SEATTLE -- There are new efforts to find a crucial piece of evidence to unlock a 30 year old mystery.

Marci Joyce disappeared from Whatcom County in 1978 and as detectives dig into her cold case, the woman’s son and husband are at odds over what happened.

According to a police report taken after Joyce’s disappearance, her husband said he went to the bank the morning of Aug. 30, 1978 to withdraw money. He was told it was all gone.

When he called their Bellingham home, their then 9-year-old son Tony, said his mom had gone in the yard to hang laundry. He couldn’t find her and no one ever did.

When asked what would separate Joyce from her kids, her sister Jill Nicks said, "Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Death."

Nicks said she has never believed the explanation for her sister's disappearance.

"He wasn't interrogated, they just took his statement," Tony Joyce said, referring to his dad.

He said no sign of foul play was ever found at the home, and that his father, Tom Joyce, always maintained his mom had skipped out. Tony said he never believed it.

“It broke my heart because I knew it wasn't true,” Tony said.

KIRO 7 Eyewitness News contacted Tom Joyce on the phone. He said he has no doubt that Marci disappeared on her own free will.

Tom Joyce now plays with a professional gospel group near Knoxville, Tenn.

He said he used to have records to prove she had taken their money with her, but over the course of 30 years has thrown them away.

To Marci Joyce’s family, the case is still an open wound.

“It's just always there. It's just this low grade chronic sadness about that you know. Every holiday you think of her, every holiday of when she turned up missing, it's just always there,” Nicks said.

Investigators recently went to Knoxville to talk to Tom Joyce again.

They are now looking anyone who worked at Northwestern Commercial Bank who might remember anything about the account in question.

If that applies to you, call the Whatcom County Sheriff's Department.