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At a glance, Helen Dymond and Starla Goings are two women who seem to have a lot in common, beyond the obvious fact that both disappeared without a trace from Upper Peninsula locations.
Both were upstanding members of their respective communities. In Goings' case, it was the Alger County area while Dymond hailed from Tilden Township in western Marquette County.
Neither was particularly young at the time of their respective disappearances; Dymond was 48 when she went missing in 1981 while Goings was 65 when she vanished about a year ago.
Goings was last known to be at the U.P. State Fair. For Dymond, it was a rural social club.
For each, the disappearances sparked a huge law enforcement response, both in terms of actual searches and attendant criminal investigations. In both cases, hundreds of family, friends and others helped with beating the bushes.
Not one trace was found in either case.
But here's something we hope isn't the same for these two women. We sincerely hope Starla Goings remains foremost in the public's mind and doesn't fade the way Helen Dymond has. This isn't a slam toward anyone, it's just very often the case that people move on, think about other things, live their lives and even important matters tend to fade.
We certainly don't include family and friends here. Take it to the bank, in both cases, those groups have felt the terrible loss of the missing person every day she has been gone.
By all accounts, law enforcement in both circumstances have done and is doing everything possible to resolve matters. Nothing has been held back, no punches pulled, all stones have been overturned, as the sayings go.
And still nothing.
We were heartened recently when one of Helen Dymond's grandchildren started working with a cold case group at Northern Michigan University in an effort to find something new. Our fingers are crossed on that one. And the sheriff of Alger County, Todd Brock, told The Mining Journal that his people and many others continue to actively investigate the Goings' case on a daily basis. In other words, they are not giving up.
And that was the message from Nick Livermore, Goings' son who resides in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Goings family, he said, stays in very close contact with the Alger County Sheriff's Office, speaking at least once per week.
"Overall, we're trying to muddle through," Livermore said of the family's ability to cope. "We're trying to stay positive. I just don't want (the community) to lose faith. I want to keep my mother's story alive."
So do we.