From a mother’s heart

He was born Ira Lee Briscoe on a summer day in June twenty-seven years ago, to a down-to-earth, country couple who lived a simple life. He was their only son. This is this story of one Mother's painful quest of finding her missing boy.

I recently sat down with Marilyn Briscoe to hear her side of the story in hopes of tugging at some heartstrings for answers. It has been almost 600 days since Ira went missing. All of those days have been hard. All of those days have changed this family forever. They are broken.  As of today, they do not know anything more than they knew since day one. This is not every mother's worst nightmare. This is Marilyn's real-life nightmare with no end in sight. 

Marilyn has remained active in the search for her son. Every tip she receives, she investigates with only the help of family and friends. They have combed through dump sites, once finding a rib cage which was turned over to the police. A text led them to a cave where Ira's body was said to be. Marilyn (in her early 60's and with a bad back) got down on her hands and knees and crawled into the cave searching, but it was another dead end.  Many other outings have all proven unsuccessful too, but each tip, text, or email gets investigated by Marilyn, who at this point just wants closure and the truth.  The "Bring Ira Home" movement on Facebook continues to grow weekly with over 1,500 locals helping to spread the word to keep this story alive.

But, in this mother's heart, Marilyn fears her baby boy is gone. 

It was hard for Marilyn to talk about this case without tears flowing and anger over what she describes as the lack of concern from many local authorities, so we talked about Ira. 

Ira Lee Briscoe was a son first, always there for his family.  He is also a father to a little boy who doesn't understand where his daddy is. Ira loved people, mainly the older generation and he admired the Amish. He was a country boy at heart, loved to go hunting with his daddy, fishing with his son and he loved playing the guitar. His best friends were his Mom and sister. He talked to them to them every day. He was a fighter, beating cancer as a child. Ira was also a big hugger and very close to God. Ira is a person who deserves all efforts made into finding him and closing this case. But, this case doesn't end here.  Another man, Limon Little went missing the same time as Ira did, they were roommates. To date there are 10 others still missing in Howell County, all unsolved. Y 

No mother should have to take charge in a criminal case, let alone go out hunting for leads, following tips, and dealing with false hope.

We are a small community, someone, somewhere knows what happened. 

That is true not just for this case, but with all the missing cases from our area. Marilyn is passionate about them all being found and returned to their families. The Briscoes just want Ira home. This is their painful plea. From a mother's heart, please pray that these families are reunited and that the truth will prevail.  A mother's love never dies.