A Quad City family is stepping forward to help others dealing with the loss of a loved one. The Harker family launched a Facebook page to help in the cases of now three missing people in the area. It's an important cause for the family that knows what others are going through.
Crews searched for 29 year old Carrie Olson at the beginning of January 2014 and it's a familiar scene for Dennis Harker. It was just a few months prior when thousands of volunteers went searching for Dennis' son, David Harker.
David Harker's body was found in the Mississippi River near Buffalo, several days after he disappeared in September 2013.
"The Quad City community is a great community, I think the support we had was so strong that everybody wants to do something and nobody knows what to do," said Dennis.
There are now three people missing in the Quad Cities; Olson, 45 year old Willis Hughes from Davenport and 43 year old Steven Califf from Rock Island.
Davenport Police told News 8 that Olson and Hughes' cases are not connected in any way.
"They're totally two different cases and one was established immediately and one wasn't," said Davenport's Assistant Police Chief, Don Schaeffer.
"Some of the people that have gone missing nobody knew about it for days. Some of them for weeks and that's too late to be out looking. The word needs to be out immediately," said Dennis.
This reason is why Dennis launched a Facebook page called Quad Cities Missing Persons Network. Since it was launched on Wednesday, January 8 it has gained more than 4,000 likes.
"I think it's going to be known as a site that if somebody is missing, they can go on that and people will share it," said Dennis.
A tool that Dennis says played a big role in his son's case. Now he's hoping the page will help other families out.
"I'm hoping that this will be a venue for people to put that information out there and get the help they need," said Dennis.
Dennis hopes to expand the page to a website, where families can find helpful links and even a template on how to make flyers.