Gabrielle "Gabbiee" Swainson, 15, missing Columbia SC 8/18/12

[Lady Cop]

Gabbiee Swainson's father, Alvin Thompson

COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) -
"I'm not ever going to give up," said Alvin Thompson. "No one should ever give up on someone if there's hope."

Additional Links
Sheriff: "We have not found Gabbiee yet"
Lott to update on "very complex" investigation into teen's disappearance
Thompson calls himself a foot soldier in the search for his missing 15-year-old daughter, Gabbiee Swainson. He's been looking day and night for her.

"Under the houses, in the alleys, in abandoned buildings, in the ditches," he said.

"I do feel that she is still alive but it ain't gonna be long," said Thompson. "It ain't gonna be long. We got to find her before it's too late."

Thompson lives in Virginia and has eight kids. All of them are grown except Gabbiee. He doesn't see his youngest daughter often but said he's always been in Gabbiee's life.

"We all got along great when we talked," he said. "All my kids I hardly ever see because I'm a truck driver and I'm gone half the time."

In spite of his schedule, Thompson wishes he could have done more.

"I kinda' blame myself for not being here to protect her," he said.

A few years ago, Thompson said Gabbiee took a church trip to New York City. She called him before she left.

"She said, 'Daddy I'm gonna go up there but I'm scared,'" recalled Thompson. "'What are you scared of?' 'If I get lost, you gonna come and get me?' I said, 'New York is big but I'll come. I'll come and look.'"

"Now I think about back when she told me would I come get her," he said. "Now I can't find her."

More than a week after Gabbiee disappeared, 52-year-old Freddie Grant was arrested.

"I didn't know about this Freddie Grant at that time," said Thompson. "I had never heard of a Freddie Grant or met a Freddie Grant. Gabbiee never told me about a Freddie Grant."

But Thompson's sister, Zoraida Turnipseed, said she met Grant two days after Gabbiee was gone.

"I never knew a yard man," she said. "He was never introduced to me as a yard man. When I got there before 7 a.m. Monday morning Freddie Grant was there."

"He was lying in the office on a day bed," said Turnipseed.

(i just love the name Turnipseed)