Melissa Highsmith was abducted as a toddler in Texas in 1971.
For nearly as long as he can remember, Jeff Highsmith has been searching for a sister he's never met.
His mother did not speak of baby Melissa, who was picked up by a babysitter on a hot August day in 1971 and hasn't been seen since.
When he was 7, Jeff remembers his father sitting him down and telling him about Melissa, who had been taken nine years before he entered the world. She was born in November, and from then on, his father remembered his lost daughter on each of her birthdays.
"My mom never talked about it. She feels like its her fault," Highsmith told Inside Edition Digital on Wednesday as he explained how his family is yet again filled with hope that Melissa, who would now be 52, is out there somewhere, just waiting to be found.
The internet lit up this week when an anonymous tip was called into the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. The tipster had seen an age-progression photo of Melissa posted by the organization, and said a woman matching that description had been seen on Daniel Island, near Charleston, South Carolina.
Highsmith has given many interviews in the past few days. His sister's 51-year-old abduction in Fort Worth has appeared this week on local and national news outlets. It's even gotten play in Spain and France.
