Father of teen missing since 1987 speaks out
- 19-year-old Cassandra Durham was last seen 37 years ago
- She sent her father several letters and then went silent
- Michigan State Police still investigating; no current suspects
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(NewsNation) — In 1987, then-19-year-old Cassandra Durham was reported missing after a road trip to Michigan with her boyfriend.
Nearly 40 years later, her father, Michael Durham, and Brett Nichols with Michigan State Police joined “Banfield” on Tuesday to talk about the ongoing search for Cassandra.
Her plan was to travel from Baltimore, Maryland, to Roscommon, Michigan, in a 1980 Honda Civic station wagon, according to police.
Her boyfriend swapped their car for an Oldsmobile Cutlass after the Honda allegedly broke down near Detroit.
After a phone call and a few letters to family that same year, Durham was never heard from again. That silence was strange, Michael Durham said, as she’d remained in constant contact with her family during the trip.
One of her last letters reads: “Dear Dad, please will you ever forgive me? I’m in trouble and I don’t know when I’ll be back. I will call & write. God knows I love you!!”
Another says: “I don’t know when this will all be over and seem like a bad dream. Dad, there is one thing I ask, please I’m begging you, don’t say anything about Eric. He’s my only chance, and if it gets mentioned I will never come home. I love him.”
The final letter adds: “Don’t try to find me, please. It will only make things worse. I’ll call you very soon. I’m doing fine, okay?”
“That she would leave and never contact anybody again just makes me feel that either something happened to her or, somehow, she started a new life that just kept going,” Michael Durham said. “One day led to 10, to 100, to 30 years. That’s a possibility.”
When considering the circumstances of her disappearance, her father is hoping for the best.
“I’d like to think not. But it’s certainly been on my mind that something happened to her,” he said. “Both of my sons think that something happened to her.”
Nichols clarified that, while the case is open again, there are no suspects or foul play to be mindful of quite yet.
“We don’t have a suspect right now because we don’t necessarily have a crime,” Nicols said. “Obviously, Cassandra’s been missing for a long time, but we don’t know what happened to her.”
Anyone with information regarding Cassandra Durham’s disappearance is asked to call Nichols at 988-422-5103 or the FBI’s Violent Criminal Apprehension Program at 800-634-4097.
