Decades-Long Mystery Begins With Play Day Outdoors

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Brothers Basil and Jamal Abdul'Faruq went missing from Richmond, Va. in 1990. Basil's remains were three days later in a dumpster, but Jamal still remains missing.

It was April 16, 1990, and schools in Richmond, Va.'s south side were closed for Spring Break. The weather was finally warming up, and it was shaping up to be a perfect day for the Abdul'Faruq brothers -- two little boys who loved to play outside.

Basil, 8, and Jamal, 7, spent the morning with their father, Everette Abdul'Faruq. He and their mother, Tambra Ellis, were divorced, and shared custody of their two sons. Everette and his boys enjoyed some father-son time at a local park before Everette had to rush off to work.

"I felt really bad about it because I didn't want to leave," says Everette. "I noticed the disappointment in them so I told them I would visit with them the next day and we would have more time."

Pressed for time, Everette asked his then-wife to take them back to Tambra's house while he got ready for work, not realizing he'd never get the chance to keep that promise to Basil and Jamal.

Tambra was exhausted when the boys arrived home that day. She worked the midnight shift at a factory in Richmond, and was catching up on some sleep.

But the boys didn't want to be indoors on such a beautiful day -- especially since other neighborhood kids were outside playing ball on the streets. They begged their mother to go outside, and she agreed.

"I wasn't afraid to let them out," says Tambra. "They walked to school every day, and there were other kids playing outside."

Tambra then closed her eyes for a 30-minute nap. It would be the last time she'd sleep for days.

Search For Abdul'Faruq Brothers Takes A Tragic Turn

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Jamal, as he appeared around the time he went missing from Richmond, Va. in 1990.

When Tambra awoke, she went outside to call the boys in to eat. She didn't see them, and began asking the other kids if they knew where Basil and Jamal had gone.

None of them knew.

Tambra thought they might have walked off to the neighborhood store, so she went to look for them there -- but there was no sign of the boys.

She searched around the apartment complex and on each floor, thinking they were playing a hiding game, but didn't find them.

The panic didn't set in until the sun went down -- but when it hit, it hit hard and heavy.

"It's a hard feeling to describe, like a sickness in the pit of your stomach," says Tambra. "It's pure fear."

Tambra called the police, then Everette -- and continued searching for Basil and Jamal.

"I just kind of lost it right there. I jumped in my vehicle and drove to the children's mother, and she was sitting at the table holding her head in her hands," remembers Everette. "I ran outside screaming and yelling and knocking on people's doors -- it was a nightmare, a total nightmare."

The next 24 hours were a frantic whirlwind. Family members, police from several jurisdictions, and volunteers gathered to help search for the little boys. The search continued nonstop through the night and the following days, with no sign of Basil or Jamal.

But three days later, Tambra and Everette received the news that would change their lives forever: Basil had been murdered.

Basil's Murder Shocks Richmond, Va. Suburb

According to police, Basil's body was found in a private dump in Chesterfield County, Va. -- a suburb of Richmond.

Basil had been bound, gagged, and stabbed in the back.

His body had been placed in a garbage bag and thrown away with the trash. Cops say either a back hoe or the compactor of the trash truck had ripped open the bag and caused massive post-mortem trauma to Basil's head.

Along with Basil's body, police found a rib that they believe to be human and that did not belong to the murdered youngster. Police are in the process of analyzing the rib to determine whether or not it is, in fact, human, as well as how it came to be in the same place as Basil's body in the dumpster.

"The lights went out for a second is the only way I could describe it," says Tambra. "I was numb."

Police searched over the next few days for Jamal, hoping against the odds that he hadn't met a similar fate. But despite all of the interviews conducted, and searches completed, no information about Jamal surfaced.

And even now, 19 years later, what happened to Jamal remains a mystery. But Everette and Tambra have never given up hope that the answers will surface.

"He'd be a grown man now, 26-years-old," says Everette. "I feel guilty in terms of, 'How is it that I'm able to keep going on and functioning?'"

"In my heart of hearts I still have faith that he's alive and living his own life," says Tambra. "If you are reading this, I want to tell you to come home. Come home. I miss you. You can always come home."