Sisters visit suburban Chicago gravesite of brother who had been missing for nearly 2 decades
Sisters who searched for missing brother for 17+ years hold ceremony at gravesite
Sisters who searched for missing brother for 17+ years hold ceremony at gravesite
Sisters who searched for missing brother for 17+ years hold ceremony at gravesite
A mystery stretching from Puerto Rico to Chicago was recently solved at last after nearly two decades — and for two sisters from Ohio, Monday officially marked the end of that long and frustrating journey.
Vilmarilys "Lilly" Hernandez, along with her sister and their uncle, brought flowers Monday morning to the Homewood Memorial Gardens Cemetery — where their brother, Jean Eli Gonzalez, is now buried.
CBS News Chicago first told Gonzalez's story last month. He vanished in 2007, within two weeks of arriving in Chicago for a rehab program.
The sisters had been searching for him ever since.
This year, within two days of the Cook County Medical Examiner providing Gonzalez's information to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System database, his family saw a post describing him perfectly down to a unique tattoo and scar.
Through rapid DNA testing, they learned it was indeed their brother. He had been dead all these years.
The family had a message for Gonzalez on Monday.
"I'm so sorry I came late. I'm so sorry that I found you this way," said Hernandez. "But I know, I know, that I'm going to see you one day in Heaven, that I'm going to hold you so tight, that I'm going to say I'm sorry, that I love you.
The sisters have a lot of questions about Gonzalez's death and disappearance, and vow to continue fighting on his behalf.
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