CLEARWATER, Fla. – Twenty-five years ago, on September 11, exactly one year before the 9/11 attacks, Leah Hackett told police she tucked her 8-year-old son Zachary Bernhardt into bed, went for a middle-of-the-night swim in the community pool and returned to an empty apartment, sparking Florida’s longest-running Amber Alert.

The backstory:

Twenty-five years later, Zachary is still missing.

“It’s still as devastating as it was the day it happened,” said Billie Jo Jimenez, Zachary’s aunt. “It doesn’t get better with time.”

“It’s almost like you never get a chance to exhale,” she said.

“An eight-year-old goes missing in the middle of the night… and nobody has any answers,” said Clearwater Deputy Chief Michael Walek. 

“You don’t believe that it’s happening to you,” Zachary’s grandmother Carole Bernhardt recalled during a past interview. “You think he’s hiding somewhere around the corner.”

‘Somebody knows something’

“We have an 8-year-old kid who should be 32 today and somebody knows something,” Walek stated.

Walek added that the information in those 35 binders was recently scanned into one searchable document using Project Adam – named for Adam Walsh.

“That makes it easier for an investigator to type in one word and search for a particular item, so the technology is advancing every day and we’re using those technologies to further our case.”

READ: Families of Florida’s missing children gather to honor loved ones, continue search

He said police still get tips from across the country about possible sightings of Bernhardt. The tips come in on an anniversary or when stories run about the case or the department puts something up on social media.

No one has been ruled out

“In 25 years, Zach’s mother has not reached out to us and asked us what’s going on. What’s active in the case. What’s the status of the case? Recently, we traveled to another part of the state of Florida to talk with her and we were met with negative results – uncooperative,” Michael Walek, deputy chief for Clearwater Police Department said. “If that was your son that was eight years old missing, would you be calling every day, every month, every hour? You wouldn’t want to know what’s going on? We got nothing.”

“We kind of felt that it was best for her to get out of the state in order for her to be able to try to find herself mentally,” Jiminez stated. “People have no idea what it’s like. Don’t judge somebody else’s situation till you walk in my sister’s shoes one day.”

“We were met with negative results – uncooperative,” Walek, said.

“My sister has cooperated from the beginning. She’s given interview after interview [with police]. There’s nothing left to say.  Now there’s nothing else left. There’s nothing left to interview. That’s just maybe causing more trauma to her and her daughter that she doesn’t need,” said Jimenez.

“Why should she call? If there’s information, they should be calling us, letting us know that they found Zach,” she said. 

“She misses Zach and wants him to be found,” said Jimenez. 

In summer 2001, an acquaintance of Kevin Jalbert’s told detectives that he claimed to have killed a child and planned to kill again. 

When he was taken in for questioning, he reportedly denied taking Zachary. 

Kidnapping at the Savannah Trace Apartments

That child was found alive in a dumpster in Sumter County.

His family has their own theories. They have never waivered in their belief that Zach is alive. 

At first, the family searched crowds for Zachary’s young face, hoping to spot the 8-year-old they remembered. Now, they rely on age-progressed images showing what Zachary might look like today in his 30s. 

Jimenez said they believe the case is solvable.

“Somone knows what happened to them. We need everyone and anyone who knows something to come forward,” said Walek. 

What you can do:

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children released age-progression photos over the years showing what he may look like today.

ClearwaterMissing Persons