ANNAPOLIS, Md. — "This is our shrine so to speak. That's a picture of Megan and Paris in the pool out back."
Memories and a little wooden box, that's all Jim Tilman has left of his daughter Megan.
"It's been two and a half years and there's a special kind of hell that you live in when someone is missing for a year and a half and then you find out that they were murdered," Megan's aunt, Shannon Perry said.
Perry and Megan's father have been praying for justice.
On November 1, 2017 they reported the 43-year-old missing from Annapolis. At that time, it'd been weeks since anyone had heard from her.
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She didn't show for a custody battle for her youngest battle and that's when her family's suspicion went up.
Less than a month earlier, in October remains were recovered in the area of Holly and Chesapeake Drive in Shady Side.
Initial reports said the remains were an Asian woman.
RELATED: Human remains identified as Annapolis woman missing since fall of 2017
"When we first heard about that body and we heard about it early on, I fell to the floor and then when they said it's not Megan I said but that means some other poor family is out there going through this," Perry said.
While Megan's family waited patiently, months and months went by. When homicide detectives from Anne Arundel County Police obtained DNA samples from family and conducted extensive testing they were finally able to identify the recovered remains as that of Megan Leah Tilman.
Anne Arundel County Detective Kelly Harding has been on the case since 2017 and she's getting close to making an arrest.
"Frustrating though, very frustrating because I need to prove it. There's only once chance. You only get one chance," Harding explained.
Harding is keeping close tabs on Megan's roommates. They shared a townhouse in Annapolis on Rockwell Court when she disappeared. Megan's boyfriend William Rice and another roommate Christina Stallings left town shortly after Megan disappeared.
Police found her jeep dumped in an out of the way shopping center parking lot in Prince Georges County.
"If someone came forward and saw how her jeep ended up in Prince Georges County that's important," Harding said.
Rice and Stallings no longer live in Maryland.
"One is in custody in Tuscon, Arizona and the other one is also in Arizona," Harding explained. "That is where they traveled after they went missing."
Stallings is in custody for something unrelated to this case.
Harding has traveled out west and is working with law enforcement at the Pima County Sheriff's office in Arizona, hoping someone there knows about what happened to Megan.
"If someone in Arizona can come forward and give us information about maybe things that they talked about, William and Christina with other people that's also important," Harding said. "That one nugget. That one piece could make everything fit. That one little piece that one little piece of the puzzle."
Time has passed. People have moved from the neighborhood where Megan lived and likely died, but the Tilman's are hoping money will motivate someone to come forward.
Megan's oldest daughter Paris is now a mother herself, her son Cecil will never know his grandmother, Megan's youngest daughter Grace at just 8 will grow up without her mom.
The Anne Arundel County Police Department is offering a reward of up to $10,000 for information. You can contact the Anne Arundel County Police Department at 410-222-4700.
