POLK COUNTY, Fla. — Those who say time heals all wounds have not met Waymone Baisden.
“It’s just been — it’s been a hard road to hoe,” he said, as tears welled up in his eyes. “It seems the older I get, the more I think about it.”
Fifty-eight years ago, when Baisden was just two years old, his mother disappeared with no explanation. The mystery still haunts Baisden.
“I try to not focus on it too much, but it’s there,” he said. “It’s just tough. Tear your heart out kind of thing.”
According to websites dedicated to missing person cases, like The Charley Project, Peggy Byars-Baisden was last seen on April 2, 1965, after leaving her home in Highland City.
She was seen in the parking lot of a bar, which no longer exists, near the interchange of Bartow Road and the Polk Parkway. Byars-Baisden was seen with an unknown man, who may have been helping her fix her 1959 light green Chevrolet coupe.
Neither Byars-Baisden nor the car were ever seen again.
Now, 58 years later, Mike Sullivan is ready to help.
Sullivan is the founder of Sunshine State Sonar, a group of private citizens that has already located six missing people this year using their own time and technology.
Byars-Baisden is the next person they’ll try to find.
“This is definitely the oldest case that we’ve worked,” Sullivan said. “Make no mistake about this. This is definitely a Hail Mary, this case.”
Sullivan plans to use the next several weeks searching lakes between Lakeland and Highland City — including Banana Lake and Lake Hancock — which is the area where Byars-Baisden went missing.
“These guys at Sunshine State Sonar, they’ve been doing some good things for people,” her son said Tuesday.
In a county of more than 550 lakes, the search will not be easy. The odds are incredibly long.
Waymone Baisden’s hope, however, is reignited. He not only hopes for answers and closure, but he also hopes that some of his pain can finally be healed after 58 years.
Baisden is one of two children. His sister lives in Tennessee and has also experienced the pain of growing up without her biological mother in her life.
As Baisden explained, his mother was recently divorced before she went missing in 1965. However, he does not believe his father played a role in the disappearance.
Meanwhile, in a statement, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said he welcomes the help in a case with no new leads in decades.
“It’s a win for the search teams and a win for the victims’ families when these searches solve cases,” he wrote in part.
