In late November 2017, 27-year-old Justin Hooiman was on the phone with his mother.
That day, as he was leaving Fortitude Treatment Center — a transition center for parolees recently out of prison — the two made plans to meet up for lunch that afternoon. But Hooiman didn’t show up and hasn’t been seen since.
A group of Hooiman’s friends and family gathered at the Salt Lake City Public Safety Building on Wednesday morning, wearing shirts printed with the hashtag #neverforgotten and a picture of Hooiman. His mother and older sister tearfully pleaded for anyone who may have any information about Hooiman’s disappearance to come forward.
“Someone somewhere knows what happened to him,” said Hooiman’s mother, Marilyn Stevenson. “When he didn’t show up, we knew something was wrong.”
Hooiman would’ve turned 32 on Tuesday. He attended Jordan High School and played for the school’s soccer team until he shattered his ankle while playing. He was put on OxyContin for the pain, his older sister Misty Beaver said.
That was when Hooiman became addicted to opioids. He later pleaded guilty to two class A misdemeanor charges of attempted theft and was sent to prison in early 2017.
“We know that he made a lot of mistakes due to that,” Stevenson said. “But he was loved by so many. We just want to bring him home.”
Beaver said her brother didn’t go more than a few days without calling her or their mother, and since he’s not the type of person to run away, they call investigators every time a body is found in the area to see if the description matches Hooiman’s. They’ve been making that call for four years now.
“He called us constantly — in the good times and the bad,” Beaver said. “So the fact that he went past Thanksgiving, past his dear niece’s birthday, past his own birthday, past my birthday, Christmas, Mother’s Day — that’s when we knew my brother was not going to be coming home alive.”
Family members remember Hooiman as someone who was loving and friendly — the type of person to make a friend during a stop at a convenience store, his sister said.
His niece, Desiree Frederick, was almost 14 when Hooiman disappeared and said he was like an older brother since she was born while he was in high school. She recounted the scar Hooiman has on his ankle from his soccer injury and that he used to tell her he got the injury from fighting off a dragon behind the Wasatch Mountains that was trying to come for her.
“That’s how I always saw him as somebody who was there for you, ready to do everything,” Frederick said.
Beaver and her siblings prayed for years for a little brother before Hooiman was born. Now they are praying to have him returned to them and that someone who may have heard a rumor or anything regarding his disappearance will give police a new lead.
“We have searched tirelessly,” Stevenson said. “The police have searched and searched. They basically need some leads. This is a plea — this is a plea to help us find the answers so that we can close this case.”
