NATCHEZ &045; The out-of-town family of Rena Davis came to Natchez in May 1994 to mourn their daughter and see justice carried out.

They spent more than three weeks living in a hotel room, anticipating an arrest in Rena’s brutal murder.

Eleven years later they are still waiting.

Life went on, and Linda and David Kyzar took their other children back to Florida.

&uot;For a long time we didn’t hear anything from anybody,&uot; Rena’s stepfather David said.

&uot;A lot of the original investigators had moved on to different jobs. It was kind of a shock when Jody (Waldrop) called us and said they’d gotten some new evidence and people had started to talk. It sparked a little hope.&uot;

And though Waldrop, an investigator with the Adams County Sheriff’s Office, refuses to get his hopes up, this cold case seems just a little warmer than three others he’s been working on for more than a year.

During ACSO investigations, new physical evidence has surfaced which Waldrop said could possibly lead to a grand jury indictment against one of several parties.

Davis, 29 at the time of her death, was found dead by a friend on May 17, 1994. She was laying on her bed in her Oakland Drive house, apparently beaten to death.

The cause of death was later confirmed as blunt force trauma to the head.

Natchez Police, including Waldrop, handled the investigation at the time and had several suspects, all acquaintances of Davis, but no arrest was ever made.

One of the original suspects remains the primary suspect.

&uot;We feel this was a crime of passion,&uot; Waldrop said. &uot;A crime out of anger directed to someone you know or love, or claim to love.&uot;

He said the case will be presented to a grand jury once final forensic testing is completed. No timetable has been set.

The case could be handled as a capital murder case because burglary was involved, Waldrop said.

Davis was raising two young daughters at the time of her death, and loved life in Natchez, said Kyzar, a Natchez native.

Davis’s family is confident in the killer’s identity, younger brother Michael said, but they are still without closure.

&uot;I was at a piano lesson,&uot; said 23-year-old Michael, who was in sixth-grade at the time. &uot;I was picked up early by my sisters. Everybody in the family was in the kitchen and my mom was on the floor in tears.&uot;

Those feelings don’t go away, David Kyzar said.

&uot;You think about it every day,&uot; he said. &uot;You want closure to it. You want to know what happened and who was responsible. You definitely hold out hope. We have a good feeling.&uot;

The case is still actively being investigated, and Waldrop asked that anyone with any information contact the Adams County Sheriff’s Office.