ATLANTA — Leading up to the 21st anniversary of her daughter’s disappearance, a mother is pleading for answers as she continues to yearn for the safe return of her daughter.
Viola Corbitt, mother of Dymashal Cullins, who was 32 at the time of her disappearance and now 53, says her daughter was last seen on August 28, 2003. She was last seen wearing a blue denim skirt, brown short-sleeve sweater, and blue sandals.
Decades later, the mother feels that her daughter’s case has been forgotten, but she expressed determination to not give up.
"I felt like they [the police] didn't do a lot of what they could have done. I felt like they closed the case early. I didn't give up on the case. Even years after, we would still go out and pass out flyers," said Corbitt.
According to her mother and police report, Cullins was last seen driving a 1994 red Jeep Grand Cherokee with Georgia Wildlife tag 11 HE9.
The mother said the truck belonged to Cullins's coworker, Allen Jameson, who said Cullins was using it at the time.
“She needed a vehicle, and I had two. These are things you do for friends where I come from,” Jameson said.
Corbitt filed the police report after she received a call on August 29, 2003, around 10:00 a.m. from her then-son-in-law, saying Cullins did not return home that morning. Corbitt tried calling Cullins after receiving the news of her disappearance, but unfortunately, she received no answer.
According to the mother, friends of Cullins also stated they had not heard from her since the day she was last seen.
The police report stated that Corbitt told police a neighbor saw the red Jeep in the yard of Cullins' home the morning she disappeared.
According to the report and her mother, the responding officer took Corbitt to a friend's house. That friend told police he last saw Cullins at 11:52 p.m. on August 28, 2003.
The police report stated that the friend told officers he and Cullins spent several hours having dinner together that night. Officers asked him if Cullins called anyone while they were hanging out, and he said no.
At the time, Cullins' ex-husband told officers he talked to his wife around 11:32 p.m. He said she told him she should be home shortly after dropping a friend off, the report added.
The friend told officers he tried calling Cullins that morning, but her phone was off. According to the report, family and friends said they received the answering machine when they called.
Just a month later, on September 15, 2003, Corbitt said she received her daughter’s ID in the mail and quickly informed the detective about the case. The detective contacted the man who sent the ID, which led to the missing Jeep at an apartment complex in Decatur, GA.
Corbitt said the man found the ID next to the car and mailed it to the address. Officers interviewed the man further and cleared him of any involvement with Cullins's disappearance, according to her mother.
In the car, Corbitt said police found a blanket with blood on it, Cullins' purse, and red dirt on the car's driver's side. Corbitt said the police never said anything further about the blood stain.
Cullins' mother said that as officers checked the area around the apartment, she noticed a lake and asked the detective if they could check it.
“I told my detectives a lot of things; he [one of the detectives] told me to stop watching 48 hours,” Corbitt said.
Since then, Corbitt said the case was handed off between three different detectives from 2003 to 2004. She said one of the detectives stopped answering her calls. Cullins said she tried to call again two years later and still had no answer.
Jameson also said he has not heard anything from the Atlanta Police Department since the disappearance.
"I'm sorry to say it, they do not look for Black women the way they look for white women," the mother said.
According to statistics from the Black and Missing Foundation, "thousands of people are reported missing every year in the U.S., and while not every case will get widespread media attention, the coverage of white and minority victims is far from proportionate."
Almost two decades later, Cullins' mother says she does not speak death over her child and is still hopeful.
On Saturday, August 31, the Cullins family plans to distribute flyers around noon on the corner of Cleveland Avenue and Hapeville Road.
11Alive contacted the police department, asking for additional information about the case.