Christine Hill exclusively obtained to utilize 10 years of her life along with her mom.
“That’s all I had along with her. Ten years,” Christine told Dateline. “And I thank God for every of them.”
Christine was exclusively 10 years ancient when her mom disappeared in 1981. Christine, her 8-365 days-ancient brother, their mom, Diana Lynn Harris, all moved all of the intention down to the Florida Keys from Michigan with Diana’s boyfriend earlier that 365 days for a brand new begin.
“She misplaced her job in Michigan, so merely decided to secure a risk and whisk to Florida,” Christine acknowledged. “She deliberate on making a life down there for all of us.”
Diana landed two jobs: on the No Name Pub and on the Sugarloaf Hotel. Christine told Dateline that her mom’s boyfriend didn’t stick round for prolonged, and Diana rapidly began courting one other man named Gary Argenzio.
Christine acknowledged she remembers happily exchanging their frigid days in Michigan for the warm seashores of Florida – specifically Abundant Pine Key where they settled. It was paradise.
But after three months in paradise, Christine and her brother had been despatched wait on to Michigan to utilize the summer season with their father and assorted household participants.
They acknowledged goodbye to their mom on the airport in Miami on June 7, 1981.
“It was the last time I ever saw her,” Christine acknowledged. She added that the last time she spoke to her mom was on July 15 when they talked on the phone.
“She known as us normally,” Christine acknowledged. “So when she stopped calling, and after we couldn’t derive entangled along with her, we knew one thing was skedaddle.”
Diana was scheduled to take the children up in Michigan on August 15 so that they might perchance presumably then whisk encourage her sister’s marriage ceremony in Illinois.
She never made it.
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Christine’s grandmother filed a lacking folk document in Monroe County, Florida. But 39 years later, Diana peaceful has now no longer been chanced on.
After their mom’s disappearance, Christine and her brother stayed in Michigan and had been raised by their grandmother. When Christine was 17, she returned to Florida for a short time to begin her appreciate investigation. She’s been at it ever since.
“Some files I’ve detect leads me to order that my mom will contain change correct into a risk to a main drug operation at a occasion home on Abundant Pine Key where my mom lived,” Christine acknowledged.
She added that after they had been despatched wait on to Michigan, her mom and Gary Argenzio moved correct into a condominium on Tortuga Lane in Abundant Pine Key identified by locals as the “occasion home.” The home was owned by one amongst Argenzio’s chums, who was also a neighborhood attorney.
Christine acknowledged she later learned that Diana had known as a chum in Michigan and acknowledged she feared there was going to be a drug bust on the occasion home. It’s unknown when this call took net page.
For years, Diana’s case went frigid. It wasn’t except 1995, at Christine’s urging, that Diana’s case was brought wait on into the light.
Detective Sergeant Barney Sajdak with the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office told Dateline that their records on Diana’s case exclusively date wait on to 1995. He acknowledged that the stories new that Diana was reported lacking in 1981, but that there was no authentic document.
He confirmed that Diana’s case was re-investigated in 1995 as a that you simply might perchance presumably order assassinate and that many of us had been interviewed, including Diana’s boyfriend, Gary Argenzio, but no person was arrested in her disappearance.
Detective Sergeant Sajdak told Dateline that the document included police interviews with two men who knew Argenzio. They told detectives they believed Argenzio murdered Diana and dumped her physique in the ocean.
Almost today after Diana’s disappearance, Gary Argenzio stole a ship and fled to Mexico where he stayed except he was arrested in 1982 for theft, consistent with Det. Sgt. Sajdak. He was sentenced to 5 years in penitentiary. In 1992, Argenzio died at his home in Florida, consistent with a scientific examiner’s document in Diana’s file.
“It’s a tricky case,” Det. Sgt. Sajdak told Dateline. “A protracted time contain handed, the detectives who worked on the case are long past, about a of the witnesses are long past. It’s stressful to bid if we can ever acquire her.”
He added that the investigation into Diana’s disappearance is ongoing and he urges anyone who will contain files to call the sheriff’s place of work.
“A little bit of files that might perchance presumably seem insignificant continuously is the section to clear up this case,” Det. Sgt. Sajdak acknowledged. “Whenever you happen to hang one thing, please call us.”
Now, almost four a long time later, Diana’s daughter peaceful fondly remembers the 10 years she spent along with her mom.
“I have faith your total areas she took us for relaxing, the instances she did my hair for school and when she cooked breakfast for us every morning. She indubitably was such an extraordinary mom who gave my brother and I a total bunch like and affection,” Christine told Dateline. “She was sharp in every portion of our short time along with her. I had my first 10 years of life along with her, some folk assemble now no longer derive that. And so I’m grateful to God for every piece of time we had. We had been very blessed.”
Christine added that she remembers her mom being a “grand mom” even supposing she led a stressful life. She felt esteem their whisk was an derive away for her mom, but sadly ended in the end of their time collectively.
“I the truth is contain dazzling recollections of my life along with her. She worked stressful, cooked grand food, and was never too busy to play with my brother and me,” Christine acknowledged. “No subject how tired she was or how weighed down by worries, she gave us unstinting like and a focus.”
Right by the years, Christine has place collectively files of files that she hopes will one day outcome in solutions in her mom’s case. Despite the indisputable reality that 39 years contain handed, Christine tells Dateline she isn’t giving up.
“For 39 years now, I’ve been attempting to search out out what took net page to her, and I could now no longer end except I derive an resolution.”
Anybody with files about Diana’s case is entreated to call the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office – Particular Investigations Division at (305) 289-2410.
