Holding out hope: The Jimmy Hendrickson story | Local News

TUCSON, Ariz. (KVOA) – As the Guthrie children hold out hope they find their mom, another Tucson family knows that ache in their hearts all too well.

Tammy Tacho was just 17 when her younger brother vanished from a quiet midtown neighborhood. In 1991, Jimmy Hendrickson was just 12 years old, and his sister described him as a mama’s boy.

The last time Tacho saw him, the family was leaving on a quick trip to Douglas, Arizona, and Jimmy stayed behind with a trusted family friend. He let their mom kiss him on the forehead.

“He didn’t let me, so I just ruffled his little hair… and then him just waving goodbye to us,” Tacho said.

That would be the last time they would ever see Jimmy. Police say he spent the night with a family friend’s cousin to help fix a fence and then he vanished.

“Back in the ’90s we didn’t have social media like now, we made homemade posters, we walked this neighborhood,” Tacho said.

Tacho says police developed a suspect, but he has since died and was never charged. She says Tucson Police later reached out to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and coincidentally, just last month, as local investigators focused on finding Nancy Guthrie, that group just happened to be in Tucson focused on finding Jimmy.

Dr. John Bishoff is vice-president of the center’s missing children division. He says one of the resources they have is a program called Team Adam.

“It is a group of retired law enforcement officers no longer active, but they have had a long distinguished career sometimes a second set of eyes of looking at what’s available through the optics of today,” Bishoff said.

Families of the missing count on all the help they can get. Tacho says she understands exactly what the Guthrie family is going through.

“They are just going through so much pain… and nowadays with social media, the anger talk and the ugly talk, it’s just not fair. Can we have compassion?” Tacho said.

She says that pain doesn’t go away, it stays with families for years. In the 35 years since Jimmy disappeared, Tacho has gotten married and raised children of her own, but she has never stopped searching.

“For years I would say after 20 years… that’s when I said Jimmy’s gone, but we need closure. My mom left us three years ago and she didn’t get closure… I don’t want my burden to be my children’s burden,” Tacho said.

Amid the ongoing search for their mother and their own grief, Savannah Guthrie and her family announced they would be making a $500,000 donation to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children for their work in helping with families coping with loss and actively looking for those who are lost. Bishoff says that kind of attention can make all the difference.

“In their time of pain and in their time of uncertainty to recognize and understand there are so many families out there looking for this type of media coverage looking for this type of attention,” Bishoff said.

Tacho is also grateful and has this message for the Guthrie family. 

“Just don’t give up hope, with hope its everything.”