Milwaukee Police Department is still looking for Alexis Patterson, 20 years later

Twenty years ago, Alexis Patterson disappeared. The seven-year-old girl was last seen walking to Hi-Mount School in Milwaukee on May 3, 2002. But she did not attend classes that day and did not return home. In the weeks that followed, people throughout Milwaukee searched for Patterson, hoping to bring her home.

The Milwaukee Police Department is still trying to solve this case and figure out what happened to Patterson.

Detective Jeremiah Jacks is with the Milwaukee Police Department and shares more about their efforts to find Patterson.

Jacks starts by explaining how officers initially responded to Patterson's disappearance — they searched her home to make sure she wasn't hiding anywhere, schools were searched and a list of family and friends in the area were cross-examined. Police also searched the area by car and foot.

"I can tell you that we've explored every possibility, every lead that's come in, regardless of who provides the information or where the information lead us. We followed up," Jacks says.

He says the department spared no expense or manpower, and it's worked very closely with local media to get her story out.

Tips have come in from all over the country. In 2016, a tip came in that an Ohio woman might have been Alexis Patterson. However, a DNA test showed that the woman was not Patterson.

Though 20 years have passed, Jacks urges anyone in the public who may know something to come forward. "For us to be able to fully resolve this case, I need people who were willing to sit down with me and talk. I can keep their names out of certain paperwork and we can work our way through it but I really need those people the public who have intimate knowledge of this to contact me so we can give the community the closure."

Anyone with information about the disappearance of Alexis Patterson is asked to call the Milwaukee police at 414-935-7630.