Mark and Debbie Baskin hope to reunite with their children, Christie and Bobby, after a 20-year absence.

They just don’t know where their children are.

Former sheriff’s Detective Carolyn McGowen believes Debbie Baskin’s parents, Marvin and Sandra Maples, abducted Christie, then 8, and Bobby, then 7, in March 1989 from their Rutherford County home and disappeared.

Mark Baskin said the past 20 years have been tough because he and his wife don’t know what happened to their children or how they’ve spent the time.

“The not knowing is the most threatening to us,” Baskin said during a telephone call last week from his Toombs County, Ga., home. “There’s no way we’re going to get these 20 years back. … It’s been tough.”

At the time, McGowen enlisted the help of the FBI, other law enforcement agencies, the Center for Missing and Exploited Children and even an underground network she believes Marvin Maples contacted to help him and his wife find new identities. She traced telephone records and Social Security numbers.

“None of it was concrete enough to find anyone,” McGowen said with remorse in her voice. “We did everything we knew to do at the time.”

Since then, different detectives investigated with few leads. Lt. Bill Sharp and Sgt. Dan Goodwin of the Cold Case Unit reviewed the case file Aug. 15. They communicated with America’s Most Wanted television program whose producers agreed to publish a story about the missing Baskin children last fall on the Internet. They received a tip in December about a witness who saw the Maples and the Baskin children in the late 1980s to early 1990s in San Diego. That information matched calls in 1989 with sightings of the grandparents and grandchildren at a pool party in Santa Clara, Calif.

Sharp and Goodwin interviewed the Baskins and other witnesses. They are trying to find new identities for the Maples’ who might use the names of Ray and Sandra Farmer or Harvey and Joan Wilson.

“It’s basically searching for ghosts,” Sharp said.

Sharp, the father of two children, can’t imagine not knowing what happened to the Baskins’ children and how the parents missed events like first dates and prom dances.

“You can’t move on and get on with your life when you have two vacant and void spots in your heart,” Sharp said.

He and Goodwin, the father of three children, are committed to trying to find the children who are now 28 and 27. They believe Debbie Baskin’s siblings still have contact with the Maples.

The investigators obtained age progression pictures of how the children might look now as adults and showed the pictures to McGowen.

“It was poignant to see what they might look like now,” McGowen said.

Like McGowen, the Baskins couldn’t comprehend how their children might appear as adults from the age progression pictures.

“I can’t believe it’s really them,” Baskin said. “If I saw them in the flesh, I would say the same thing. … It’s like an out-of-body experience.”

The Baskins’ nightmare

When Mark Baskin decided to obtain his master’s degree at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in the late 1980s in Louisville, Ky., the Maples kept Christy and Bobby while Baskin, his wife, and youngest son, Michael, settled in. But when the parents wanted their children back, the Maples accused them of sexually abusing Christie and Bobby.

The children remained with the Maples during several months of an investigation and court proceedings. During that time, Baskin became so frustrated he called the Department of Children’s Services and accused the Maples of abusing his children, asking the children be put into a foster home while the case was settled.

Just before the court cleared the Baskins, the Maples’ disappeared in March 1989.

Goodwin quoted a comment from then-Juvenile Court Referee Jeff Henry who presided over the hearing.

 “Quite honestly, I think this is the most abusive thing I’ve seen someone do in a court of law in my 19 years of practice,” Henry said as he found no evidence of abuse. Courts cleared the Baskins.

Goodwin said the abduction ripped apart the Baskins.

“Can you imagine the betrayal — your own parents stealing your children away from you … and the whole thing was a lie?” Goodwin said. “Words can’t describe how it must feel, the loss. It has to be staggering. I don’t know how they continue on.”

Coping with the loss

The Baskins realized they could either grow apart and get divorced or get closer. They chose to stay together, especially for the sake of their son, Michael, who was 5 when his siblings were abducted.

“God made sure we had Michael,” the father said, wondering aloud what would have happened if he and his wife didn’t have a child to focus on during the early days.

They became foster parents of Paul, who is three-fourths Vietnamese, when he was five weeks old. Debbie carried him on her stomach while her husband carried Paul on his back to bond with him. They adopted him at age 1. He’s now 16.

Although they’ve lost two children, they’ve gained through the lives of Michael and Paul.

“We rely heavily on the power of Christ in our lives,” Baskin said simply. “He has gotten us through things. If it hadn’t been for the supernatural intervention, I don’t think we would have gotten through it.”

At the beginning, Baskin said he lived on an “automatic pilot” life. He doesn’t remember much about the first few months.

For the first three years, he awoke every day drinking in the sunrise and believing his children would return that day. As time wore on, he became disappointed and hardened.

“Anytime a lead happened we would go through a plethora of emotions,” Baskin described as negatively opening up wounds but positively bringing a ray of hope. “The sad thing is these hopes get weaker and weaker.”

The Center for Missing and Exploited Children gives them hope by sending out periodic documents about Christie and Bobby. The Baskins experienced a weird moment when they saw age progression posters of Christie and Bobby in a Florida Wal-Mart.

“They have really put out a lot of effort in the last 20 years. The center has done a marvelous job.”

Life today

Baskin teaches music in Montgomery County, Ga., and his wife teaches fifth grade math in Toombs County, Ga., where they live between Macon and Savannah. He recently became pastor of Normantown Baptist Church in Normantown, Ga.

“I’m blessed with a great wife and great kids,” Baskin said.

He and his wife hope they will reunite with Christie and Bobby.

“The first thing we will tell them is ‘we have never stopped loving you. Second, we don’t blame you for what happened’ because they may blame themselves. Third, we would love to have a relationship with you if you would allow it.”

While he doesn’t hate his in-laws, Baskin fears them.

“I don’t wish them ill as far as health or life,” Baskin said thoughtfully. “I would love to see them in jail to pay for what they did. No amount of money or effort could repay what we’ve been through. I would like to see justice.”

He receives comfort knowing his children professed their faith before being abducted.

“I know we will see them again someday,” Baskin said with hope. “It may not be on earth but I feel quite sure we’ll see them again.”

Lisa Marchesoni may be reached at 869-0814 or at lmarchesoni@murfreesboropost.com.