Beyond the Byline: Pauline will never lose hope in finding Phylicia

I drove down to Hunlock Township the other day, just to see if anything has changed.

I was thinking about Phylicia Thomas and Jennifer Barziloski — two young girls that went missing many years ago and, except for Jennifer’s skull being recovered, neither girl has been found.

It’s a horrific story that has yet to be solved.

As I drove up Golf Course Road again, my thoughts went to Pauline Bailey, Phylicia’s mother, and her family. The whole case is sad.

Pauline and her family want and deserve closure.

That’s why when word came a couple of weeks ago that Pennsylvania State Police were at Simon’s Auto Parts in Noxen for two days digging, everybody wondered what or who they were searching for out there.

After two days of digging, State Police said nothing was found.

But social media sites blew up with speculation that the state police had received a tip that there were bodies buried on the site and Phylicia and Jennifer might be there.

It’s been 19 years since Phylicia disappeared — 22 for Jennifer.

Phylicia was last seen on Feb. 11, 2004, on Route 118 in the Sweet Valley area. She was wearing a blue Pump-N-Pantry shirt, white pants, a rust-colored wool sweater and Nike sneakers.

Anyone with information is urged to call troopers at 570-697-2000.

Phylicia Thomas was 22 years old.

One “person of interest” in the cases of Phylicia Thomas and Jennifer Barziloski was Steve Martin, who hanged himself in prison in August 2005. Martin was never charged in either case.

Barziloski was last seen June 23, 2001, outside C. Majors Sports Bar on Main Street in Edwardsville.

The investigations into the disappearance of Phylicia and Jennifer are, we are told, ongoing. So we won’t receive much information from investigators until there is something very real to tell.

Everybody continues to hope and pray that there is some news soon. Pauline wants to be able to inter her daughter’s remains and giver her a peaceful final resting place.

So when I returned to the area off Golf Course Road and Timber Lane, an eerie feeling once again came over me. This is the site where many people, especially Pauline Bailey, are certain that Phylicia was murdered, dismembered and disposed of in February 2004.

Phylicia is one of Pauline’s seven children. Phylicia was 22 when she “went missing” on Feb. 11, 2004 — she would be 41 today. Her mom is certain Phylicia died — murdered — on that cold, snowy night.

And the person or persons responsible for Phylicia’s death have never been identified.

So for 19 years now, Pauline has grieved and she has waited for news. She jumps when the telephone rings, hoping it’s someone brave enough to come forward to tell her what happened to her daughter.

Pauline and devoted friend Judy Fisher claim they know what happened. They even say they know the people responsible. And Pauline and Judy still wonder what happened to Phylicia, where are her remains and who is responsible?

When you are at Golf Course Road and Timber Lane, you can almost see and hear what very well might have happened in the wee hours of Feb. 11, 2004.

As Pauline and Judy offer their theory, you can almost see it unfold.

On a hill about 200 yards from Timber Lane, you can see the site where a double-wide trailer sat. This is where Pauline says her daughter attended a party, along with 17 other people.

It’s where she said a couple people told her they saw four men take Phylicia into a room and soon heard loud screaming.

It’s where they said they were told Phylicia was murdered and carried out of the trailer in a blood-stained blanket.

It’s a sordid story, but one that Pauline firmly believes.

But Pauline has questions about that story. She believes that Phylicia was brutally murdered because she had made it known that she knew who was responsible for the death three years earlier of her friend, Jennifer. Pauline believes the same people are responsible for both women’s deaths.

The key to solving this case, as with most investigations, is three-fold: physical evidence, eyewitness accounts or confessions of those responsible.

“I want to bury her and have a place where I can go and tell her I love her and miss her,” Pauline has told me time and again,

What alternative does Pauline have, but to sit and wait for that phone call, email or knock on her door. She will never stop hoping.

We know that Jennifer and Phylicia are gone and that it is likely both were victims of foul play. We even know where they were last seen.

But we need to know more.

It’s time for those with information to come forward — to cleanse their souls.

Call Pauline. Call State Police. Call me.

It’s been 19 years of waiting, of hoping, of praying, of suffering.

It really is long past the time to do what is right.