Leona Kinsey has been missing under mysterious circumstances for nine years, but she hasn’t been forgotten.

Friends and family of Kinsey, who vanished from the La Grande area on or about Monday, Oct. 25, 1999, plan a gathering in her memory at 2 p.m. Saturday at Riverside Park. They hope the memorial ceremony will keep interest in the case alive.

“Her family and friends are going to be there to say, ‘We didn’t forget and we are still looking,'” said Crystal Burnell, who grew up a close friend of Kinsey’s daughter, Carolyn DeFord.

Kinsey, who was 45 when she disappeared, ran a local landscaping and yard care business. DeFord said at the time of the disappearance her mother was working hard and left behind a date book that showed she was booked for a whole week.

Kinsey had a dog and cat she doted on. Following the disappearance, the pets were found unharmed at Kinsey’s Hall Street residence.

According to a report in The Observer, Kinsey’s boyfriend, a man identified only as “Lonnie,” said he last saw her about 4:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 25. Other friends reported seeing her at Wal-Mart around the same time.

Kinsey’s brown GMC Jimmy showed up the following Friday morning in the parking lot at Albertsons. A manager there said he didn’t believe the vehicle was in the lot overnight.

Police said the Jimmy yielded no clues. They said there was no sign of foul play in or around the vehicle.

Carolyn DeFord lived in Lacey, Wash., at the time and now resides in Georgia. She said this week she doesn’t think her mother simply walked off from her life in La Grande.

“She had lived in Eastern Oregon 25 years and she loved it. She loved the lifestyle, the hunting, the fishing, the camping, all the outdoor activities. She wouldn’t have just walked away,” she said, adding that her mother loved the dog and cat and would not have abandoned them.

DeFord said she hopes the fact that a memorial is being held will “get people talking and jog some memories.”

“I’m willing to bet there are people in La Grande who have information that could help bring closure. We want closure, we’re ready for closure. It’s been nine years and that’s too long to constantly wonder what’s happening,” she said.

She added, “When I was a kid growing up there, I couldn’t sneak out of the house to go skating or whatever without the whole town knowing about it. It’s hard to understand how something like this this can happen and nobody knows anything.”

Sgt. John Shaul, a detective with the La Grande Police Department, investigated the case in 1999 and 2000, then rotated back into the patrol division. Recently reassigned as a detective, he has charge of the case again.

“It’s a case that’s stayed with me,” he said.

He said the department has continued with the investigation, and welcomes any help from the public.

“We’ve done a large number of interviews, and it’s still an open case. We’d be happy to get more information,” he said.

Shaul said information received will be treated as confidential. He can be reached at 963-1017.

Kinsey was a Native American woman described as 5-foot-5, 110 pounds, with brown eyes and long, shoulder-length brown hair. She wore glasses. She had a tattoo of two crossed feathers on one

shoulder.