PORTERDALE, Ga. — Friends and family of Morgan Bauer remembered the young woman who went missing from metro Atlanta in 2016 when she was just 19 years old.
Police believed Bauer went missing on Feb. 25, 2016, but in an 11Alive News exclusive, investigators found a discrepancy that could shift that timeline. Police now discovered the teen last posted on social media on Feb. 26, 2016. That's a day after initially thought she vanished, so that could change the entire course of the investigation.
That's giving those who knew the teen reason to hope. They gathered Saturday evening at Porterdale Yellow River Park in Newton County. Bauer's mother said at that vigil she still clings to hope she her daughter again.
The quiet and serene Yellow River Park is the last place Bauer's phone pinged. Her mother, Sherri Keenan, organized the Saturday vigil at that same park.
“I just can’t believe I’m saying seven years," Keenan said. "It's painful. It’s been difficult. There are times that I do feel alone because it’s hard for anybody to understand what this feels like.”
Keenan wasn't alone as people joined in hand and spirit to remember her daughter at a vigil.
“I hope that it connects to somebody. I’m just trying to just be really here humbly, and I’m laying down prayers tonight," Keenan said.
Keenan remembers her daughter with a big smile and full of life. Those are memories she holds onto every day.
“She could be declared legally dead and things like that. It’s just not something I want to do. I’m not ready to say goodbye until she’s found," Keenan said.
Keenan has been waiting to find her daughter for seven years and has never given up hope of a happy ending.
“I think just that collective moment of just making the same wish or the same prayer or the same thought in the same intention can create miracles," Keenan said.
Bauer moved from her hometown in South Dakota to Atlanta the month she went missing. Video from her last Instagram post shows a man walking behind her in the park.
Keenan said a $10,000 reward is being offered in her daughter's case. Bauer's family has set-up an anonymous tip line at 1-855-MORGANB.