Five years later: Family searches for missing mother and child

Emily Suarez and dozens more were on the corner of Debary Avenue and Deltona Boulevard on Tuesday afternoon passing out flyers and asking for help.

The flyers have the pictures of 28-year-old Yessenia Suarez on them and her two kids, Thalia and Michael Elijah. All three were last seen October 23rd, 2013. Five years later, the family is still searching.

“It’s always in the back of our minds, did they suffer?” Suarez said. “I get emotional talking about it but we're strong.”

Yessenia’s husband, Luis Toledo, is now serving three consecutive life prison sentences for their deaths. Despite a massive two-county wide search, the mother and two children were never found.

“She was a good sister, a good daughter; she was a good person.” said Yessenia’s Aunt Daisy. 

The family said Tuesday that they hope the public can help bring the search to an end. "If they've seen anything, if they know anything, it's been five years so it's been quite a long time, but anything will help.”

Suarez’s sister, Emily, is now three months pregnant. She’s emotional thinking that she can’t share this experience with her big sister. She said that “I’m not going to have those memories to share with her. It’s just hard not knowing where they're are.”