Nancy Hulick still thinks of Gina Marie Gallo as her big sister — even though she can only imagine her as 21 years-old, the age she was when she disappeared in 1981.

Gallo was missing for nearly 17 years before a hunter found a skull in Hamilton Township in 1997, and dental X-rays proved it was her. Hulick had only given a DNA sample three years earlier — more than a decade after her sister first went missing.

There was no missing persons unit, and Hulick knew of no support groups. She didn’t know anyone like her: a person who was waking up each day in hope her sister would be found, but also grieving the loss absent a body.

“The feeling is so ... it takes someone who’s been there to know the feeling,” she said. “That’s a lot of mornings to wake up and say, ‘Will this be the day?’ You have grief when you’re missing someone, you have the certain grief of the unknown.”

So she has volunteered at the New Jersey State Police’s missing persons event each year since it launched in 2017. She’s still hoping someone will come forward, that some clue will shake loose to solve her sister’s death.

But she also hopes those who still know nothing in the case of their missing loved one will find answers of their own.

Greeting those arriving at the event on Rutgers University’s Newark campus Saturday afternoon, Nancy and her husband were joined by others who have been searching for their loved ones. Some are children, missing for decades, others are brothers, sisters, mothers — all gone with barely a trace.

Some cases had evidence and an outpouring of search resources. Others have just a photo, taken long ago.

“It’s almost like wanting to go to a funeral," Hulick said. “You don’t really want to do it. I do this because, it’s just amazing the technology they have today.”

There are around 1,000 unsolved missing persons cases in the state, some dating back to 1969. Police say there are also around 300 identified remains.

At the event, attendees had the opportunity to ask questions of law enforcement, network with other families and even provide DNA samples or report a loved one missing. The day is a reminder from police to the families who feel like their cases languish as the world moves on: We haven’t forgotten.

“I can never understand what you’re going through,” Detective Sgt. Joel Trella of the State Police’s missing persons unit told the crowd. “This day is for you.”

Local authorities, as well as the FBI, set up tables with information. There were forensic experts and a K9 bloodhound. Posters plastered with faces of the missing surrounded the crowd, and a video with their photos, some candids snapped at home, others posed portraits, played during a candlelight celebration.

Some stood to tell the stories of their losses, like Guy Madsen, whose 72-year-old mother Julia Madsen vanished in 2009 when she went for a short walk on the beach in Seaside Park. She had early-stage dementia, but could still get around on her own, he said.

“She’s got no markings on the planet,” Madsen said, noting that no credible clues in her disappearance have emerged over the past decade. He’s bought a cemetery plot for her next to his grandparents, and plans to have a service next month, which marks the 10th anniversary of her disappearance. He’s also offering a $75,000 reward for information regarding his mother.

“We have nothing. I have a hair brush in a Ziploc bag,” he said. “We just want closure.”

Madsen and several others in attendance praised police and the event, and the resources it brought to families.

“I’m committed for as long as they’ll have this. I’ll be here every year to celebrate my mother,” Madsen said. “It’s the only thing I can do.”

Amanda Hoover can be reached at ahoover@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @amandahoovernj. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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