Tom Hackney, former director for the Jacksonville Sheriffs Office, said its rare for a missing person to be found alive after an extended period of time, there is still a chance Lori Paige can be found alive. People who know Paige want her to know what she is missed dearly. Watch the video above to see where the case stands more than 260 days after the 12-year-old girl was last seen in the Northwest Tallahassee neighborhood.

BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:

Its been eight long months since Lori Paige went missing from Continental Court in Tallahassee. Margaret Summers, a paraprofessional at Griffin Middle School where Lori is a student, has wondered every day where she is with the hopes that shes still alive.

Whatever the situation, if she’s still alive, there’s a chance we can find her. And there’s a chance that we can help undo whatever’s gone on in the last eight months, whatever that might be.

I first spoke with Summers in June two weeks after Lori went missing. For months, Summers felt like the case had gone cold, but recently search efforts have increased. The Jacksonville FBI offered up a $15,000 dollar reward for information leading to finding Lori.

Ariel: “What goes through your mind knowing that those resources are being put into this case?”

Margaret: “That was huge. And when I first saw that was happening, I felt more hopeful than I had felt since the very first time you and I talked, that was the most hope that I felt.”

I spoke with the Jacksonville FBI on the phone Thursday, but they said they arent doing interviews for this case. They did tell me they put up these billboards in areas Lori is familiar with including Tallahassee, Tampa, Panama City, Rome, Georgia, and Nashville, Tennessee. Those areas are their focus for now but they could expand based on what information they receive.

You know, it seems obvious, but when you put that back out there, just like we’re doing now talking about this in the news, it brings the victims picture up and gets people looking for her and maybe can drum up a lead, maybe can cause somebody to make a call and do something.

I spoke with Tom Hackney, former director for the Jacksonville Sheriffs Office. While he says its rare for a missing person to be found alive after an extended period of time, there is still a chance Lori can be found alive.

You still continue to work a case, as long as you have a lead. As long as you have the ability to try to drum up a lead even, that’s something that’s going to continue to happen till they have reason to believe that the case would be closed or not reason to move on.

Summers hasnt given up hope that Lori is alive. She thinks she may be staying with someone who thinks theyre keeping her safe.

A lot of other scenarios have played out in my mind, but as long as she’s still alive, then there’s hope that we can reach some sort of happy ending.

If that is the case, and Lori happens to see this, Summers wants her to know that she is missed dearly.

Lori might have thought that if she just ran away, maybe nobody would miss her. And she needs to know now that that’s not true. We’ve been missing her the whole eight months that she’s been gone. And we’re gonna keep missing her until we know where she is.

For ABC27 in Jacksonville Im Ariel Schiller reporting.

If you have any information on where Lori Paige is you can contact the Jacksonville FBI at (904) 248-7000.