Seventeen-year-old Jennifer Jane Hughes was last seen in Fayetteville, North Carolina, in December 1996 when she left home on Winter Park Drive with her older sister, Robby Ann Floyd, and Robby’s three young children: Sarena Glenn, Brent Hughes, and Brenttany Hughes. A neighbor saw Robby loading boxes into a blue van and heard her say they were going to Alabama to visit an ailing father; an unknown woman was reported with them and was introduced as the sisters’ mother, a claim the mother later disputed. Robby’s husband, Jason Allen Floyd, said he spoke with her after they left and was told they were staying in a motel in Alabama, but relatives in Alabama say the group never arrived there.

The family did not have regular contact with relatives, and no missing persons report was filed until August 1998, nearly two years after they were last seen. There has been no activity on any of their Social Security numbers, and Robby’s driver’s license expired and was not renewed. Reports of possible sightings and speculation that the family left voluntarily have been raised, but no substantial evidence of their whereabouts has emerged.

Does anyone have recollections from Fayetteville or Alabama in late 1996 that might clarify where Jennifer and the others went?