Diane Yayoe Suzuki, 19, had her whole life ahead of her.
The University of Hawaii student and talented dance teacher and performer went missing on July 6, 1985.
"She was seen teaching her class at five minutes to 3 p.m. and her class ends at 3 o'clock and at 3:15 when her friend went to go look for her she was gone already," said Honolulu City Prosecutor Keith Kaneshiro.
Diane's purse, keys and car were still there but she was nowhere to be found.
Police initially launched a missing person investigation which was later passed to sex assault detail.
The case was eventually reclassified to a homicide.
"There is a big question what is the cause of death," said Kaneshiro.
Police suspected a photographer who worked at the dance studio and searched the area near his home, but without a body and no substantial evidence the investigation went cold.
"No one was arrested," said Kaneshiro.
More than a decade later Kaneshiro, who was a close friend of the family and city prosecutor, gathered nearly 100 witnesses and the possible suspect to testify before an investigative grand jury. Four full days, hundreds of hours of testimony with new technology revealing blood in the dance studio bathroom and and still not enough evidence.
"You have to have evidence of proof beyond a reasonable doubt to convict at trial. You have to have evidence of probably cause to arrest someone."
Now 25 years later Diane's mother has passed and her 89-year-old father still wonders why.
"Why, just why, he kept asking why, why did it happen, why did it happen to be her?" said Susan Suzuki, Diane's sister.
Each night after Diane went missing her family kept the porch light on in case their baby came home.
"We had a very outside chance but the hope that she would return to us," said Suzuki.
It took 13 years until her family held her funeral and still pieces of a broken heart never really heal.
"I remember her, her innocence and her laughter."
The family hopes someone will eventually give them the pieces to the puzzle that have left them baffled for so many years.
"Someone with a personal note that said this is what happened, so my dad can have some peace with it," said Suzuki.
"A case is never too old to investigate to try and to convict the person I have that eternal hope that we can eventually solve this case," said Kaneshiro.
If you have any information contact CrimeStoppers at #955-8300.
