"I tried to find out what I could see that would say that it wasn't her. I didn't want to build up any false hope. I went over every feature and then went, 'Oh my God! It is her,'" said Gibson, a 25-year veteran forensic artist.
Family members saw Gibson on a CNN report and requested the help of the nationally acclaimed forensics expert.
A relative found a picture on a Web site last year that strongly resembles Tionda, the girls' great-aunt Shelia Bradley-Smith said.
"I found a photograph of a young lady that looks just like Tionda would look. When some of the children in the family saw the photo, they immediately asked if we found Tionda; the resemblance is just that strong. If it's good enough for the children to think it's her, it's good enough for us," Bradley-Smith said in a July 2007 interview with the Defender.
Tionda and her younger sister Diamond vanished nearly seven years ago from their Bronzeville home. They would now be 17 and 10 years old, respectively.
Bradley-Smith said the picture contained certain "scars and features" that Tionda possess and "the way she holds her head, it makes me know it's her." Now that the forensic expert confirmed the family's belief, they are waiting for good news about Diamond.
"This is the first time I've been able to really laugh in seven years. This is going to be even better when we find them. I think
She is in the midst of a national media blitz to garner more attention to the "new development" and hopes the girls' safe return will happen before the seventh anniversary of their disappearance rolls around in two months.
Bradley-Smith said she spoke to Tionda and Diamond's mother, Tracey Bradley, and she is "just waiting" to hear more.
The girls' mother went to work as usual the morning of July 6, 2001. She returned home a few hours later at the
A private search was conducted by the girls' family and friends, with negative results, before the Chicago Police Department was called around 6 p.m. that evening.
Searches in the neighborhood, at the Dan Ryan Woods,
The search for the Bradley sisters, one of the biggest in police department history involved more than 1,000 interviews, including most of the 100 registered sex offenders living in the area.
A spokeswoman for
"When detectives obtained these images in 2007 they investigated IP addresses, obtained computers, but nothing provided any substantive lead or concrete information that would indicate that this was a Bradley sister. Independent of the forensic expert from
A $30,000 reward has been offered. Anyone with information is urged to call
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