During a holiday centered around family, Melanie Alix is making what could become an annual pilgrimage, all in the name of love.

Thanksgiving, for her, is a trying time.

"It's very hard. I was wondering why in the last month that my anxiety feels worse and it was explained to me that even the smells and the sounds outside was when we went through this devastation two years ago – the fall that is coming and winter is coming. It just reminds me so much of... when we were desperately panicking, searching," she said, referencing the disappearance of her son Dylan Koshman on October 11th, 2008.

For the second year in a row she, along with other family members, made the drive from Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan to Edmonton in a bid to keep the missing person's case in the public eye.

At 6 p.m. Sunday, a vigil was held at the corner of 34th Avenue and Calgary Trail – a location that's in the area where the young man was last seen.

"It hasn't gotten any better in two years. I tell you the pain is even more," said Melanie Alix.

"There's no closure so the anxiety level and the pressure and the pain just seems to increase in our family."

Koshman, who was 21 at the time of his disappearance, was last seen walking away from his home on 104th Street and 33rd Avenue after he had been in a fight with his roommates. He had been drinking at the time of the incident.

Police found his wallet in a neighbour's yard and records showed no activity on his cell phone or bank account.

Alix says her son, who moved to Edmonton to work for a pipe-fitting company, was extremely close with his family and wouldn't have intentionally disappeared.

"If you lose a child or there's a death of a loved one it's devastating, but yet you can actually go through the process of grieving, where we have nothing," she said.

"We don't know if he's still alive, if he's out there somewhere, if he's suffering, if he's gone from this world. We don't know anything and that's why it's so hard."

She says the purpose of the vigil, which was open to the public, was to keep her son's face in the spotlight. About 15 family members and a few of Koshman's friends attended the event.

"We need to have some information so the police can keep working on this," she said.

"[The case] is not historical yet, but that doesn't mean it won't go within the next month or two if they don't get any more information."

She hopes telling the public about her pain and the pain of Koshman's four siblings will lead to new tips.

"My biggest plea is for someone to come forward. I can't see that not one person knows what happened to him.

"In a city this size, even to see what direction he went, ya know?"

Dylan Koshman is described as:

  • 5'9" tall

  • 190 lbs.

  • Has scars on his left cheek and eyebrow

  • Last seen wearing a dark T-shirt and jeans

  • Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS.