MOBILE, Ala. (WKRG) — The Mobile County Sheriff’s Office announced Thursday that they are reopening the 1998 cold case disappearance of Debra Pritchett thanks to new technology and investigative techniques.

The last known contact from Pritchett was on Jan. 29, 1998. She left a message on a friend’s answering machine that night at about 6:30 letting her friend know that her nursing school classes had been canceled. Pritchett left behind four children.

The Mobile County Sheriff’s Office said Pritchett was 26 at the time of her disappearance. The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System about Pritchett said she was last seen wearing all black.

MCSO said they had recently received new information about Pritchett’s disappearance. As a result, they have excavated land on Auble Moody Road in Wilmer, where Pritchett lived at the time of her disappearance.

Current residents of Auble Moody Road watched everything unfold.

“I was pulling down the road and there was a whole bunch of vehicles sitting outside, then the cops came,” Auble Moody Rd resident, Delaney said.

Residents told WKRG that they watched something be carried from the scene and put into a van. After, the scene cleared.

Charlie Henry has lived directly next door for 25 years. He says that this has been a mystery since Pritchett went missing.

“I didn’t hear no gun shots or nothing,” Henry said.

MCSO asks that anyone with information about Pritchett’s disappearance call them at (251) 574-8633. You can also leave a tip on their website.