Whatever it was that was found, it has given her mother hope...but hope of what? Since her mom is not in the media every day, we don't know what she believes at this point. Does she believe Holly is still alive, and this item gave her hope of that, OR has she started to come to terms with the idea that the best they can hope for is to bring Holly home and lay her to rest with dignity?
(I am in no way saying that it is more likely that Holly is dead, but if it were my absolutely stunning twenty year old daughter potentially trapped in the woods with a sadist...I would likely pray that the horror was already over instead of having to face the idea that she might never come home in any form and may in fact live twenty or thirty years like that.) For some people, it is easier to move on that way and easier to face the death of a loved one as opposed to the ?????? of a loved one.
So I am trying to keep an open mind here, and for me to do that, I wish that someone would have clarified exactly what it is that her mother has hope for. (And I am in no way saying that Holly's mom hopes she is dead, I'm just saying that in a case like this, it might be hard for any of us to know exactly what to hope for, espacially when we don't know what info the family has been given by LE that we may not be privy to.) MOO.