Coming up.

At one point, there was a sighting in South Florida.

We actually traveled down to South Florida and take a look at that, but it didn't pan out.

We hold on to hope, just like the family, that these two boys will be found one day alive in some kind of care.

We've had to stop calling them boys.

You know, they're not. They're young men.

They're grown men.

For Vault Studios, I'm Will Johnson.

You're listening to The Daily Crime.

It was February 2005, 16 years ago, this month.

And two boys, middle schoolers, were getting used to life at a new school in Jacksonville, Florida.

Twelve-year-old Mark Degner and 13-year-old Brian Hayes have become fast friends.

Mark's aunt Angie Campbell says her nephew had moved to the area the year before to live closer to family. He moved here to live with his mom and other siblings.

Gosh, it was the summer of 2004, and then he went missing in February 2005.

So he wasn't in Jacksonville very long.

It's not like he grew up here in new streets and had a network of any kind.

And Brian also, from my understanding, was also relatively new to the area.

But on February 10, 2005, the lives of the two boys and the lives of their families would forever change.

Katie Jeffries is an anchor and reporter at First Coast News in Jacksonville.

Mark Degner and Brian Hayes, they were both relatively new to the school and to the Jacksonville

area, so they became friends. It was around 1.30 in the afternoon when one of them made a disturbance so the other one could sneak out.

And the last time they were seen, they were leaving Paxson Middle School. They had snuck out.

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