Jennifer Easton

jeaston@mtcngroup.com;

Smart and beautiful with a bright future ahead, Alice Mae Sullivan had everything going for her when she mysteriously vanished. The 20-year-old college student from Gallatin was last seen Aug. 28, 1986, on campus at Tennessee State University.

Each day since, James and Lilly Sullivan have suffered and searched for answers about their daughter's disappearance. Time hasn't lessened their anguish, nor diminished the gaping hole in their lives.

"It's the not knowing that's so hard. You look around and you hope she'll just walk up," said James from the kitchen table of his Gallatin home, where the family has lived since 1977.

"Every time you hear that police found a body somewhere you're right on top of it. Every time you want to call the police and ask if it's her," James said.

Determined to succeed

Alice, a 1985 Gallatin High School graduate, was working part time at Burger King and just beginning her sophomore year at TSU as a business major when she went missing. Despite being a teen mom, she was determined to be the first in her family to graduate from college. Her parents were supportive of her goals, helping to care for her 3-year-old son, Deron, nicknamed Cookie, while Alice worked to pay her way through school and earned excellent grades.

"She'd say, 'Momma, when I finish school you ain't going to want for nothing because I'm going to take care of you.' She used to tell me that all the time," Lilly said, tears flowing as she recalled the close bond she shared with her only daughter.

"We'd talk two or three times a day, seven days a week" Lilly said. "We were like a mom and daughter, sisters and best friends all bound up in one."

Three weeks before she went missing, Alice moved with her boyfriend to Town Terrace Apartments, a mile and a half from TSU on 40th Avenue North. A few days before she disappeared, Alice said she wanted to move back home, get a car and commute to TSU, her parents said.

Last known whereabouts

On the day she disappeared, Alice saw her son off to preschool and attended her 8 a.m. class, which ended around 9:30 a.m. She then visited with friends at Hankal Hall, a female dormitory, between 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. She had a class at 1 p.m. and was due back to her apartment around 2:30 p.m. Friends told investigators that Alice mentioned going to the library, but it's not known if she did. She was last seen by a friend from Gallatin walking near TSU's Gentry Center that afternoon, according to the Sullivans. Alice never made it to her 1 p.m. class.

The Sullivans said something felt "off" on the evening of Aug. 28, 1986. Their daughter called every night, even though calling rates between Gallatin and Nashville were long-distance then. That night there was no call. There was no answer either when James tried several times to reach his daughter after a local newscast announced that "Alice Sullivan" had won a trip.

"I thought maybe she had entered the contest, but I never got an answer and I felt that was strange," James said.

The next morning the Sullivans called again. This time, Alice's boyfriend answered and told them she hadn't come home or picked her son up from his preschool bus stop. A neighbor, who knew Alice from school, signed Cookie off the bus and looked after him until Alice's boyfriend arrived, the Sullivans said.

The Sullivans wondered why her boyfriend hadn't called them if Alice wasn't where she was supposed to be, they said.

The couple immediately headed to Alice's apartment. They were met by Nashville Metro Police who suggested that because Alice was a young college student, she likely had "gone off somewhere" and would soon return, they said.

"She didn't do things like that," Lilly said. "She was (over-protective) when it came to her son; she wouldn't have left him for anything."

Because detectives expected Alice to come back, they allowed the Sullivans to stay in Alice's apartment to wait — something they realize now was a major mistake.

They spent the next several weeks at Alice's apartment waiting for her to come back. Friends from Gallatin helped canvass streets between TSU and the apartment, tacking up missing person posters and looking for clues.

"Nothing ever came up — not her pocketbook, backpack, her ID — nothing," James said.

The investigation seemed at a standstill. The stress and grief overwhelmed the couple. There were times Lilly said she didn't want to go on living.

"I gave up, but I guess (God) said to me, 'You've got to be strong,' " Lilly said.

Fresh look

All these years later, Alice's disappearance is still classified as a missing person's case. The Sullivans don't believe their daughter is alive because she would never have deserted her family. They still hold out hope for answers.

"I never believed anything like that could happen until it happened to my daughter," James said. "How can you disappear off the face of the Earth like that?"

The 27-year time gap creates challenges in solving the case today,but advances in science and technology unavailable to law enforcement in 1986 also give Alice's case new potential to be solved, said Detective Kevin Akin with Metro Nashville Police Department's Homicide and Cold Case Unit.

Akin began taking a fresh look at the cold case in August, rehashing the details of Alice's last days. He felt there were still some avenues and leads that needed to be exhausted, he said.

"I just can't see her walking away and leaving (her son) and never coming back," said Akin, who believes Alice was the victim of foul play.

Akin concedes mistakes were made in the original investigation and that the case likely fell by the wayside over time because of personnel changes or the passing of former detectives involved. Some documents from the original investigation are missing, incomplete, or kept differently than today, he said.

Alice's boyfriend and several others are still being looked at as persons of interest today, including a maintenance man at Town Terrace Apartments who had befriended Alice and is now serving time for rape and murder.

Akin has "strong suspicions" about what he believes transpired, but declined further comment because the case is still an open investigation.

He hopes renewed focus on the case will compel anyone with information to come forward. Tips to police, no matter how seemingly insignificant, are welcome and kept private, Akin said.

"I don't think some people realize with cold cases the smallest, most minute detail may be the one that breaks the case wide open," Akin said.

Grieving hearts

Perhaps the biggest victim in the 27-year mystery is Alice's son, Cookie Workings, who was raised by the Sullivans and now has children of his own. He doesn't like to talk about his mother, but said he remembers she was a good mom.

"I really just try not to think about it so it doesn't bother me," Workings said.

With each day that passes, Alice's family never stops missing her; they never stop looking for answers.

"The pain is always there," Lilly said. "You try to block it out, but you can't and nobody understands how it hurts."

Alice Mae Sullivan

Description: Female, black, 5-foot-2, 90 pounds, black hair, brown eyes

Birthday:Aug. 3, 1966

Missing since:Aug. 28, 1986

Last seen wearing: Black jeans, a black and white shirt, and a black silk jacket.

Tips: Anyone with information about the case can reach Detective Kevin Akin with the Metro Nashville Police Department at 615-862-7366. The Nashville Police Department's Crime Stoppers Division can be reached at 615-74-CRIME.