There’s a new push to solve a decades old cold case.
Kim Nguyen vanished from his Garland home exactly 32 years ago.
The eight-year-old was found days later but the homicide remains unsolved.
“Somebody knows something,” said Rudolph Nguyen, father of Kim Nguyen.
Pink ribbons in front of the family’s home on Thornhill Road bring color to a dark time for Rudolph.
“I have nightmare sometimes. Sometimes when I sleep, I see my son,” he said.
Kim, the youngest of three siblings, was a non-verbal child with autism who adored the Pink Panther cartoon.
“He was very smart, so he sees Pink Panther do smart things,” said Rudolph.
After a long night of work at his electronics shop, Rudolph says he woke up on the morning of July 18, 1993 and Kim was nowhere to be found.
Hundreds of people spent days searching creeks, fields and vacant lots.
NBC 5 video shows of police in 1993 at the Nguyen’s home days after the disappearance, delivering the shirt found that Kim was last seen wearing.
But Kim never made it home.
He was discovered about 12 miles away in a field in Mesquite.
“We worked hard. We just wanted to find him,” one tearful search volunteer told NBC 5 after the discovery.
How Kim disappeared remains a mystery, but his family believes he may have walked out the family’s front door down a sidewalk to watch cars pass by, which he enjoyed doing, then got in a car with a stranger.
Kim’s death is classified as a homicide though the family says they know few details.
Three decades later, the car driven by his brother Michael Nguyen is a billboard to find Kim’s killer.
“I would take his place in a second. I would switch places right now if I could do that,” said Michael Nguyen.
Carissa Dutton is a councilmember in the City of Garland which just proclaimed Friday as Kim Nguyen Day.
“You hear about 30-year-old cold cases, they get publicized and now all the sudden someone’s come back with some information, and they solve it. So we are fingers-crossed that’s what happens,” said Dutton.
Whether it takes luck or new leads, the Nguyens say they want the case solved.
“If somebody killed my son, they go and kill again, so we have to stop them,” said Rudolph.
Garland police the case remains open but that they’ve exhausted all leads. They say with no new leads coming in they’re looking to the public for more information.
Crime Stoppers is offering up to a $5,000 reward in connection to the case.
Great Job Meredith Yeomans & the Team @ NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth Source link for sharing this story.
