LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Five years after a Louisville mother went missing, her family is continuing their search for answers and holding onto hope.
Andrea Knabel went missing Aug. 13, 2019. She was last seen near a family member's home in the Audubon Park area.
Five years later, her father, Mike Knabel, hasn't stopped searching for his daughter. He said at the time she went missing, relatives thought she had likely made it home or spent the night with a friend. But it turns out, no one knew where Andrea went. And very few answers — if any — have been uncovered since.
"Five years ago, we were going about our everyday business," Knabel said Tuesday, exactly five years since his daughter went missing. "We thought Andrea made it home that night. We woke up texting back and forth seeing if anyone had talked to Andrea."
Before her disappearance, Andrea Knabel devoted time to searching for missing people as a volunteer for theMissing in America Network.
While tips have come in over the years, the toll of her disappearance has hit her family hard. Her father said Tuesday that many of the tips have been "false leads."
"It could possibly be classified as a cold case by now, but it's not," Knabel said. "Things are going on. Last month was one of the busier months we've had for at least a handful of leads. Significant one going on presently. Likely scams, type situations. And we understand that. We understand the odds."
The search to find the missing mom has included police, private investigators, K-9s, missing person flyers and social media outreach.
Andrea Knabel's sister, Erin, has started several social media groups dedicated to finding tips and answers. Erin has also helped other families who are searching for missing loved ones.
There's still a $10,000 reward for information that leads to Andrea's whereabouts.
"We don't intend to give up," Mike Knabel said.
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If anyone has information about Andrea, they are asked to call the family tip line at (502) 806-4840 or call Louisville Metro Police at 502-574-5673.Louisville Metro Police said it is investigating any and all active leads surrounding "this open/active missing person case." But LMPD has no additional information to share.
Andrea Knabel's father and sister plan to walk her last known path to mark five years since her disappearance. It's steps they've taken before, described as a "dark tradition."
"We do that for personal healing and just to talk to each other and to see how we're doing and make sure that we're in a good place and staying strong and to support each other. And then to obviously to think of new things we can do to help find Andrea," Mike Knabel said.
In the past, the family has invited the public to the walk and a vigil. This year, the plan is to spend those moments just with family members.
"We found that at this timeframe, the public loses a little bit of interest and there's been so many of these things since then," Mike Knabel said.
He said Erin Knabel wanted to stress how fragile things can be within family and to keep a close eye on one another.
Andrea Knabel was featured in a docu-series in 2021.The four-episode docu-series "Finding Andrea" streamed on Discovery+.
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