Former Warren County Sheriff Paul Barrett and then-deputy Martin Pace walked into a home on Riverwood Circle 10 years ago to find its owner missing and a mattress soaked in blood.

As days passed, tests revealed the blood belonged to Mary Jacqueline Levitz, heir to the fortune created by Levitz Furniture, a chain of retail stores.

&#8220Jackie” Levitz only weeks earlier had moved to Vicksburg from Florida to be closer to family members who grew up with her near Oak Grove, La. Torn false fingernails found scattered on the floor also belonged to the 62-year-old socialite. Her cream-colored Jaguar remained in the driveway. A door to the house was unlocked.

A crime – possibly murder – had been committed. But a local search that quickly expanded to a nationwide manhunt proved fruitless. And in the years since Levitz disappeared, countless leads, retested evidence and statements from witnesses across the country have turned up little.

Now sheriff, Pace recounted the initial investigation.

&#8220We searched the area with ground crews, cadaver dog teams and search dogs,” he said. &#8220Hundreds of man-hours were spent on those first days, but the search revealed nothing. The most bizarre aspect of this is that a body has not been located.”

That despite national and international media reports. The story of Levitz’ disappearance was front-page news in The Miami Herald, Washington Post and the New York Times and was reported extensively on television.

Before moving to Vicksburg from Palm Beach, Levitz purchased a 2,900-square-foot ranch-style home at 15 Riverwood Circle. She planned to double the size of the house, and immediately began hiring contractors to do the work.

On the Saturday she was last seen, Nov. 18, 1995, she drove to nearby Midsouth Lumber & Supply on U.S. 61 South to buy materials for the renovation. Less than two days later, James Earl Shivers, Levitz’s brother-in-law, came looking for her at the home off Warrenton Road after trying, repeatedly, to get her to answer the phone. He’s the one who found the door unlocked. He’s the one who called the sheriff’s department – 10 years ago today.

&#8220Based on witness statements as well as other products of the investigation, we firmly believe this occurred on the Saturday evening she was last seen,” Pace said. &#8220It was not reported until Monday, when the family was checking on her.”

One of Levitz’s sisters, Tiki Shivers of Tallulah, said she tried to convince Levitz to attend the birth of a relative the day she was last seen. She declined.

&#8220She told me she didn’t know anything about birthing, and that she was going to stay home and doctor a cold so she could be ready for the workers when they arrived Monday,” Tiki Shivers said.

Holding a great-grandchild in her lap inside the quiet living room of her Tallulah home near Brushy Bayou last week, she offered her thoughts as to what happened to Levitz.

&#8220I theorized in the very beginning that someone in the Vicksburg area followed her home, knocked on the door and she opened it,” Tiki Shivers said. &#8220Whatever the intention, whether burglary or rape, it got out of hand. I’ve often wondered as to whether the motive was robbery because there were two fur coats left in the closet.”

Levitz had equipped the house only with essential items, such as a bed, table and chairs, while the renovation was ongoing, Tiki Shivers said.

&#8220She was more or less camping out,” Shivers said.

She is convinced the people who killed her sister are from Vicksburg.

&#8220I still feel it was local,” she said. &#8220The reason I feel that way is because she’d only been in Vicksburg over the last five weeks. No one knew she was there. It had to be somebody that just happened to see her in Vicksburg. Nobody’s ever given me any information to change my mind.”

Pace won’t rule out that possibility or the chance that it was a planned revenge or murder-for-hire case.

&#8220We have followed hundreds and hundreds of leads,” he said. &#8220We have not discounted anything. We still feel, as we always have, that someone out there knows something. Obviously, the person responsible knows what happened.”

Relatives have tried their own avenues to find out what happened. They hired private investigators and consulted a psychic.

Tiki Shivers said she still grieves for her sister, but must balance hope against reality that Levitz may eventually be found alive.

&#8220We finally accepted the fact that she was not coming back,” she said. &#8220There’s always hope but after 10 years, you have to face reality. She’s still very much a part of our family, our conversations and our memories.”

Pace assured Tiki Shivers that he will continue to investigate Levitz’s disappearance.

&#8220He told me he has seen cases that were solved after 10 or 12 years,” she said. &#8220He told me, ‘I don’t ever give up – never.’”

Eager to try anything new that might yield positive results in the investigation, Pace asked Chief Deputy Jay McKenzie to review case files, starting from the day Levitz was last seen.

&#8220He went back over the case from the start,” Pace said. &#8220I thought it would be good for someone unfamiliar with the case to look at everything and talk to everybody from the start. But we’ve hit some dead ends. It’s very frustrating.”

Inside McKenzie’s office atop a large corner cabinet sit two boxes of Levitz case files and crime-scene photos.

&#8220This is basically the case right here,” he said, reaching for the boxes. &#8220We’ve tested and retested some evidence. We’ve gone all over the Southeastern United States, from Atlanta to Missouri, talking to people who had some contact” with Levitz.

But reviewing much of the same evidence and reinterviewing witnesses the past 10 years has not discouraged McKenzie.

&#8220This is an open case, but it’s not a cold case,” he said.

Pace said several law-enforcement agencies regularly meet to discuss the case.

&#8220Officials with the FBI, the sheriff’s department and the Vicksburg Police Department meet at least once monthly to discuss leads or information that needs to be followed up on,” he said. &#8220Like any other investigation, information is key.”

One former law-enforcement official no longer connected to the case said he regrets it was not solved years ago under his watch.

&#8220I regret that I didn’t get to stay to try to solve it,” Barrett said. &#8220It’s an interesting case due to the fact that the body was never found, but I think the case is solvable. I feel I could have solved it had I been able to stay” in office.

One of nine children reared on a cotton farm, Levitz eventually left Louisiana and moved to Texas to attend secretarial school. She married Walter Bolton Jr. and together they had a son, Walter III. But the marriage didn’t last and she moved to Washington, D.C., where she worked in real estate. She amassed her own $4 million fortune by buying, renovating and selling houses.

After her second husband, Banks L. Smith, a prosperous restaurant owner, died, Levitz moved to Florida. Twenty years later in 1987, she married Ralph Levitz, founder of Levitz Furniture. But in early 1995, her third husband died, leaving her a trust fund of several million dollars. Upon her death, the money would pass to his grandchildren from previous marriages.

Five years after Levitz vanished, Tiki Shivers and Walter W. Bolton III were appointed executors of Levitz’ estate after a Florida court declared her dead. The home on Riverwood Circle for which Jacqueline Levitz had big plans was also sold.

Vicksburg Police Deputy Chief Richard O’Bannon agreed that the investigation is active.

&#8220There’s been a lot of progress in the case,” said O’Bannon, who was hired by the Vicksburg Police Department about six years after the disappearance. &#8220We’ve tied up some loose ends and did some things that were not done in the beginning. We continue to follow leads. It’s an open, ongoing investigation.”

A $200,000 reward remains for clues that lead to solving the case, Tiki Shivers said. But she has mixed feelings about eventually learning what happened to her sister.

&#8220Sometimes, I think it might be too horrible to know what happened to her,” she said. &#8220But it would be good to have that closure. She will be forever young.”

Debra Maden, a spokesman for the FBI’s Jackson office, said agents with help from Vicksburg police and Warren County deputies expect to solve the case.

&#8220Since the Levitz disappearance, hundreds have been interviewed and reinterviewed and evidence has been sent to several different crime labs to be tested and re-tested, including DNA evidence,” she said. &#8220The case remains open and active, and the FBI is pursuing all leads of value. We anticipate this case will be solved.”