Mother has left home's porch light on for 30 years since her daughter, 20, went missing as she continues to hold out hope
- Darlene Webb vanished after night out with friends in 1983
- Detectives received few leads and her case remains unsolved
- Her mother: 'She's alive somewhere and I just need to find her'
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A mother whose daughter mysteriously vanished 30 years ago has revealed that she has kept her home's porch light on every night since in case the woman returns.
Darlene Webb was 20 years old when she failed to return to the family home in Ormond Beach, Florida after an evening out with friends at a local bar in 1983.
Now, as her family marks three decades since that night, her mother Frances Webb, 74, has revealed she has never given up hope that Darlene is alive and well, and will someday return.
'The front porch light still burns, and it's on every night because the last child is not home,' she told the Daytona Beach News-Journal.
Missing: Darlene Webb was 20 when she failed to come home after a night out with friends in 1983
'If she's passed on, then I'll close the book on it, but until then I'm not closing the book. Mother's gut instincts? She's alive somewhere, and I know she is. I just gotta find her.'
Darlene, who would now be 50, was a student at Daytona Beach Community College and was working at a Chick-fil-A restaurant in the Volusia Mall at the time of her disappearance.
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ShareOn January 22, 1983, she went out with friends but told her mother she would not be having a late night as she was opening the restaurant the next morning.
But the next day, Frances received a call from the manager to say the Chick-fil-A had not opened on time, and asked where her daughter was.
Fighter: Her mother, Frances Webb, says she believes Darlene is still alive and lost her memory
The concerned mother raced to where Darlene's friends said she had parked her car, and there she found her daughter's coat, purse, money and glasses, but no sign of her daughter or her car keys.
'Mother's gut instincts? She's alive somewhere, and I know she is. I just gotta find her'
Frances Webb
The front passenger-side window was also halfway down, the front passenger seat was leaning back and the ashtray was full of cigarette butts - even though Darlene did not smoke.
There were no signs of any struggle at the scene. Friends said that after leaving the bar at 1.30 a.m., they had parted ways and left Darlene, whom they called Dee Dee, to walk to her car alone.
'(Police) think, which I agree with, whoever took her probably, maybe drugged her enough that she lost her memory and she doesn't know who she is,' Frances Webb told the News-Journal.
Detectives turned up only a few leads - but they never amounted to anything. Her Social Security number and birth certificate have not been used since 1983, and the case remains unsolved.
Search: A drawing, left, shows how Darlene might look. She is pictured right before her disappearance
One tip came from a woman who worked at a beer garden close to where Darlene had parked. She told Frances that she heard screams and saw a car driving away with its lights off.
Police admit that the case was complicated by the fact Darlene was an adult, and could have chosen to leave.
The family said they often wonder what the outcome of the investigation would have been if Darlene had vanished today, rather than 30 years ago.
'What bothers me the most is the amount of things that have changed over 30 years,' Darlene's older sister Karen Webb, 51, said.
'Back then, police wouldn't even take a report for 72 hours because at that point, you were an adult, you had a right to disappear. Nowadays, if somebody disappears, you see it on TV immediately.'
Waiting: Frances Webb leaves the porch light on every night outside her Ormond Beach home, pictured
They also believe social media could have played a part in tracking her down, and regularly scour Facebook for any users resembling Darlene. They also regularly update a page they have made for Darlene and their ongoing search to find her.
But they still employ traditional tactics too, putting up posters across the country.
'We still put up pictures and stuff and hope that maybe someday either she or somebody who has seen her will go "oh wait a minute, isn't that you?"' Karen said.
Whatever their method, the family has no plans to give up their search.
'As far as I'm concerned she's not gone,' Frances said.
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