Zaylee Grace Fryar should be celebrating her 13th birthday this year, but police don’t know if she is dead or alive.
At just four-months-old, Zaylee vanished and her mother’s body was found in the Cumberland River in Nashville.
Now, seven years later, investigators are still focused on the little girl’s case.
Millersville Assistant Police Chief Dustin Carr told News 2 even though the case has gone cold, he and his department is not giving up.
“This is a high priority case for this department, any information or any lead we get, we get we follow-up on them thoroughly,” Carr said.
Those leads, though, so far have gone nowhere.
“There’s a lot of strange circumstances surrounding this case. A lot of things don’t make sense,” Carr told News 2.
It was May 1, 2011, when Baby Zaylee and her mother Shauna Fryar went missing.
Shauna’s husband, Michael Fryar, who is not Zaylee’s biological father, reported them missing four days later.
They were last seen at a trailer park in Millersville.
After Shauna’s body was found in the Cumberland River, police ruled her death a homicide.
“We found some DNA evidence that leads us to believe Shauna’s death was a homicide,” the assistant chief said.
Still, the question remains, where is Zaylee?
“At this point, we’re assuming that she is alive until we know otherwise. We are working as it’s a missing person case,” Carr said.
Carr said Zaylee’s case is getting a new set of eyes.
“We have two new detectives that we’ve recently assigned the case and we’re going to have them to take a look at it,” he said.
Carr continued, “[It’s] very strange and that’s the reason we have put so much time and effort in this case. I mean, we definitely want to bring closure to the family of Zaylee, and as well as Shauna. There is still family out there for both the individuals. At this point, our goal is to find Zaylee.”
An AMBER Alert also remains active for Zaylee.
If alive, Zaylee would now be seven-years-old and in the second grade.
“Maybe a teacher will see something suspicious, watch this and want to place a phone call to us to follow up with something,” Carr said.
Michael Fryar was considered a person of interest in the case. He died earlier this year.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is assisting in the investigation.
Zaylee has a quarter size birthmark on her right leg.
Anyone with information on her whereabouts is urged to call the Millersville Police Department at 615-859-2758, the TBI at 1-800-TBI-FIND or the Center for Missing and Exploited Children at 1-800-THE-LOST.
