She was 24 years old with an infant son. By all accounts, Gina Cyphers was a loving mother and good person.
Those who've followed the case say they don't understand why anyone would have killed her.
It was December 28, 1995. Cyphers dropped off her 15-month-old son at day care--it's a program called "Morning Out for Moms" at a Salina church. When she didn't return a couple hours later, the day care called Cyphers' boyfriend at work. He went to the mobile home they shared and found the young woman brutally murdered. A baby was suddenly without a mom, and police were left with a case that has proven to be a tough one.
It was a crowded mobile home park in the heart of the city with trailers that were close together. The violence happened sometime between noon and nine o'clock in the morning. Still, 17 years later Gina Cyphers' murder remains unsolved.
Initial newspaper reports said she was stabbed, but police are still keeping a lot of details secret. They say there have been a lot of leads that have gone nowhere. It's been frustrating for Cyphers' family who declined a TV interview. But last year, Cyphers' sister, Maria, talked on Salina radio station KINA with host Joan Jerkovich.
"Three days after Christmas, what happened is they got the call that their sister/daughter had been found murdered," Jerkovich recalls. "(Maria) almost couldn't speak to it when we did the interview."
After all these years, it's still hard for those close to Cyphers to talk about the unthinkable violence in a case that has gone cold.
But the case is not forgotten. Salina police say new information leads to a "person of interest."
"A case this old is frustration," Detective Scott Hogeland says. "The community wants to see closure on this. We don't want to see a murderer walk free, and I'm confident an arrest will be made at some point. I can't say when. It could be next week, it could be several years down the road. But, I'm confident an arrest will be made at some point.
And maybe someday we'll know why this young mom who liked baking cookies and caring for her baby, died so suddenly and violently.
A Governor's Reward has been offered in the amount of $5,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person(s) responsible for this crime.
If you have information on this case call either the Salina Police Department or the Kansas Bureau of Investigation at 1-800 KS-CRIME.
