They cannot mourn definitively because they do not know with certainty that there is someone to mourn.

They cannot move forward because moving forward feels like abandoning hope.

They are stuck in a waiting that has no defined end.

This waiting is psychologically corrosive in ways that are difficult to understand without having experienced it.

The mind, unable to resolve the uncertainty, toggles between hope and despair in ways that are exhausting.

Every reported sighting — even vague, unconfirmed ones — generates a cycle of hope and disappointment.

Every anniversary of the disappearance reopens the wound.