Sarah Taddeo

MACEDON – Early 1994. Sandra Cervone Sollie calls her nephew Christopher Glow and says she's excited to be pregnant. She tells him she's proud of him because he stopped drinking. She says she wants to see his new place in Buffalo. Then she says goodbye.

May 23, 1994. Sollie, 38 and pregnant, leaves her house with her purse and her poodle Jessie. Her home is in order, her dog's food bowl is full, and her calendar is full of prenatal doctor's appointments.

Sollie was never seen again.

After 20 years of helicopter and diving searches, newspaper articles, community events and police investigations, no reliable information has ever been found to explain how or why Sollie vanished that Monday afternoon.

But Glow and Richard Ingraham, a private investigator who took this case 18 years ago, say they will never give up hope.

Glow, of Corning, Steuben County, was 22 when Sollie, his mother Donna's little sister, disappeared without a trace. Twenty years later, he hoped to reignite police and community searches by holding a remembrance day event Friday in Macedon with family, friends and law enforcement, he said.

"We have to give her the dignity she deserves," Glow said. "Since there hasn't been a funeral and people want answers, I wanted to have an event where people can celebrate her life rather than mourn."

Donna Neth, Sandra's older sister by three years, felt that something was wrong when Sollie's new neighbor called in June 1994, looking for Sollie at her mother Nancy Cervone's house.

"We said, 'No, Sandy's not here,' " Neth said. "And at that moment, I knew."

June 2, 1994. Sollie's landlord and family report her missing after she uncharacteristically misses doctor's appointments and doesn't make rent. Neighbors say they last saw Sollie on May 23 leaving her duplex at 11 State Route 350 in Macedon, where she lived with her dog and her unborn baby — named Brandon Michael — who was due on August 15.

Sollie's mother, Nancy, passed away in 2008, and with her father, Dominic, getting up in years, Glow said he wanted to bring the family together around Sollie's memory.

He approached Macedon Mayor Marie Cramer about holding an event, and Cramer arranged to have a banner hung near a main intersection of Macedon to commemorate Sollie's life and ask people to come out to Friday's vigil, Glow said.

June 22, 1994. Police trace Sollie's credit cards, finding that over $1,100 had been charged on one of the cards by three to six men in the Rochester area. Police say these men were not involved in Sollie's disappearance. A 9-year-old finds her wallet in a hedge on North Street in Rochester. Jessie's dog tags are found in a trash can in a Penfield car wash.

"The family came to me and said, 'What can you do to help us?' " said Cramer, who made a banner bearing Sollie's picture to hang in Macedon during the month of May every year. "I'm just so happy that they came to me, so I can help the community remember her."

Cramer was elected to office in 2012, but remembers the first news of the disappearance just after she moved to Macedon in 1993. "The community was traumatized by this," she said. "Whether you knew her or not, you were affected."

July 8, 1994. The Newark Police Department receives a call from a woman who says she saw a body floating in the Erie Canal behind the Cannery Row shopping plaza in Newark, Wayne County. Police scuba divers search for six hours — nothing.

Ingraham, of Henrietta, said he has handed out fliers detailing Sollie's description and disappearance every year on May 23 for the past 18 years.

He first heard of the case in 1996, when an in-depth story of Kali Ann Poulton — a 4-year-old who disappeared on the same day as Sollie and was found dead two years later — aired on television. Sollie got a small amount of coverage in comparison, he said.

"I said to my wife that it was too bad they didn't pay attention to the adult case, because that family is suffering, too," Ingraham said. He decided to offer his services to the family pro bono.

October 1996. The State Police Violent Crime Interdiction team, specializing in homicides and missing person cases, starts working on Sollie's case. Ingraham interviews Sollie's family after they agree to take his services for $1.

"I've worked with four different police investigators on this case, and we've gotten leads but nothing concrete," he said. The New York State Police were heavily involved in the case when the disappearance first happened, said State Police Lt. Barry Chase. Events like Friday's vigil often bring in leads by jogging memories, he said.

"People will say, 'I didn't say anything 20 years ago, but I remember this or that,' " Chase said. "Whenever we republicize something, it brings in leads. Whether they pan out or not is unknown."

With fresher cases coming in every day, the police don't have the resources to continue to follow a cold case, Ingraham said.

"Time does hurt, because the public starts to forget about it," Ingraham said. "But I'm like a thorn in their side … I'm not going to let them forget."

May 1999. Police say the potential culprit probably went to the car wash to erase evidence. Ingraham consults a psychic, who reveals details about the disappearance that Ingraham says he won't disclose. He hands out fliers in Macedon on the fifth anniversary of Sollie's disappearance.

Ingraham, Cramer and the family gathered around Sollie's banner Friday in Macedon under a cloudy sky. Cramer handed out white candles to light, and Glow gave everyone balloons to set free at the end of the vigil.

"Remember, Sandra's still missing and she needs you," Cramer said. "This event is to let her know we are still thinking of her."

Glow said Sollie was the aunt who helped him with homework and played with him and the family dogs — Milo, a miniature Pinscher with braces, and Jessie, Sollie's poodle. "If I wanted to talk to her about stuff, I could talk to her, without someone telling me I was wrong," he said.

Cindy Pappert of Webster was pregnant at the same time as Sollie — Pnappert's baby was due three days before Sollie's. When Sollie missed Pappert's baby shower, "I assumed she just wasn't feeling well," Pappert said. "I didn't try to call."

No matter what, Sandra was always happy, said Neth, who shared a room with Sollie in their childhood home in Oakfield, Genesee County. "She was just a go-getter," Neth said. "Nothing could get her down."

May 2002.State Police say the investigation is "actively ongoing," and they are working on several leads. Ingraham hands out fliers in Macedon.

Neth said she hasn't felt closure on this case, and feels that Sollie may still be alive somewhere. "Sometimes I still smell her perfume, and I just feel in my heart that she's still going," she said. "But the problem is that I don't know. Nobody knows."

But Ingraham said he thinks someone does know what happened to Sollie, and he hopes that the remembrance event will cause that person to come forward. "This case has become very personal to me," he said. "I've become part of this family, and I want to close this case out for their sake."

Chase said because this case is still an active investigation, police cannot disclose potential suspects. Family and friends say there are theories about who did it, but no one knows for sure and there is no evidence to prove anything.

May 2011. Ingraham tells newspapers he gets "few calls" on the Sollie case, but that he isn't ready to say goodbye to her memory. He hands out fliers. And hopes.

Friday's attendees wrote messages to Sollie on the yellow and pink balloons and tied pictures of her to the trailing ribbons. On Cramer's cue, the group released the balloons and stood watching as they disappeared into the rain.

STADDEO@Gannett.com

Twitter.com/sjtaddeo