Michigan State Police host "Bring Loved Ones Home" event

LIVONIA, Mich (FOX 2) - There are thousands of missing people in Michigan, but with the help of Michigan State Police they’re hopeful to bring some of them home.

“My cousin Richard Hitchcock has been missing since Dec 22, 1990 29 plus years,” missing persons advocate Kellie Boers said.

Since then, Kellie Boers has become a tireless advocate for the missing.

 Her work was honored at the 13th annual Missing in Michigan event Saturday, led by Michigan State Police.

Kellie literally stumbled on a missing teen along her bus route in Kalamazoo, a girl she was already searching for, for days. 

“It was meant to be I was meant to find her that morning,” Boers said.

Its stories like these that bring families attending hope.

“You can gain strength and hope and faith you can gain all that from being here but you can also maybe gain a new idea on how to locate your missing loved one,” she said.

May is Missing Persons Month in Michigan and right now, there are 4,000 people missing in our state.

“A majority of our missing persons are in Wayne County so this is one of the centers we wanted to hit on,” Lt. Mike Shaw said with Michigan State Police.

Everything families need to keep the search alive under one roof , a big push is making sure police have what they need for these cases like DNA samples and photos.

 “Some people may think they actually have some type of police that their person is missing when they really don't so it gives an opportunity to look it up and see if tis in there and get the in the database,” Lt. Shaw said.

Lt. Mike Shaw says you can come to any Michigan State Police post any time to get updated information into the missing person's database.