2 years later, no new leads in Thomasville missing siblings case

THOMASVILLE, Ga. (WALB) - Christmas is a somber time for one Thomasville family. On Dec. 23, four siblings would normally be celebrating their mother’s 47th birthday.

Two years ago, Marlena Hurst disappeared. Then last year, her brother Greg Hurst disappeared and law enforcement has no leads in either case.

“I remember telling her you left your mark and she says that’s right. It’ll always be there,” said Payton Hamilton, Marlena’s daughter.

Savannah Griffin, another one of Marlena’s daughters, remembers her last moments with her mom.

“She spent that night with us, the last night she spent with me and Olivia,” Griffin recalled.

On Dec. 13 after two weeks of not hearing from Marlena, the family reported her missing. Then a year later in October, Greg disappeared on the day he got out of jail. Both of them struggled with drug addiction.

“They were human. They struggled just as everyone else struggles. It’s because of that stereotype that we haven’t gotten anywhere in this case,” Hamilton said.

The week before Marlena went missing, her family says she had decided to turn her life around. Her first step was buying a camper to call her own.

“We never got to see her try. She was proud of it though,” Hamilton said.

The camper Marlena bought that’s parked at her family’s home is one of many locations that she could’ve been before she disappeared.”

In that camper, the family found letters written by Marlena for each of her four children.

“It’s like she knew something was going to happen,” Griffin said.

Those letters were turned in to the Thomas County Sheriff’s Office for an investigation that has gone on for so long. Chief investigator Tim Watkins said they have interviewed over 100 people, executed search warrants of phones and have done several searches throughout four counties.

“We’ve done everything we possibly could do but it just, we have no idea where we can locate her,” he said.

The last known whereabouts of Marlena are at the Piggly Wiggly in Pelham but there’s no surveillance video showing that -- only the word of a family friend who saw her. Investigators also place Greg’s last known whereabouts at his home in Meigs. They say he ran towards a wooded area and was never seen again. They have no collected evidence in Greg’s case.

“Someone knows what happened to Greg and Marlena and we’re waiting for someone to give us some credible information to tell us what happened,” Watkins said.

It’s painful to lose a family member but even more painful to not know where they are. That’s been the continuous nightmare that the family of Marlena and Greg have lived through the past two years and they’re still pleading for an ounce of an answer.

“This has messed up my life,” Lynn Hurst, Greg and Marlena’s mom said.

This will be the second Christmas Lynn spends without two of her children.

“There ain’t a day that doesn’t go by things are on my mind. (I) can’t describe it either,” she said.

With every passing day, Greg and Marlena Hurst’s family say they’ll never stop searching for both of their loved ones.

If you know any information regarding the whereabouts of Marlena and Greg Hurst, call (229) 225-4151.

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