GASTON COUNTY, N.C. — One man has waited 15 years to find out what happened to his mother, who vanished in Gastonia. Now, investigators believe they are closer than ever to finding answers.
Jennifer Rivkin’s life reads like a fairy tale, just with mysteries instead of a happily ever after. Reporter Ken Lemon sat down with her son and investigators who believe they are close to solving this cold case.
“I just think she is just absolutely beautiful,” said Rivkin’s son, Markus Mobley.
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Mobley showed Lemon pictures of his mother.
“She wanted to take me somewhere, so I went along,” he said.
He also shared photos of the two of them together.
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“I just wish I could go back and have more moments like this,” Mobley said.
Fingertips on color prints are as close as he can get to the woman who vanished when he was 21.
“I really wish she could see me as a grown man now,” he said.
Rivkin vanished in May 2008. Police suspect she was killed.
The last major clue in her disappearance was found outside of The Winner’s Circle, a private club in west Gastonia.
It’s been a cold case for 15 years.
She is a mother and a musician who vanished 15 years ago. Now Gastonia police believe they are close to cracking this cold case and getting answers for Jennifer Rivkin’s son. What must happen now, tonight after @ABC2020 tonight on @wsoctv pic.twitter.com/FrEBGEHkT9
— Ken (@kenlemonWSOC9) November 3, 2023
“They say time heals but, you know, it doesn’t heal everything,” Mobley said.
He said when he was young his mother was adventurous. She was a respected beautician in Bessemer City and she was generous to everyone.
“Diamond earrings. Like she had taken them off one night and randomly she had given them to the woman that she had never met,” he said.
Rivkin left the small town of Bessemer City and went 380 miles west to the country music mecca of Nashville. She met and married a music producer and got co-writing honors on an album that went gold.
Police say the music scene also introduced her to a drug culture. Det. Jimmy Arndt works cold cases for Gastonia police.
“The drugs lead further down the line to addiction,” Arndt said.
Rivkin came back to Gaston County a different woman, and police believe that likely contributed to her disappearance.
Arndt said Rivkin borrowed a BMW from a friend, and it was found parked next to The Winner’s Circle on West Franklin Boulevard. He said evidence inside the car -- items he can’t talk about -- indicate she was almost certainly killed.
“This is not going to be a complete stranger. This is going to be somebody she knows,” he said.
That’s the information he started with.
“You got to go through all of it, pick it apart, look at it, that type of thing -- try to narrow it down. Try to develop new information,” Arndt said.
He said that a review of the case recently turned up new information that has him hopeful, though he said he can’t say what they have learned.
“You feel like you are fairly close right now?” Lemon asked.
“We have got more of a storyline behind it, how things have occurred now that we didn’t have before, so we are getting closer and closer,” Arndt said.
He believes someone connected to The Winner’s Circle in 2008 has the final pieces to the puzzle.
“We think we have made some headway,” he said.
Mobley is waiting for answers.
“It’s been a roller coaster of emotions, you know,” he said.
“If you could say something to the person who knows something, what would you say to them?” Lemon asked.
“I think about her every day,” Mobley said.
“The closure really matters to a lot of us, I know, especially me,” he said.
Police said they may have already interviewed some of the people they want to talk to now, but they believe potential witnesses may be more willing to share information now.
Anyone with information is asked to contact them at 704-866-6880.
(WATCH BELOW: It’s been 23 years since 9-year-old Asha Degree disappeared)
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