THE CANADIAN PRESS

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REGINA - The posters of a little Saskatchewan girl who disappeared from her home five years ago might be fading, but there's still hope that Tamra Keepness will be found.

A barbecue will be held in Regina on Sunday to remember the smiling five-year-old who was last seen when she went to bed at about 11 p.m. on July 5, 2004. It wasn't until noon the next day that someone noticed she was missing and called police.

Her disappearance sparked one of the largest searches in Regina's history and authorities say they haven't given up.

"I would say there were certainly points along the way where we thought we were close," says Regina police spokeswoman Elizabeth Popowich.

"Yet the fact is (that it's been) five years now and we still don't know exactly how or why Tamra Keepness disappeared and we've not found evidence enough to be able to lay any criminal charges in connection with her disappearance."

Her mother, Lorena Keepness, has maintained her belief that Tamra was snatched by some random deviant, but police have not found any evidence to support that.

Police issued a chronology of the investigation on Friday, hoping to put the case back in the public eye. They say they've probed more than 1,500 tips and have spent thousands of hours investigating the case. The board of police commissioners has also extended the offer of a $25,000 reward for information that would solve the case.

Officials have repeatedly said there are people out there who know what happened, and hope renewed publicity about the anniversary of the girl's disappearance will result in new information.

For now, the matter rests with the historical case unit, but Popowich says that doesn't mean it's gathering dust on a shelf.

"It's still very much an open investigation. "

"Part of the challenge now is that information will come to us - we just can't say when, we don't have control over that part. But we need to be able to recognize its importance and know how it connects with the rest of the case."

Popowich remains optimistic. She said there are cases that are solved "because time changes things."

"Sometimes time gives people the ability to speak about something that they couldn't speak about years before," she said.

"We think that somewhere, someone out there has information that can help conclude this case."