Where is Emily Hieber? Family still searching 13 years after her disappearance

YUMA,Ariz.(KYMA)-If you have lived in Yuma for some time, you probably know the name Emily Hieber. The 19-year-old went missing 13 years ago, and her mother is still searching for answers, clinging to hope that one day she will know where her daughter is.

Emily Hieber went missing in February of 2013, alongside her miniature pinscher, Bruiser. Emily and Bruiser have not been seen or heard from since.

Jenny Jimenez, Emily Hieber’s mother, said, “We just need to find her.”

Jimenez describes her daughter Emily as independent, funny, athletic and a social butterfly. But things started to change in high school.

Jimenez says the summer of her junior year, Emily started using drugs.

“I think that in that summer just everything changed. Emily was a really happy girl, but she was just trying to find like the happiness. There were things that had happened in her life that she just couldn't find that true happiness and I feel that that's why she strayed that summer and that's what got her into the things she was getting into,” Jimenez said.

And things just got worse.

“Things were just happening so much here. Things were going missing. I had my home broken into and I had taken away her car and she left,” Jimenez said.

Emily took to the streets, living on the streets for an entire year. But she still managed to stay active on social media. She was an avid Facebook poster and communicated with her family often about her whereabouts until one day, she vanished.

“It was two weeks, which sometimes it wasn't that odd not to talk to her for that long, but to not see her on Facebook... so many selfies... And then her phone was shut off, and that's when we started to get worried,” Jimenez said.

Before she disappeared, Emily told her mother, Jenny, that she was ready to turn over a new leaf and become more involved in her nephew’s life following the birth of her sister’s baby.

“She wanted to be really involved in his life, and she just wanted to be done. And then two weeks later, she went missing. And that picture right there was the last day we saw her, holding him,” Jimenez said.

What seemed like the start of a new chapter took a tragic turn just two weeks later.

“That day I felt like things were going to change. It was really exciting, you know; we thought things were going to be better. You know, and we hugged, and she always called me mama. She was like, ‘I love you, mama,’ and I said, ‘I love you too.’ And then two weeks later, she just... it was like she had dropped. Her phone was off. She was off Facebook, which was not her, and here we are 13 years later,” Jimenez said.

Because of her age and lifestyle, her family wasn’t able to file a missing persons report right away. But one day, when a body was found, her grandfather went to see if it was Emily.

“My dad wanted to make sure it wasn't Emily, and he started talking to the detective, and the detective took the case on sight,” Jimenez said.

For the past 13 years, and after hundreds of tips, the search for Emily Hieber, who is now 32 years old, continues. Yuma Police Department Sergeant Lori Franklin says the case is still open.

“As of now, it’s still an open case. We do have a detective still on it. As tips come in, or if something new does come in, they follow everything,” Franklin said.

Emily’s family is hopeful that one day she will be back home.

“That’s what the future has to hold,” Jimenez said.

If you or someone you know has information that could help detectives find Emily and bring answers to her family, please contact the Yuma Police Department or 78 Crime to remain anonymous.