JOHNSONVILLE, SC (WBTW) – Harriett Kelly is a proud mom of four boys.
“I’ve been their mom and I did what I had to do,” she said.
However, her middle son 23-year-old Julius Gamble was the kind of guy she says that would do anything to help.
“He’s just a giving person. He has a big heart. He was just a friendly person,” Kelly mentioned.
It was morning of August 29th, 2014 that Kelly got the news no mom wants to hear.
She woke up to numerous calls from Julius’ girlfriend.
“I had got up and called her back and said you were trying to call me. She said Ju didn’t come home. I said what do you mean? I’m trying to analyze what’s going on. I’m calling Ju’s phone, I’m texting his phone, I’m calling, I’m texting, I’m calling, I’m texting. It was scary from that point on,” she explained.
Kelly had just seen her son the day prior before going out with his friend Larry Coles, the last person the family says who would’ve been with gamble.
Coles led deputies on a day long manhunt in the woods after a traffic stop the day after Gamble went missing.
He was once named as a person of interest, but he hasn’t been charged with anything. He’s already in prison on unrelated charges.
“When I tell you we covered ground, we covered ground…Johnsonville, Georgetown, it went to Lake City,” explained Kelly.
Gamble’s family along with hundreds of friends and community members search efforts encompassed the entire area.
Nearly two and half years later, Gamble’s case is still open.
The Florence County Sheriff’s Office say when it comes to missing persons cases, the department uses NCIC, or the National Crime and Information Center.
The database is a tool to find a match with different cases.
“Rather it is dental records. Sometimes there will be DNA available, DNA not available,” said Lt. Streett
However, that NCIC database is a private database and when News13 went online and looked through a few public databases the number of missing persons varies.
For example, NamUs lists 162 missing person cases in South Carolina in their database.
The Doe Network happens to lists 59 cases while the Charley Project has on its site 133.
In the case of missing children, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children records show 51 open cases.
There’s no single national public database listing every missing or unidentified person that’s accessible to the public.
However, a national, public database does already exist, NamUs. The National Institute of Justice even funds the site.
When we tried searching for Gamble he wasn’t listed because law enforcement isn’t required to use it.
Last year, both Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy and Texas Representative Ted Poe introduced the Help Find the Missing Act, also known as Billy’s Law, on Capitol Hill.
It would essentially streamline the reporting process by linking NamUs with NCIC, yet keep sensitive information accessible to just law enforcement.
“Julian is so much like Ju and I’m like oh my gosh,” Kelly said.
All that’s left from her son are both memories and his two-year-old son Julian.
“Julian is the thing that helps me get through,” she mentioned.
As both a grandmother and mother, hold out hope for her son to walk through the door.
Gamble’s mother told us he is listed in the Cue Center’s missing person’s database.
Again Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy introduced “Billy’s Law” back in September
It’s now in the senate judiciary committee.
Back in 2014 the bill was also introduced in the U.S. House, where it remains in a subcommittee.