Police hope photo helps find missing woman

GASTONIA, N.C.,None — Gastonia Police are redistributing a photograph of a Kings Mountain woman who went missing in Gaston County in May 2008.

Police say the new photo, which is a mug shot, may help them better locate Jennifer Ramsey Rivkin.

"The photo has been changed in the hopes that she might be better recognized by anyone who might know what happened to her," said Gastonia Police Detective A.L. Fleming III.

Rivkin has been missing since May 4, 2008. A vehicle she was driving was located on May 6, 2008, at a bar and grill on West Franklin Boulevard in Gastonia, and her purse was still inside the vehicle. Rivkin was last heard from in a cell phone message she left for a friend on May 4, 2008.

Rivkin's friends and family have never given up hope on finding her. About 50 of her friends and family gathered in July at Bessemer City Park on Crowders Mountain Road for a candlelight memorial to console each other and look ahead to the future.

Rivkin was 43 years old when last seen during a visit to her parent's home in Bessemer City.

At the candlelight memorial, Rivkin's father, Clay Ramsey, said a prayer and told the crowd that his daughter was in God's hands.

"There's not a day goes by that I don't miss Jennifer," he said. "It's not really under our control any more and it never has been."

Rivkin cut and styled hair in Bessemer City and had contacts all over the nation, family members said. She even went to Hollywood to do hair.

Police say the investigation into Jennifer Rivkin's disappearance is ongoing and the case is still open.

WSOC