By MADDY VITALE
Jen Powell does not believe that her son, John Weisbecker, who disappeared from their Ocean City home in 2009, is alive.
But she holds onto hope that one day, someone will come forward and finally tell authorities what happened to him.
Monday marked the 15th anniversary of Weisbecker’s disappearance and still the case goes unsolved.
“I don’t call police. I wait for them to call. I think it’s been a couple of years since I’ve heard from them,” Powell said in an interview Monday. “I know they’ve gone above and beyond. They’ve brought in new people to look at stuff. They’ve relooked at stuff, and it comes back to no one saying anything.”
Weisbecker vanished from the home he shared with his mother and sister, Jordan, at 205 Asbury Ave.
He was 21 years old, 6-foot-2 with brown hair, a mustache and blue eyes. He had numerous tattoos on his torso and arms at the time of his disappearance.
This house on the 200 block of Asbury Avenue is where Weisbecker lived with his family.
Police believed someone else was with Weisbecker at the house when he disappeared. Authorities said that there were signs of a struggle inside the home. There was overturned furniture and it appeared that Weisbecker did not go willingly.
A postal worker saw Weisbecker that morning. After that, the 2006 graduate of Ocean City High School just seemed to vanish.
There are no answers. No clues. No suspects that Powell is aware of and she wants answers.
And her grief remains intense, despite 15 years rolling by. Each day, not just anniversaries of his disappearance, there is a yearning to know what happened and sadness in Powell. But the love for her son and the memories don’t fade, she said.
“He liked cooking. He thought about becoming a chef and going to community college for culinary school,” she said, her voice filled with emotion. “The saddest part is we will never know what he could have been.”
She recalled her son and daughter playing video games together and how he was a good older brother to his sister.
“He would pretend that she won the video games. Jordan told me that later. He was a good brother and a good son," Powell noted.
She carries on for her daughter, Jordan, 32, a married mother of two, who has a 6-year-old boy and 4-year-old daughter. The family lives out of the area and Powell goes to visit them as often as possible.
Powell, who moved from Ocean City in 2010 and lives in Atlantic County, just went to visit her family.
“I go on because of them. But it doesn’t take the grief away. You grieve the same. Jordan has her family too and that takes up her time,” she said.
Every once in a while, she sees her son in her grandson, she said.
“I see John in him sometimes -- just a glimpse. Something he will do will remind me of John,” Powell said.
She continues to hold onto hope that one day she will know what happened to her son and she holds no ill feelings toward law enforcement for not solving the crime.
“I have the utmost respect for police and everything that they’ve tried to do. It would never be that the police didn’t do everything they could,” she said. “They tried everything. It’s more that people who are out there need to step up. Whoever knows what happened, needs to go to the police.”
When asked if there was any thought that her son could be alive, she said, “I don’t think so. I pray. But, I don’t think so. I think somebody hurt him, but I don’t know. You hate to say that as a mom.”
She has waited 15 years for some resolution, some closure.
“The time will come, when people who know what happened will tell the police. I need to know what happened. That is all that I want,” Powell said, her voice cracking with emotion. “It’s about time to let us have some peace.”
John Weisbecker at age 19. (Photo courtesy of Jen Powell)
