WENTZVILLE • Eva McWilliams hoped that family and friends would think of a tattoo as a tangible reminder of the disappearance 20 years ago of her nephew Arlin Henderson.

On Saturday, a number of people got one at Ken's Tattoos & Body Piercing here.

The proceeds from the event went to the effort to keep alive awareness of Arlin and other missing children.

"We are not going to give up hope," McWilliams said. "They found Jaycee Dugard, and she was kidnapped a month before Arlin. So there's hope that he can still be out there."

McWilliams, 52, of Winfield, said the Lincoln County Sheriff's Department and the FBI are still actively investigating the case. Arlin, 12, disappeared about 5 p.m. July 25, 1991, while riding his bike in Moscow Mills.

McWilliams said that Debra Henderson-Griffith, who is Arlin's mother and McWilliams' sister, just had treatment for breast cancer. She was not at the fundraiser.

"She would love to be able to find her baby and find out what happened,' McWilliams said. "She prays every day. Not one day has gone by that she hasn't said something about him, like where is he or where can he be."

McWilliams was planning to get a tattoo, although she already had two. One is in memory of Joy Leonard, who was Arlin's sister. She was fatally shot along with three other people on March 10, 2000, in Lincoln County.

"I'm hoping Arlin comes home, but we know Joy can't," McWilliams said. "Joy died not knowing where her brother was."

Her husband, the Rev. Jim McWilliams, 60, received the first tattoo. He chose the image of a flower with the words "Not Forgotten." "It's just like with Jaycee Dugard," he said. "Nobody remembered who that child was when she walked into the police station a grown woman."

He said, "We can never ever give up the fight for this, and we won't."

Outside the shop, large missing posters about Arlin were displayed. A woman pulled up in a car and asked, "Who is Arlin and why are you looking for him."

"That's a shame," Jim McWilliams said. "This is why my wife and myself do what we do. We want to keep his name out there."

The family has a website — www.lookforarlin.com.

Marianne Asher-Chapman, 56, of Holts Summit, Mo., drove 90 miles with her granddaughter Samantha Jones, 12, to attend the fundraiser. She co-founded Missouri Missing after her daughter Angie Yarnell, 28, went missing almost eight years ago in Morgan County, Mo.

Asher-Chapman has a tattoo to remember her daughter by.

She said her daughter's husband is serving time for Yarnell's murder and told police where her body was buried.

But the body was never found, and Chapman goes to a site with a shovel every two months in search of the body. "I pray that I will find her," Asher-Chapman said.

The tattooing was contributed by the owner of Ken's Tattoos, Ken Azar, 45, of Florissant, and his employee Rich Nelson, 30, of O'Fallon, Mo. Azar has known McWilliams for years and wanted to help out.

By midday Saturday, a dozen people had gotten tattoos, and double that number had appointments to get one.

A $10,000 reward is being offered for information leading to an arrest and conviction in Arlin's disappearance. Anyone with information is asked to call their local FBI office.