STOCKTON, CA - The searches started immediately after Cyndi Vanderheiden went missing in 1998.
Her family always suspected Cyndi's friends, Wes Shermantine and Loren Herzog, who were the last two people to see her before she disappeared.
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Vanderheiden's father kept her case active in the media and with law enforcement by conducting searches. Shermantine and Herzog were eventually convicted for Cyndi's murder, but her body was never found.
"Fourteen years of doing this. It's quite devastating," Cydi's father John Vanderheiden said. "I wouldn't want it to be done to anybody else."
The location of Cyndi's body remains a mystery, but a new search conducted by the San Joaquin and Calaveras Counties Sheriff's offices uncovered the biggest clue to her disappearance.
"Sheriff Moore called me and said they found a human skull and it had fillings in the teeth," Vanderheiden said. "It sounds like it could be my daughter. I'm hopeful that it is. If not, I hope it's one of the other victims so that the other families can get closure too."
Vanderheiden didn't travel up to Calaveras County after receiving the news. He decided to keep his regular business appointments throughout the day, saying there wasn't much he could do to help.
"I've got my phone with me," Vanderheiden said. "I answer every call that's called to me just in case it's them saying 'Hey, we can confirm it is your daughter or it's not.' That's what I'm waiting for."
After waiting more than a decade for this discovery, Vanderheiden said he hopes to finally give his daughter a proper burial, so that they can both rest in peace.
News10/KXTV