Vigil held on 15th anniversary of Bradley sisters' disappearance

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Fifteen years ago the Bradley sisters vanished. Over the years there have been massive searches and pleas for information but 10-year-old Tionda and 3-year-old Diamond have never been found. Wednesday night friends and family are holding a vigil for the girls.

"Even though they're adults, we still see them as children. We're stuck in 2001," says Sheila Bradley-Smith, the girls' great aunt.

The family has been stuck in time since July 6, 2001, when Diamond and Tionda Bradley went missing from their South Side home. Arriving from Minneapolis where she now lives, Bradley-Smith and her sister put up posters in the Loop with the girls' pictures from long ago.

"There are hundreds of people. It's a busy day. All it takes is that one person," Bradley-Smith says.

An exhaustive search followed the girls' disappearance. A rotating crew of 100 detectives worked around the clock, searching everywhere, interviewing everyone they could think of. They always came up empty.

Age-progressed photos show what Diamond and Tionda might look like today.

"We do think it was someone that was very close to the family. Through the course of the last 15 years, we've turned so many documents over, and under and upside down, to the point we're just waiting for the next big one to come in," says P. Foster, private investigator.

With no bodies to bury, the belief that the Bradley sisters could be alive remains, and so every year, on the anniversary of their disappearance, the faily comes forward.

"As long as I have air in my body, I'm going to search for them 'til the day I die," says Bradley-Smith.

The sisters would now be 18 and 25 years old. A $10,000 reward is still available for any information about their disappearance.