Ida Madison decided in 2013 she was done talking about her daughter's disappearance.
She thought 25 years of publicly discussing the immeasurable pain of not knowing what happened to your child was more than she wanted to deal with anymore.
March 19, 1988 is always just under the surface.
Stacie Madison drove a yellow 1966 Ford Mustang.
"I kept pacing and looking out the window, hoping to see her drive up," Madison has recalled countless times. "She never did."
Madison expected her then 17-year old daughter to come home from a friends house over spring break in Carrollton.
Stacie Madison and Susan Smalley were seniors at Newman Smith High School in Carrollton. Both vanished.
“We’ve never found any trace at all," Madison said.
The 72-year old mother of three told News 8 on she changed her mind early Sunday and wanted everyone to know about it.
The retired teacher took to Facebook for the first time to share her grief, frustration and hope that someone would come forward with information.
“I’m not going to stop trying to find out what happened – hoping that someone will finally come forward and say ‘I know what happened’," Madison said. "I think there are people out there that know.”
The disappearance shocked the community at a time when Carrollton still had much more of a small town feel, according to Shawn Sutherland.
"That’s the incident in which Carrollton lost its innocence,” Sutherland said.
Sutherland was six years older than both young women. He too graduated from Newman Smith and two decades later wrote "This Night Wounds Time", a book on the disappearance and investigation.
"It was just sort of a calling to speak for somebody that couldn’t speak for themselves," Sutherland said.
For years, Carrollton Police suspected a former boyfriend may have had something to do with the disappearances but there was never any evidence produced linking anyone to a crime.
While the case is considered cold, it is "definitely still open", according to a statement from Carrollton Police to News 8 on Sunday.
"We have reviewed it relatively recently with other agencies as well," according to a CPD spokesperson.