Deanne Hastings seemed to have it all before she vanished back in November of 2015. She was starting beauty school, had three great kids, and was engaged to be married. Loved ones said they can't help but fear she met an evil end.
"Deanne was an amazing person," brother Carson Crider said. "An amazing family member. She cared more about others than she did herself."
You'll notice Carson talks about his missing sister in the past tense. He believes too much time has gone by to hold onto any hope that she is still alive. It's a painful truth her fiancé Mike Tibbets says consumes him.
"It is torment, the not knowing," he said.
It's been two and a half years since anyone has seen Deanne Hastings. She told Mike back in November of 2015 she was running out to the store. He told KHQ she said, "I love you" and drove away for what he thought was a quick errand. He never saw her again.
"I think about her every day, every single day," he said.
For weeks, those thoughts revolved around with how he could find Deanne and bring her home to her family. But as they days turned into months, and then into years, the nagging sense of dread, that this was worse than anyone imagined, took over.
"Her son was getting ready to graduate high school and go into the military, she wouldn't have missed that," Mike said. "(Hope) is becoming less and less after this amount of time, yeah." Loved ones admit Deanne had fallen off the grid before. She had her share of daemons, and they because of that, the case wasn't initially looked at the way it should have been by police.
"I didn't feel she was important to them at all," Mike said.
But SPD did make some arrests involving Deanne, but not related to her disappearance. A man named Randy Riley, who spoke to KHQ exclusively from behind bars back in 2016, was one of two men arrested for using Deanne's stolen credit cards.
While he admitted to stealing from her, he was adamant he had nothing to do with her disappearance. He told KHQ he last saw a very drunk Deanne in a West Spokane neighborhood. He said he found her wallet in the road the next day and took it.
Both Mike and Carson beg anyone with information to do what is right. They say they, along with Deanne's children, deserve to say goodbye properly.
"If they have any kind of heart whatsoever, even if it's anonymous, do it," Mike said.
If you have any information on Deanne Hastings disappearance, please call Crime Check at (509) 456-2233.
(story & photo: KHQ.com)