Interview with Detective Jim Holt
UNSOLVED EAST TEXAS | Megan Garner disappeared from apartment complex playground over 30 years ago
The names have changed at the apartment complex on Paluxy Drive over the past three decades, but one thing has stayed the same: the questions of where Megan is.
TYLER, Texas — Megan Garner was just 3 years old when she vanished from a Tyler apartment complex on March 27, 1991. Investigators say this case has become a deeply personal mission — to find answers.
The names have changed at the apartment complex at 4400 Paluxy Drive over the past three decades, but one thing has stayed the same: the questions that revolve around the disappearance of Megan Garner on that spring day in 1991.
"This is the kind of case. it's just a parent's nightmare," Tyler Police Department Det. Jim Holt said.
Exactly 34 years ago, investigators say Megan was last seen playing with her siblings at the playground of what was then the Casa Grande Apartments, which are now known as The Ranch at 4400 Paluxy Drive.
"It wasn't unusual for kids to be on the playground, playing with their siblings and other friends without having everybody's parents hovering right over them," Holt said.
Holt took over the case in 2016, picking up where others had left off, and spent nearly 10 years tirelessly chasing leads.
"To have this happen wasn't normal, especially not to be seen, not to have any kind of witness or any information about it," he said.
Despite years of investigations, including DNA testing and reviews by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, there have been no significant breakthroughs.
"There was never any witnesses to actually saw Megan be abducted or disappear or wander off, whatever happened. There were people of interest that were interviewed, that might have had an involvement, but those were pretty much all ruled out," Holt said.
One of the biggest challenges was the limitations of forensic technology at the time. Decades later, investigators are still working with the same evidence, hoping that advancements will one day bring new leads.
"There's no way you can predict what tools you'll have in the future. So they have no idea of what they could preserve and save and what they could do for a case that's still being looked at 30 years ahead," Holt said. "You just can't predict that. So that's always a battle with any kind of cold case."
Every few years, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children releases an age progression image of Megan. The most recent, from 2022, shows what she might look like at 34. Now, she would be 37 years old.
"I think it's so important to report anything that anyone might remember or might have seen or if someone has seen someone that looks like her age progression because you know all we want at this point is to know where Megan is," Megan’s mother Melanie Jackson said in a 2018 interview with CBS19.
Jackson said despite the years of silence, she holds onto hope that one day, she will learn what happened to her daughter. In 2018, Jackson said she would tell Megan she loves her and she's still looking.
Holt transitioned to the digital forensics unit in 2022, passing Megan’s case to another investigator. He said working cold cases takes an emotional toll and officers need unwavering dedication.
"They're ones you take special interest in, and I think everybody that's ever had the Megan Garner cases, had that special interest. And everybody's wanted to try to find something, wanted to be the one who figures out what happened," Holt said.
Years after he stepped back and decades since Megan was last seen, detectives are still left with no clear explanation for her disappearance or her current whereabouts.
"There's no way of knowing (if she's alive or not). And until we have some evidence, one way or the other, we're still gonna go like it's a missing person and keep looking," Holt said.
Yet, they still hold onto hope, waiting for the next lead that could one day provide the answers that Megan's family has been desperately seeking.
"We really want closure for Megan's mom, and if anybody knows anything, please tell us," Holt said.
