Family Still Looking for Answers One Year Later

Orangeburg County (WLTX) - An Orangeburg County family is still looking for answers a year after the disappearance of their loved one.

It's been a tough 12 months for Shane Govan's family. After deputies say he was kidnapped after an argument with several men, they haven't been able to find any closure for the family.

Three months after Govan went missing, his mother died, leaving his three siblings and his aunt to keep up the search. "He didn't deserve that. It's just been a hard year. I constantly talk about him to most anybody that I talk to. I remind them that I got a newphew out there missing and I just want him back. As a family, we want closure," says Govan's aunt, Eartha Ellis.

The past year has hit Ellis hard from every angle. A year ago today, deputies say her nephew was kidnapped. "It's just been rough for me knowing that he's out there and I don't know what happened to him," she says.

When his mother Mary Govan passed away three months later, it was another blow. "She died with a broken heart, not knowing where her son was," Ellis says.

That same question is still on the minds of Govan's family everyday and it's one investigators are still trying to answer. "We've talked to witnesses and family members, trying to put together the pieces of what took place the last day Shane was seen," explains Keisa Peterson, spokesperson for the Orangeburg County Sheriff's Office.

Despite their efforts, deputies say all they know is that Govan got into an argument with several men outside of a trailer home while dropping off his two kids. Several hours later, witnesses reported shots being fired and that Govan was taken away in the back of a grey Toyota pickup truck. "By far, it is not something that we've stopped working on," says Peterson, "It's still an open investigation for us. We have not closed it. It is something that we revisit."

Ellis and Govan's three siblings revisit it often too. They hope the same can be said for whoever's responsible. "You got a family, you got a mother. You got nieces, you got nephews," Ellis says of the kidnapper or kidnappers, and why they should turn themselves in, "He's out there somewhere, waiting to be found, so I can put closure, so I can lay him by his mother."

Ellis says at first she believed her nephew was still alive out there somewhere. But she says she knows if he was out there alive, he wouldn't be able to stay away from his family.

If you can help investigators find those responsible, you are urged to call CrimeStoppers at 1-888-CRIME-SC or text a tip to "CRIMES" beginning with the term "TIPSC."