Columnist Susan Snyder: Wrenching wait for family

Saturday, Sept. 16, 2000 | 6:26 a.m.

Susan Snyder's column appears Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays in Accent. Reach her at snyder@lasvegassun.com or 259-4082.

As Joyce Thompson planned her mother's 93rd birthday dinner last week she wondered:

Would Brigitte come this time?

Brigitte Mitchell Thomas, 33, missed her grandmother's 92nd birthday. She has been missing since Aug. 19, 1999 -- the day people saw her get into a blue pickup with two men at the Regatta Apartments in North Las Vegas, Thompson, Thomas' aunt, said.

"We have not heard anything from her since. Not a thing," she said.

Thompson sank back into an overstuffed chair of the tidy apartment she shares with her mother. Dozens of framed family portraits covered the walls.

But the photo that's become the biggest part of Thompson's life is the one family members took from Thomas' health card and printed on fliers they passed around shortly after she disappeared. They're about to do that again.

There were calls at first. Many were cranks, Thompson said. But she started checking the medical examiner's office a couple of times a week after a prankster said Thomas' body was dumped in the desert. Every report of a body found somewhere sends prickles up her spine.

"They found a body up off Craig Road," the aunt said. "But it wasn't her."

Each of Thomas' five children, ages 5 to 18, have celebrated birthdays since she disappeared. Her first grandchild has turned 2. She hoped Thomas would show up for her grandmother's 93rd birthday. She never used to miss birthdays.

But it's hard to say what would bring her home now, Thompson said. Thomas didn't even surface in May when her 14-year-old son, Milton Ennis, was charged with murder in connection with a high-speed police chase and car crash that killed two other teens.

Surely, Thompson said, she would have come back if she'd been able.

Metro Police Detective Gary Sayre doesn't know what to say anymore.

"It's an adult who doesn't have to stay home," Sayre said. "There's no body out there. There's no evidence of foul play. It's not uncommon. I've got people who have been missing for a couple years."

Sayre figures he and his partner each juggle 75 to 100 missing adult cases a month. They also investigate a small number of missing-teenager cases. Metro handles about 400 of those a month, he said.

A relative told Sayre he spotted Thomas near Main Street and Bonanza Road. But that was about eight months ago, the detective said.

There's nothing new to go on. Cases with active leads get the attention until they, too, fizzle out. The cycle is endless -- for those who look and those who wait.

"It's hard for them to understand there's nothing we can do," Sayre said. "She is still listed as missing. It is still an active case."

No argument there.

"It's unusual. She was always around," Thompson said. "She would have called. We all know that for a fact. She was close to her family."

Family portraits stared blankly from Thompson's walls.

"I pray that she'll show up," Thompson said. "I pray that wherever she is, it's a Christian journey."