KANSAS CITY, Mo. — This weekend marks four years since Desirea Ferris went missing.
In her honor, Ferris' family tried to turn the bad into some good.
"It's hard to even come down these streets sometimes but we do this for Desi," Jennifer Ferris, Desirea's stepmom, said.
It's symbolic that Desirea Ferris' family would participate in a community clean-up in the same neighborhood where she went missing four years ago.
"You walk through these streets and you're like, 'oh my god, are we walking past her? Are we close to her?'" Jennifer Ferris said.
Desirea was in the Marlborough neighborhood before she went missing. All her phone activity stopped in the early morning hours of May 2, 2017. No one has seen or heard from her since.
"It's actually been hard on me just because I don't want to move on without her. We had all these plans growing up to go do stuff after high school and college and everything," Sydney Wood, Desirea Ferris' step-sister, said. "I'm meeting new people doing all these fun things. I turned 21 and she never got to see her 21st birthday."
All throughout their clean-up, the family knew their finishing point was at 81st & Highland. This is one of the last places Desirea Ferris was seen alive.
Desirea Ferris' family visited the street three months after she went missing looking for answers.
According to police, people who last saw Desirea Ferris said she was picked up from a nearby home around 1:30 a.m. From there, it's a mystery.
The family has used her phone pings to pinpoint areas of interest and have done dozens of searches over the years.
The neighborhood at 81st & Highland is the source of a lot of pain for Desirea Ferris' family.
"It makes you feel good to come through to help clean up the area to make it better so that nothing ever happens to another girl like Desi," Jennifer Ferris said.
Desirea's mom, Patti Tam, could not make it to the clean-up because it was just too hard, but she is constantly urging people to come forward with information.
The family wants to send a message to those who know where Desirea is: that they will never stop searching and they will make sure people remember her name.
"We'll keep doing it until we bring her home," Ferris said.
Desirea Ferris' story has reached all across the country and even the world. Her family started a Facebook page to raise awareness, Bring Desirea Ferris Home. The page has nearly 20,000 supporters.
Anyone with information about where Desirea is can message one of the administrators on the page or make an anonymous call to the Greater Kansas City Crime Stoppers Tips Hotline at 816-474-TIPS (8477) or Liberty police.
