Posted Monday, September 14, 2009 --- 10:00 p.m.

"You know, if you don't want to rat somebody out, at least tell us where to find our daughter," Diane Bouzek says.

A new plea for answers to the mystery of what happened to a local woman.

Investigators believe she is the victim of a murder. But, years after her disappearance, they're still working almost every day to determine who's responsible.

At a Prairie du Chien truck stop, the smiling face of a young woman looks out from a blank wall in a back lounge.

"I've been asked numerous times within the last week... did you ever solve that missing person case," Det. Terry Sprosty says.

"I always say 'Good morning, Shannon!' It's how I get through."

At Diane Bouzek's place outside of the city...

"And at night, I say good night... and tell her I love her, miss her."

... a Christmas gift sits wrapped for almost three years.

"They're waiting for her, but I know we'll never get a chance for her to see them," Bouzek says.

Both tell the story of a young woman who vanished from the streets of this quaint, river community.

"This is Blackhawk Avenue. And Shannon spent a lot of time out here on Blackhawk Avenue. She knew a lot of people," Bouzek says.

But no one seems to know what happened to the 23-year-old.

"My gut instinct told me right away something's wrong," Bouzek says.

It was December 2006.

"December 16th is the last time I talked to her," Bouzek says.

The mother and daughter talked about when they'd see each other for the holidays.

"That's when she asked about spending Christmas with the boyfriend and his family, and matter of fact, I had to put her brother on the phone because she had his name for a gift exchange."

Two days later, in downtown Prairie, is the last time anyone would report seeing Shannon Fischer.

"There's apartments above there, and that's the last known place that Shannon was living at the time of her disappearance."

"It was determined she had a falling out with her boyfriend at the time. And then... had gone missing after that," Sprosty says.

Investigators say some of the boyfriend's initial comments raised suspicions.

"I believe his exact words were "She's annoying, and I got rid of her," which is a poor choice of words, which obviously made him an immediate person of interest," the local police chief, Mike King, has said.

But today, police say there's still a number of people of interest.

"There's always chatter about it, no matter where you go," Sprosty says.

And after three years of countless interviews, Det. Terry Sprosty describes a roller coaster of an investigation.

"We're still, um, looking for the so-called golden ticket to find out exactly what happened to Shannon."

What began as a wide open missing person case, is more focused. But part of what makes it difficult - a lack of physical evidence. No crime scene, no body. Shannon Fischer could be anywhere.

"We have done so much ground searching, looking for anything. We've trucked through woods. You would not believe where we've been trucking through," Bouzek says.

But Bouzek is realistic - She knows what police expect to find.

"If someone would say, hey, I heard so and so... say this is possibly where you need to look, please come forward. At least give us that much."

Bouzek used to look forward to her daughter's phone calls...

"I miss her phone calls 'cause she'd call... and go, "Mom, pick up."

"If I could just hear that one more time, "Mom, pick up."

Instead, she holds out hope someone else will call with information ...

"Any little bitty thing could be the big thing."

...to put the case to rest.

"Do I think that there are people out there that just haven't come forward yet and provided information? Yeah, I do," Sprosty says.

...information to put Shannon at peace.

"We won't quit until someone tells the truth because we know this person's out there...and they know exactly what happened to our daughter. And if they think they're going to get away with it, they're wrong 'cause we wont quit until this is solved."

Det. Sprosty says until he has more information, he cannot say if this is a random murder. The Division of Criminal Investigation in the Department of Justice is assisting local police.

If you have any information, contact Prairie du Chien Police or Crime Stoppers.

Prairie du Chien Police
(608) 326-2421
Crawford County Crime Stoppers
(866) 779-PAYS