing.  Her shoes and purse were found across the state-line in Noxubee County.

As the years passed by, reality started to sink in for the family.

“Some says she not, some says she is and some of us got to the point where we just accepted that it was God’s will,” said Debra.

Debra said her sister was scheduled to deliver her baby just days after her disappearance.

Shelia was left with her boyfriend and the father of her baby, Renard Simmons the night she went missing.

The Hughes family says Simmons died in 2013.

“He never told us what happened,” said Debra.

Family members said Simmons’ death caused them to relive their nightmare all over again.  Debra said she believes Simmons had the answers to the many unanswered questions in this cold case.

“What happened? I know that when she left home at 10:30 she was with you. I know at one o’clock when the police stopped you at a road block in Pickensville she was with you. I know when you said you dropped her off at 3 o’clock she was with you. So between that time and the time she never entered the house, what happened,” the older sister recalled.

Sixteen years later, no one has ever been convicted of Shelia Hughes’ death, however the family remains hopeful they’ll someday get that answer they’ve been longing for.

Her child would have been 16 this year.