EVERETT — A year after he went missing, detectives are still looking for Jacob Hilkin.
“This is the second-worst day of my life,” his mother Marni Pierce said Wednesday, which marked one year since her son’s disappearance. “The first was a year ago.”
In Hilkin’s childhood room, his bed is made and a stack of clothes she brought back from his rented apartment in Mukilteo are lying folded on the comforter. Pierce said she goes into his room to feel closer to him, and to touch the things he touched last.
Hilkin went to the Quil Ceda Creek Casino with friends late Jan. 22, 2018, and didn’t return to his mother’s house south of Everett.
His family reported him as missing Jan. 23, 2018.
There has been no new information in the year since, Snohomish County sheriff’s spokeswoman Courtney O’Keefe said.
Pierce said she plans to paint the inside of her house soon, but she’s leaving Hilkin’s room as it is because she can’t bear to wash out the memories in his childhood room.
His ceiling is a collage of his interests, with stickers of skateboarding, Bob Marley, Kurt Cobain and music festivals he attended dotting the plaster, she said. Hilkin was 24 when he went missing.
Pierce has tried to piece together what happened in the hours before her son disappeared. She’s been told he was kicked out of the casino with another friend late Jan. 22. That’s when Hilkin reportedly told the friend he would catch a bus home.
A woman later said Hilkin walked into a homeless camp by the casino where he tried to buy heroin. Minutes later, he ran into a Tulalip police officer who was checking camps, according to the sheriff’s office. He showed his ID, and told the officer he’d catch a bus to his mom’s house. There’s no evidence he boarded a bus. He hasn’t been seen or heard from since 10:20 a.m. Jan. 23.
Detectives have followed up on many tips of possible sightings, O’Keefe said. None turned out to be Hilkin.
Pierce said the sightings raised her hopes at first. After about four months of false alarms, she started to lose hope the sightings were legitimate.
“You get to the point where you’ve searched everywhere, and then searched everywhere twice,” she said. “In my heart I just know that something happened.”
Pierce previously said that Hilkin became addicted to heroin in his 20s. A year before he went missing, he went through rehab. He then moved to a house with friends and found a job. After a while, he started showing up late to work. A week before he went missing, he was fired. When his mother cleaned out his room, she saw signs of a relapse. She doesn’t think he was using again for long, she said.
O’Keefe said detectives continue to ask anyone with information to come forward. It may be the lead they need to find Hilkin, she said.
“I just want to bring my son’s body home,” Pierce said.
Pierce continues to post pleas for help on a Facebook page, “Find Jacob Hilkin.” She said she’s still sure that someone must have answers.
“Somebody has (answers). We just have to find them,” she said. “I just hope somebody can find it in their heart to come forward.”
Tips can be directed to the sheriff’s office at 425-388-3845. Hilkin has brown hair and eyes, is 5-foot-11, 160 pounds and always wears eyeglasses.
Julia-Grace Sanders: 425-339-3439; jgsanders@heraldnet.com.
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