The Lost Daughter

**Kathleen Freza** (0:31)
Amen.

**Marshall Frank** (0:32)
Let's go.

**Kathleen Freza** (0:32)
Do it.

**Tracy Smith** (0:34)
For 25 years, Pat and Hillary Sessions have been searching for their daughter Tiffany. And in January 2014, in this forest in Gainesville, Florida, just over a mile from where Tiffany disappeared, There was another girl in 1992 who was actually found here on the site. They hope they may finally find her.

**Hillary Sessions** (0:57)
I am extremely optimistic.

**SPEAKER_5** (1:02)
What are you feeling going into this excavation? Are you nervous?

**Pat Sessions** (1:06)
I'm a lot more nervous than I thought I would be. I've done other searches. And this one, I'm a lot more nervous about because it may not be true, but it sort of feels like a final hurrah. You know, I pushed and pushed so many people for so long, that I don't know how long it will do it.
Sorry.

**SPEAKER_5** (1:39)
Do you think the emotion comes because maybe it's the end, or maybe it's not?

**Pat Sessions** (1:47)
Yeah, I don't know.
It needs to end. Everybody needs closure on this.

**Tracy Smith** (2:04)
In 1989, Tiffany Sessions was a junior studying finance at the University of Florida in Gainesville. She had dreams of running a company one day.

**Hillary Sessions** (2:15)
She knew what she wanted to do. She knew where she was going to go.

**Pat Sessions** (2:19)
She was determined to make something out of herself.

**Tracy Smith** (2:22)
Tiffany had a good role model. Pat Sessions was a well-known marketing executive for a giant real estate company in South Florida. He oversaw the creation of Weston, one of the biggest building projects in the United States.
She kind of wanted to be like dad, following your footsteps.

**Pat Sessions** (2:40)
I've been told that by her friends.

**Tracy Smith** (2:43)
Pat and Hillary divorced when Tiffany was just eight months old. Hillary was in the US. Air Force, and as she traveled around the country, she brought Tiffany with her.

**Hillary Sessions** (2:53)
I was the mom.
I was the dad. I was the disciplinarian, the provider. There wasn't anything that we didn't do together. And we worked as a team.

**Tracy Smith** (3:04)
You called her your masterpiece.

**Hillary Sessions** (3:06)
I did.
Because I only had one. I worked really hard on making sure that she was as nice on the inside as she was on the outside.

**Tracy Smith** (3:24)
Growing up, Tiffany didn't see a lot of her father. But in her teens, they reconnected. Pat was in his late 30s, a bachelor, living in an oceanfront home in Miami's affluent Coconut Grove.

**Jason Sessions** (3:37)
The summers were the times that we spent together on holidays.

**Tracy Smith** (3:40)
Tiffany also got to know her half-brother, Jason.

**Jason Sessions** (3:43)
My father is always a very active, fun guy. So when we came together for those different times, we were always doing neat experiences, going on the boat, you know, the beach, different activities like that. So yeah, that's where we really got to know each other.

**Pat Sessions** (3:53)
Both of them were single kids, so they didn't have anybody else. They bonded together very quickly.

**Tracy Smith** (4:00)
But for Pat, missing out on so much of his daughter's childhood had taken its toll.

**Pat Sessions** (4:06)
It was a lot of catch up, you know, and overcoming a lot of bad history between her mother and I.

**Kathleen Freza** (4:10)
Tiffany was very close to both her parents.

**Tracy Smith** (4:13)
Kathleen Freza, Tiffany's college roommate.

**Kathleen Freza** (4:17)
She loved her mom, and they had a very special relationship. She spoke with her frequently, almost daily, I would say, on the phone. With her dad, because she was able to renew that relationship with him, that was really very touching for her.

**Tracy Smith** (4:32)
And when Pat bought his daughter a Rolex watch, Kathleen says Tiffany never took it off.

**Kathleen Freza** (4:38)
She just loved it, partly because it was a Rolex, partly because it was from her dad, so it held a really special emotional tie for her.

**Tracy Smith** (4:49)
In fact, Kathleen has never forgotten one of the last conversations she had with Tiffany, just before she went out for that final walk.

**Kathleen Freza** (4:59)
Before she walked out, Tiffany said, I'm going to take off my jewelry, just as I'm keeping my watch on. If somebody comes after me, they're going to have to fight me for the watch.

**Michael Warren** (5:14)
Tiffany never returned to her apartment while on an evening walk.

**Kathleen Freza** (5:18)
When Tiffany did not come back, I still had hope at that time. I just really am still pretty hopeful and continue to believe that she will return safely.