Album Park rally seeks to raise awareness of Fort Bliss soldier who vanished 8 months ago
EL PASO, Texas -- “Bring my son home, I miss him.”
Those were the words blasting from a megaphone at Album Park on Saturday afternoon.
It was the voice of Patricia Halliday, the mother of the 21-year-old Fort Bliss Soldier Richard Halliday, that was last seen on July 23, 2020.
More than eight months on and his family and their supporters in the community of El Paso haven’t given up hope.
A group of volunteers are holding a demonstration every week releasing red balloons into the sky with messages saying ‘please come back’, ‘we miss you’ and his mother's phone number written on them. It's called 'Operation Red Balloon.'
The hope is that someone seeing a message who knows something about his disappearance will be able to reunite him with his family.
“I still have hope,” Jennifer Sickles, the creator of Operation Red Balloon, said. “We still have hope that he's out there, we're hoping that he'll come back, we're hoping that someone will come forward and say 'hey we know where he is.'"
“They know what happened to Richard, he just didn’t vanish,” Patricia Halliday added.
To help raise awareness, they urged people to become a part of the Facebook page, Find Richard Halliday. Here the group provides updates on events they are holding.
They are also asking people to share the this hashtag: #FindRichardHalliday - anywhere and everywhere on social media.
There is a $35,000 reward being offered for anyone who finds the missing soldier.
ABC-7 reached out to Fort Bliss for comment on Saturday but didn't hear back as of this writing.
