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Larry Stackhouse Sr. and wife Lorraine Stackhouse still search for answers 10 years after their son first went missing.

(Photo by Brooke Lewis)

It's as if no time has gone by for Lorraine and Larry Stackhouse Sr.

It's as if it was just yesterday their son, 19-year-old Larry Stackhouse Jr., left to watch a basketball game on a Friday night. His dad remembers talking to his son right before he left, telling him not to stay out too late and that he would see him when he got home

Instead, the Stackhouses haven't seen their son since that Friday, Dec. 2, 2005 when he left to watch a basketball game at Christian Brothers Academy. Instead, they have had 10 years filled with rumors, tips, pain and sadness, just waiting and hoping.

"From that point, all of his friends who went to the game with him were very quiet [...] One particular guy, he approached [me] he was in tears. I asked him what's going on, what happened to my son. He didn't say," Larry Stackhouse Sr. said in a recent interview in their home in the Valley section of Syracuse.

He said he finds some relief from the memories of his son's disappearance when he plays golf during the warmer months or while he's at work, but when he sits quietly by himself it all comes back to him.

Also, possible news about his son's disappearance still comes up from time to time.

Last month, the case became fresh in their minds again when a woman on Facebook posted the name of a woman she said killed Larry Stackhouse Jr. The woman said his body was disposed in five parts throughout the Onondaga Nation.

Syracuse Police Detective John Nolan, who oversees the case, said they questioned the woman named on Facebook as the killer and the woman who wrote the post.

"It appears they have no merit at all," Nolan said. "There's no credence at all [to the Facebook post]."

Possible leads connecting their son's disappearance to the Onondaga Nation were nothing new for the Stackhouse family.

The day after their son's disappearance, a store clerk called the family and said a Native American male came into the store, bragging about how Larry Stackhouse Jr. will never be seen again.

The following week, a Native American girl at Corcoran High school went to the principal, saying she overheard her brother tell her father about how he harmed Larry Stackhouse Jr. She also left a map with the family showing where the younger Stackhouse's body could be found on the Onondaga Nation.

Larry Stackhouse Jr.'s friends told the parents about a possible altercation that their son got into with a boy with Native American descent that lived next door to the Stackhouses.

"Some of the reason why I think this happened to him, he was just too trusting. I really think somebody took advantage of his trust," Lorraine Stackhouse said.

Larry Stackhouse, 19, of Syracuse has been missing since 2005. The photo was taken in 2004.

In the beginning, the Stackhouse family heard so many rumors that it was hard to keep it all straight. Larry Stackhouse Sr. took it upon himself to note down every tip and began to keep track of reoccurring names and areas. That has lead him to believe his son's disappearance is in some way linked to the Onondaga Nation.

The family was frustrated back in 2005 because it took months for officers to search areas on the Onondaga Nation because authorities need permission from the nation's chiefs, Larry Stackhouse Sr. said.

Nolan said the police had a pretty good rapport with the chiefs, but there were guidelines to follow that did take time.



"It's not like you can receive a tip and go down there within 20 minutes," he said.

The Stackhouses eventually hired a private investigator who searched areas on the map left by the girl from Corcoran High School. The investigator found a T-shirt and pair of jeans - the parents thought they were their son's clothes.

But the DNA didn't match. Larry Stackhouse Sr. thinks weather and the two years that passed could've affected the DNA tests.

Nolan said tips keep coming around that Onondaga Nation residents killed Larry Stackhouse Jr. or that his body is buried there.



"Right now, even though there have been numerous speculations, we have nothing to actually say that his body is down there," Nolan said.

Besides the ongoing pain of trying to find their son, the Stackhouses were also hurt by the rumors that suggested their son was involved in criminal activity. The Stackhouses only knew of their son receiving tickets for driving with loud music and for not wearing a seatbelt.

"He never had a record. Anybody can look that up. He never had a felony. He was never a person that was in jail, in trouble all the time," Lorraine Stackhouse said.

Nolan said some people police interviewed told officers Larry Stackhouse Jr. maybe have been involved with drugs. Nolan did confirm the teen was never arrested.

The Stackhouses adamantly stand by their belief that their son was not involved with drugs and are still trying to get information from his friends.



"What happened? What's going on? We don't know it to this day," Larry Stackhouse Sr. said. "I don't know if they were trying to promote him into something. I don't know if they were trying to convince him to do something. We know that he never brought anything like that around us"

It also took years for the Stackhouses to receive any national media attention for their son. Finally in 2012, the case was written about in the Huffington Post. In 2013, the case was highlighted on a national television show called "Find Our Missing," focused on trying to find missing African-Americans.

The Stackhouses feel race has played a factor in the amount of attention their son's disappearance received. They reference the Jenni-Lyn Watson case as an example of contrast.

Watson, a white 20-year-old college student and 2008 graduate from Liverpool High School, disappeared in 2010. She received national attention fairly quickly and was found a week and one day after disappeared.

Larry Stackhouse Sr. even tried to take advantage of the national media's focus on Watson's case. He took a half-day off from work to hand out pamphlets and flyers about his son's disappearance to the out-of-town reporters.

"Not one person called me," he said.

For now, the Stackhouses wait for any news and hold on to memories of their son.

They remember their son as someone who loved playing basketball. He also liked telling jokes. He had dropped out of Corcoran High School, but was planning on getting his GED. He had a two-year-old daughter that he wanted to provide for, so he worked at a nursing home.

The Stackhouses will hold a candlelight vigil at 5 p.m. Wednesday at 4000 S. Salina Street to mark the 10th anniversary of their son's disappearance.

They still believe they will find the answers to what happened to him.

"You just wake up every day and you wonder why," Larry Stackhouse Sr. said.

For any tips regarding the disappearance of Larry Stackhouse Jr., please call the Syracuse police at 315-442-5234.