At the time, family wondered whether she had fled from her husband, Robert Alexander, and sought help at a women’s shelter. Morris, her oldest daughter, called them all.

“All they would say is, 'If she’s here, she is going to have to contact you herself,'" she said. “At that point, it kind of gave us a little bit of hope.”

Amy Evans, executive director of Friendship Home, a Lincoln shelter, sympathized with the heartache Marilyn Alexander's family felt, but said the danger domestic violence victims face makes secrecy essential.

"I just can't imagine what that must have been like for her to so desperately be looking for her mother and not be able to get the answers that she needed," Evans said. "However, we as a domestic violence shelter can't know who the person calling actually is and whether the victim would want information disclosed to that person."

Evans said if the Friendship Home knows how to contact a person whose family is looking for them, staff will pass on a message and ask whether it's OK to give a message back to the person who called.

The month before Alexander disappeared, she had suffered a cut going through a glass door of a gun cabinet during a fight with Robert. He wouldn’t let her get it treated at a hospital.