HAMPTON, Va. - For Joe Slabinski, Founder and Executive Director of W.A.T.E.R. Team Inc., on Day 365, he reads the same vow he has kept since Day 1.
“Codi Bigsby. Missing and not forgotten. Missing in the darkness. Vanished without a trace. We will not stop, until you are home safe. January 31, 2022,” Slabinski read.
January 31, 2022 was the day Codi Bigsby was reported missing, and the first of 365 days, so far, Slabinski has spent looking for the Hampton boy.
According to Slabinski, W.A.T.E.R. Team Inc.’s search for Codi has stretched all over Hampton Roads, from Virginia Beach to Gloucester County and Williamsburg, and as far as the Eastern Shore and Roanoke.
“It’s been everything from the swamp to the mountain,” Slabinksi said.
News 3 asked Slabinski what has kept his team going to search for Codi this past year.
“You can’t stop,” he said. “You have to keep going until there’s an answer, and the answer is he’ll be found.”
As for Klalil Cribb, CEO and President of United We Stand of Hampton Roads, his group has invested a year of putting up flyers, organizing volunteer searches in Hampton Roads and as far as Maryland, and putting together other events like a holiday toy drive for kids in Codi's neighborhood.
“There’s people out here that still do care about you guys out here,” Cribb said. “We still care about Codi. We’re not going to give up.”
Cribb told News 3 these efforts are all towards keeping Codi’s name alive.
“Even though it’s one year, I still think Codi’s out here somewhere.”
“We work on the assumption of 95 percent alive, 5 percent he’s not,” Slabinski added.
Meanwhile, both Cribb and Slabinski are reflecting on this anniversary, and look forward to hitting the search trails again soon.
“We’ve had a growth change in those woods where things greened up, and now we’re back to being dormant,” Slabinski said. “Was there something we missed in there? Something unearthed that wasn’t available at the time?”
Both hope to help bring an answer to a family and a community, and a boy home in 2023.
“I think we both hope and pray for the same thing that we’re not standing here on January 31, 2024, asking the same questions,” Slabinski said. “I am confident of one thing. I’m confident that many, many people are not going to give up hope on finding this child.”
For Cribb, he said his group wants to organize a volunteer search for Codi in Hampton Roads to be held in March, if not sooner. He also wants to do a search in Delaware.
Meanwhile, Slabinski said his crew will focus on Norfolk to York County, going back to familiar sites and trying to cover new terrain.
He also told News 3 they'd like to expand out of state as well, especially to areas of the Midwest, to try and uncover any clues.
