On the afternoon of Oct. 30, 1998, Kimberly Arrington left her home and walked the short distance to the CVS Pharmacy on Forest Avenue in Montgomery to pick up some candy and soda.

The 16-year-old never made it to the store. She disappeared without a trace.

Nearly 17 years later, her family is still searching for answers.

The Arrington family was one of a handful that participated in Alabama's inaugural Missing Persons Day, which involved law enforcement training and counseling for families of missing persons. The event was coordinated by the Alabama Attorney General's Office, the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office and the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUS).

Nearly 170 Alabamians are missing, said Louis Zook, the Alabama Attorney General's law enforcement coordinator, but at today's event law enforcement from across the state and families of the missing are able to coordinate and share resources.

"These missing people are not just cases, they are the loved ones of hundreds of citizens of Alabama," he said. "It is time to bring them home."

Bailey said he would consider the event a success if at least one missing person's case was solved.

During the event, families could provide DNA samples to aid in the search and identification of their loves ones.

Kimberly Arrington's father, Walter, said he is still in shock over the disappearance of his daughter.

"I have been up and down for years," he said, describing the emotional toil Kimberly's disappearance had on him.

Her sister, Jennifer Arrington Youngblood, was 14 years old when her sister went missing. She described not knowing what happened to her older sister as "very stressful."

"She asked me to walk to the store with her," Jennifer said, but for some reason she didn't. She said her sister, who was in 10th grade at Jefferson Davis High School, had severe allergies and liked to stay inside. She wasn't involved with an older man, and it wouldn't have been like her to run away from home.

Youngblood said her sister's case was featured on almost every talk show, a decade or more ago, from "Nancy Grace" to "Maury."

There were never any concrete leads, though, and no evidence that Kimberly ever made it to the CVS.

Youngblood suspects her sister may have been picked up by a human trafficker, and that she may be living somewhere else now.

To honor her sister, Youngblood named her 11-year-old daughter, Kimberly.

Walter heard from a psychic who said Kimberly is still alive and has two children, but she doesn't remember her life before she was taken.

See related: Where is my daughter? Decade-old mystery tortures Montgomery mother