KANSAS CITY, Mo. — There was an unexpected guest at a balloon release Wednesday for missing Northland baby Lisa Irwin; her own father. Dozens of pastel colored balloons fill the cloudy evening sky for baby Lisa, who disappeared from her crib at a home off Lister six months ago.
The story seems a tangled web and caught in the middle are Lisa’s parents, Deborah Bradley and Jeremy Irwin. Both have generally avoided the local media, until now.
There’s reason for most of the stuff we’re doing, but it’s been a while and obviously it’s a pretty hard time for us today, so I just want to let everyone know that we’re still here and we still appreciate everything that everyone is doing,” Irwin said.
A group of about 20 volunteers in pink shirts that read, “Where is Lisa?”, has been holding vigils almost monthly for the baby.
Leading the prayer before the balloon release, is someone who knows all too well, what six months without their child feels like.
Rhonda Beckford is the mother of Belton teen Kara Kopetsky. She will be missing five years in May.
“Six months in, you hold onto hope, but your mind still goes to the negative and of course you’re always fearful that your child isn’t going to come back alive so, you are kind of grieving,” said Beckford.
That is what Lisa’s family says they are trying to cope with since she’s been gone.
“We’re trying not to structure our lives around, ‘It’s been three months, it’s been six months,’ but the hardest is holidays, birthdays and family type stuff that she can’t be at,” said Irwin.
He said the only thing they can do is to try to stay together and strong.
“Hopefully we’ll find her soon, it’s gone on long enough,” said Irwin.