After nine years, Emma Jackson still sees her daughter, Toyal Jackson, in her dreams.

“They are always happy dreams,” she said. “I thank the Lord that I can still see her. I feel that she is in heaven.”

Jackson said the powerful memories along with a deep faith have helped her to forgive, but forgiveness hasn’t dampened the desire to identify her daughter’s killer.

“Every day I still think about what happened,” Emma Jackson said. “2010 will be 10 years. I sure would like to get some closure.”

On Nov. 29, 2000, Toyal Jackson, a student at the University of West Georgia, made a late-night Walmart run. Police know she went in the store, made some purchases and walked her shopping cart back to her car. But before she could even unload her purchases, Toyal Jackson went missing.

Her body was discovered a month later in a remote field.

A witness reportedly spotted Toyal with a man who was driving a dull red Nissan pickup truck, but a college friend told police he believed a group of people were involved because Toyal would not have been abducted easily.

Despite numerous tips, the information from 2000 left investigators guessing, and Lt. James Perry of the Carrollton Police Department said he is constantly reminded of the unsolved case.

“We want to keep this at the front of everybody’s minds,” Perry said. “We don’t want to bury it, we want to solve it.”

Every day when Perry walks into his office, he sees Toyal’s picture on his desk.

When he watches the evening news, he said he constantly tries to link a case or a pictured criminal to Toyal.

“I always pay attention to people arrested for murder,” Perry said. “I always look for similarities, no matter how small they might be.”

Even last week, Perry sat at his desk with a Jackson case file opened, scouring the Internet for possible leads.

“We have boxes of information,” Perry said. “This whole file drawer is only filled with what we’ve done over the past two years.” The most recent possibility Perry pursued was what he described as an improbable link between Toyal Jackson’s killer and the suspect in the disappearance of a Blairsville woman, Kristi Cornwell.

“At this point we don’t think they are connected but we are still looking at that,” Perry said.

Investigators have also profiled numerous serial killers arrested in other states to find out if the killers could have been in Georgia on Nov. 29, 2000.

Perry said he is still waiting for the one phone call that could lead him to Toyal’s killer.

“On episodes of ‘America’s Most Wanted,’ they say, ‘Somebody out there knows something about it,’ and the same is true of Toyal’s case,” Perry said. “But that one person, that one phone call hasn’t happened.”

Emma Jackson said she, her husband and her daughter are also waiting for a breakthrough.

“If somebody out there knows something, I hope they would come forward,” Emma Jackson said. “I hope they will search their hearts and souls and come forth.”

According to Perry, the police department consistently gets calls about Toyal’s case, but nothing has led police to a suspect.

“We can protect someone if they come forward with information,” Perry said. “We are begging the public for any help.”

Anyone who might have any information about Toyal Jackson’s murder can call the Carrollton Police Department at 770-834-4451. There is a $17,000 reward for any information leading to an arrest.