Cleveland Kidnapping Victims: Gina DeJesus's Parents Speak Out, 'We Knew That She Was Still Alive' [VIDEO]
Gina DeJesus is encouraging others to never give up hope on missing loved ones.
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On Wednesday, Action News Jax reported that the young woman who was held captive in a suburban house in Cleveland for nine years before her rescue traveled all the way to Jacksonville, Florida in honor of a missing boy.
Mark Degner went missing in 2005 at the age of 12 where he and his friend Bryan Hayes disappeared near Paxon Middle School.
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DeJesus's parents spoke up about their daughter's disappearance where they knew they would see Gina again.
"We knew that she was still alive," Gina's mother, Nancy Ruiz, said. "We knew we had to fight. We knew we had to bring awareness. Parents don't ever give up."
"It's very hard, the not knowing of how your child's doing," Gina's father, Felix DeJesus, said. "How they're eating, how they're being taken care of. When are you going to find them? But never give up. Always have that hope."
Knowing her parents were staying strong in their search helped give Gina the hope that she would return home someday.
"Every time I'd see my parents on TV, it would give me even more hope to know one day I was going to come back home to them," Gina said.
The young woman was kidnapped by Ariel Castro where he abused her and two other women- Michelle Knight and Amanda Berry- for years before they found their freedom in 2013.
