As Eva Williams entered her eighth Christmas season without her son, she still doesn’t know who killed him, or why.

“I was just wondering, ‘Why? What happened?’” Williams said of her feelings upon learning that Trevor Casper, age 29, was dead. Casper, a Chesapeake native, disappeared on May 18, 2002.

“I was at work,” Williams recalled this week. “His wife at the time called to find out if we had heard from him.”

Williams had heard from her son that morning. They talked every day, she said.

Casper had talked about his children — now ages 19, 16 and 15 — and discussed having fish for dinner. By the time dinnertime came, however, his wife and mother were filing a missing person report with Chesapeake police.

Weeks passed. Casper’s abandoned car was found in Southampton County in June.

“I was just really hoping they would find him without anything being wrong,” Williams said this week.

Months passed. On Aug. 20, 2002, children playing in the 200 block of Buckhorn Drive in Suffolk discovered Casper’s body, identified later that week through dental records and fingerprints.

“He was quiet, sort of outgoing,” Williams said. “He knew a lot of people. Everybody liked him.”

Williams said not a day goes by that she doesn’t miss her son — especially when she talks to his children and during the holiday season.

“Every year [during the holidays], it’s the same thing,” said Danny Williams, Eva’s husband and stepfather to Casper. “You always wonder who and why.”

Suffolk Police Detective G.D. Myrick has been working the case since a new Cold Case Unit was formed two years ago. The unit has solved six cases — most with convictions already on the books — in its short history.

Investigators in 2002 “worked all the leads available to them at that time,” Myrick said, but the crime scene yielded minimal evidence besides the body itself.

Successes in new forensic technology, however, have promising implications for the Casper case. Myrick hopes to submit a number of pieces of evidence for new testing soon, he said.

“Trevor’s case is one of those cases that I think we should be able to do something with,” Myrick said. “At least, it could produce some new leads that may take the case in a different direction.”

As Myrick searches for answers to the Casper case, Williams waits. She calls Myrick occasionally to check on his progress.

“I know they can’t bring him back,” Williams said. “I just want to know something before the good Lord closes my eyes.”

To provide information on the Casper case, or any other cold case, call Myrick at 514-7904, or call Crime Line at 1-888-LOCK-U-UP. Callers to Crime Line never have to give their names or appear in court, and they may be eligible for a reward of up to $1,000.