TAHLEQUAH, Okla. — A Green Country mother is desperate for answers about her missing son.
Shawn Yanez disappeared on Jan. 5, 1999. He left behind a six-year-old son.
“He wouldn’t have left him, or if he did, he would have called to check up on him, you know,” said Shawn’s mother, Virginia Yanez.
Those questions without answers continue to torture her 25 years after he disappeared from the family home.
“When I got home, he wasn’t there and there was a couple of Budweiser tall boys in the sink and his cigarettes were there but he wasn’t there,” she said.
She filed a missing person’s report with the Tahlequah Police Department.
“There is no proof of nothing. They haven’t found any bones or any kind of anything. I know they did some property searches after he went missing. I know they have looked in the rivers and the creeks, but nothing has been found,” said Yanez.
Family members said he never would have left his child and they are concerned he may have been assaulted or killed.
“He had one little boy. He was six years old when Shawn disappeared. Now that boy has five children of his own. I kept the little boy until he aged out at 18 years old,” she said.
Virginia admits Shawn was using drugs at the time of his disappearance, but said if he owed anyone money, she would have helped him come up with it.
Tahlequah detective Chase Reed said their investigators hope someone comes forward with a lead in this case.
“It's frustrating. We want to be able to give the family closure, and we want to be able to solve that case, and if there is a suspect or a perpetrator, we want to put them behind bars for something that they did,” said Reed.
For Virginia, it’s simple, “He’s my son. I want to know what happened to him. No matter what he’s done or did, he was a decent person and he cared about people.”
If you have any information about Shawn Yanez, you are asked to call the Tahlequah Police Department.
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