Jerry Lee Cushey Jr. You can help If you have information about the disappearance of Jerry Cushey, please contact investigator Jan Chico at 724-366-3188 or state police in Belle Vernon at 724-929-6262.

This weekend, Jerry Cushey Jr. would have celebrated his 35th birthday.

He is spoken of in the past tense because his family believes Jerry is dead.

They have worked tirelessly for closure, for the Christian burial they believe Jerry deserves, but loved ones say they have been foiled and frustrated at every turn by a police investigation they say was mishandled from the start.

"I have cried so many tears so many nights," said Sonya Helmantoler of Monongahela, Jerry's older sister by 15 months. "I don't know why they won't do anything with this case. I will not go away. I want to know what happened."

Jerry disappeared five years ago on the day he was moving into a new apartment with an old acquaintance, Christopher Myers. The pair made plans to move into an apartment above a tattoo business that Mr. Myers owned, Totally Tattoos on Second Street in Monongahela.

Jerry didn't go to work on Oct. 12, 2001, because he planned to do some work on the apartment with Mr. Myers, according to family members. He picked up his paycheck from the local construction company he worked for and cashed it at a local beer distributor after making plans with some co-workers to meet at a local social club later that night.

Jerry never made the rendezvous with his co-workers, and was last seen by a friend outside the tattoo shop early in the evening.

Since that time, Mr. Myers has been arrested for impersonating Jerry in phone calls to his mother and police, a possible eyewitness has come forward and new evidence has been unearthed by a private investigator, but no arrests have been made in Jerry's disappearance to the dismay of his family.

In the days after Jerry vanished, a Jeep Wrangler that Jerry often borrowed from his father was returned to the home of the elder Mr. Cushey, who saw a man who was not his son park the vehicle in his yard.

When family members asked Mr. Myers where Jerry was, they said he told them Jerry stole his van and $1,500. He reported the van missing on Oct. 16, 2001, but the vehicle had already been found the day before by West Virginia police over an embankment near Cheat Lake. A stick was lodged against the accelerator and a tree kept the van from plunging into a stream.

During the next several weeks, Jerry's mother, Ilona Boyd, along with the Pennsylvania State Police and Union Township police, received several phone calls from a person claiming to be Jerry and giving several excuses as to why he left town, including that he was going to Arizona with a girlfriend and that he owed someone $10,000 and was living in West Virginia. The voice was not Jerry's, Mrs. Boyd said.

Mr. Myers made the phone calls, state police later determined. Police charged him in October 2004 with three counts of tampering with evidence for impersonating Jerry and one count of obstructing the administration of law or other governmental functions for secretly returning Jerry Cushey Sr.'s Jeep the day after Jerry Jr.'s disappearance, then denying it.

When confronted by police about returning the Jeep, Mr. Myers said: "OK. In the beginning I denied it because I was scared. I just didn't want to get involved," according to a criminal complaint filed by police.

In the complaint, Mr. Myers also commented about being caught placing the crank phone calls: "Okay. You were on me hard," said Mr. Myers, who has a juvenile criminal record for burglary. "I knew that because of my prior past. I was trying to get you guys off of me, not to look at me. I know I look bad."

When Mr. Myers was arraigned on the criminal charges, he was jailed on a $75,000 straight cash bond, but a month later, the bond was dropped by Washington County Common Pleas Court Judge Katherine Emery. Mr. Myers was released on his own recognizance with the condition that he report weekly to state police.

It's unclear if Mr. Myers has kept up his part of the bargain, but court records show numerous trial continuances requested by his lawyer.

Beginning in October 2005, Mr. Myers' lawyer, Dianne Zerega, has requested and been granted five delays, citing ongoing cooperation with the county district attorney's office.

In court papers filed Oct. 6, 2005, Ms. Zerega asked the court for a continuance, stating: "The defendant came to an agreement with the district attorney's office which has not been completed."

A month later, on Nov. 2, 2005, Ms. Zerega requested and was granted a continuance for the same reason, and on May 22, 2006, court filings by Ms. Zerega state: "The defendant has not completed his activity for the commonwealth."

On Sept. 6, 2006 and Nov. 21, 2006, Ms. Zerega had appealed to county Common Pleas Court Judge John DiSalle for more continuances, stating that Mr. Myers has entered plea agreement negotiations with the district attorney's office.

None of the records include details of Mr. Myers' cooperation.

His next hearing before Judge DiSalle is scheduled for Feb. 26, 2007.

Mr. Myers and District Attorney John C. Pettit could not be reached for comment, and Ms. Zerega declined comment.

Jerry's family can't understand why Mr. Myers hasn't been charged in Jerry's disappearance, or why more information about other possible suspects hasn't been forthcoming since his arrest more than two years ago.

State police Cpl. Brian Barnhart said he couldn't disclose Mr. Myers' level of cooperation, but said he has sympathy for the Cushey family.

"I feel terrible for them," he said. "It's very difficult."

Cpl. Barnhart said the investigation still is active and interviews are ongoing.

Jerry's family has gone to incredible lengths to find the answers that still elude them, including consulting five psychics and undertaking an investigation of their own.

The family raised $3,500 during a fund-raiser to hire a private investigator, but said they "never received a shred of paper" from the Pittsburgh agency. This summer, they consulted private investigator Jan Chico of Newell, Fayette County, who has taken on the case at no charge.

Ms. Helmantoler said Ms. Chico has been indispensable to the case, gathering new evidence and information that hopefully will yield results.

The family continues to hang missing posters on utility poles in Monongahela, Charleroi, and outside of another tattoo business Mr. Myers owns in Connellsville.

"They will always see my brother's face," Ms. Helmantoler said.

The family pushed police to search Cheat Lake, along with the Monongahela River, which was scoured last summer, but the family also has formed and organized search parties that provided police with possible evidence, such as an Adidas ball cap they believe Jerry was wearing.

Ms. Helmantoler took a four-week leave of absence from work and, along with several members of her family, spent every day searching the area near Cheat Lake where Mr. Myers' van was found. They came up with several items, including rubber gloves and a towel covered with an unknown substance. Ms. Helmantoler said they turned the items over to police but never heard anything more about them.

Most recently, Ms. Helmantoler sent a mass mailing to local and state politicians and government officials requesting help in the case. Several sent back responses, she said, and indicated they would try to assist.

She also sent a complaint to the state Judicial Review Board over the continued delays in Mr. Myers' case. The agency said it would investigate.

Ms. Helmantoler said it took several weeks for her brother's apartment to be searched once he was reported missing, and her family continues to be frustrated over the weeks and months it takes for police to follow up on leads that they believe are important.

Ms. Helmantoler said it's not fair that her brother's killer continues to roam free while her family got together yesterday to celebrate Jerry's birthday without him yet again.

"I'm at my wits end now," she said. "We just have that empty seat. It's not fair."

Ms. Helmantoler is convinced her brother is dead because she felt his spirit visit her once while she was standing in her kitchen. Since then, he signals her and other family members by dropping dimes in shoes, pockets and other unexpected locations, she said.

"He told me I would bring him home when it was time," she said. "And, that's when I knew he was gone. We still had hope, but I knew then."

A family member recently installed a memorial stone for Jerry in the Venetia Cemetery between the graves of his uncle and cousin so the family would have a place to visit until his remains are located.

"I believe the time is coming close," she said. "I have promised my family members that I would bring him home."

In the meantime, Ms. Helmantoler tries to keep a positive outlook by sponsoring monthly teen dances at the Finleyville Community Center in honor of her brother, who she said "always wanted to do something like that."

"This is something he would have loved to have done," she said.