Missing woman's mother speaks out after latest investigation

NORTH CHARLESTON, SC (WCSC) - For the first time since a new search for Brandy Hanna ended, her mother is talking about the great lengths she's gone to find her daughter.

"I've rode around. I've looked in ditches. I've looked in fields. I've looked in the manhole covers," Donna Parent said.

Parent says after years of exhausting traditional missing person investigation methods, she didn't want to stop there. Back in March she hired a psychic expert from West Virginia for help.

"Any mother that has a missing child, and there's lots of them, you will do anything no matter how people may perceive it as crazy, but you will do anything," Parent said.

Parent says a new detective from North Charleston Police Department took over the investigation in February, and she says it was not the psychic who lead them to search the old Navy Base for clues, but because it was an area that had not been searched before.

"This was just an area that we wanted to explore further. Detective Lacher has willingly. He goes out there continuous, day and night, and he has not guaranteed me anything. He can't guarantee me he'll find her, but one thing he has promised me is that he won't stop," Parent said.

Unfortunately police say the three-day archaeological dig on the old Navy Base didn't turn up anything. Parent says she vows never to give up the search for Brandy Hanna.

"Anyone with a child if they had a child that was missing, they wouldn't give up because you would want to know," Parent said.

Where investigators found an old shoe near the Navy Base was a different area than where archaeologists search for the past three days. Parent tells me she believes the old shoe was her daughter's. She says it was her daughter's size and a style dating back to 2005, but she says at this point she is still awaiting results from a DNA test.

Hanna disappeared six years ago after working a shift at Alex's Restaurant on Dorchester Road. A co-worker dropped her off at her apartment on Florida Avenue, and she was never seen again. Authorities say all her belongings, money, and a cell phone were all left behind.

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