It's Dawnita Wilkerson's birthday. Here's where the missing Evansville woman's case stands

EVANSVILLE – Tuesday is Dawnita Wilkerson’s birthday.

In the past, her family would celebrate with a big cookout or dinner. They’re a large group, Dawnita’s aunt Faye Cardin said, and they don’t “half-ass” anything.

But any observation of Wilkerson’s birthday will be a somber one. The Evansville woman and mother, who would be turning 47 years old, remains missing after she was last seen in grainy surveillance footage from an East-Side Evansville motel climbing into a gray Chevy SUV in June 2020.

Cardin said the family recently met with the Evansville detective in charge of the case. And even though they believe Dawnita is likely dead, they keep pushing for every scrap of information they can get.

Here’s where the case stands.

More:Dawnita Wilkerson's family frustrated by recent lack of police communication

Still an ‘active investigation’

After months of trying to set up a meeting, the family met with Detective Aaron McCormick in February, Cardin said.

He couldn’t share many details, which the family understands, but he confirmed that the investigation into Dawnita’s disappearance is still open.

Evansville police spokeswoman Sgt. Anna Gray told the Courier & Press that "investigators are continuously following up on leads and have interviewed several people."

Still, few answers have emerged since the day Wilkerson vanished. According to the FBI’s missing persons flyer, she was last spotted at 8:16 p.m. on June 21, 2020. Pictures on the flyer show her standing outside a gray, or pewter, 2004 Chevy Suburban next to a Black man in a white ball cap.

Police have identified and questioned that man, but he has refused to cooperate, former Detective Jeff Hands told the Courier & Press in 2021.

“Her family reported her missing when she didn’t call her mother or her daughters, as she usually did,” the flyer reads. “Dawnita has several medical conditions that require medication that she is without.”

From the motel, police believe Dawnita was driven into Southern Illinois. A map obtained by the family and shown to the Courier & Press shows Wilkerson’s phone pinging in five spots in and around Carbondale just after she disappeared.

“Dawnita’s phone was shut off by the next morning,” the flyer reads.

In 2021, three people who knew Wilkerson told the Courier & Press that she was afraid for her life around the time of her disappearance. She’d received threatening messages from two men – one of whom she dated off and on. The morning before she disappeared, she reportedly texted a friend and said she was with both of them.

Bite marks and a separate case

The family is also concerned about a case working through the Vanderburgh County court system, Cardin said.

Earlier this year, a man – who the Courier & Press isn’t naming since he hasn’t been charged in connection to Wilkerson’s disappearance – was arrested and accused of two counts of rape, as well as other charges.

Family members say details from the affidavit mirror injuries they say the man inflicted upon Wilkerson several years ago, including bite marks to her shoulder. Cardin gave an old picture of Wilkerson to the Courier & Press that she said showed bruising from the bite marks.

Gray said despite the active investigation, there are no official persons of interest in the disappearance.

How is the family doing?

Cardin gets up at 4 a.m. to go to work. By 4:30, she might be receiving texts from friends or family speculating on a possible lead. Wilkerson's disappearance looms over them everywhere they go.

“You have a good day,” she said. “And the next day is not a good day.”

The family, including Dawnita’s kids, are hanging in there. But holidays and birthdays – and even certain foods Dawnita used to whip up – bring a flood of memories and remind them their loved one is gone.

Still, they continue to fight. They’re offering a $5,000 reward for information on Dawnita’s whereabouts, and they urge the family members of other missing people to join them at rallies and events.

Anyone with information on Dawnita Wilkerson’s disappearance can call Evansville police at 812-436-7979, the FBI Indianapolis Field Office at 317-595-4000, or email finddawnitawilkerson@gmail.com.

Days before Dawnita's birthday, several family member sent birthday messages to the Courier & Press. Rita Wilkerson said she was "missed terribly," while her aunt Nora Martin hoped Dawnita felt "all the love that is being shown in your absence."

"I miss your morning calls (and) the laughter in your voice when you had something funny to say," Cardin wrote. "You are somewhere and we will keep looking for you."

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Here's where a missing Evansville woman's case stands