SALEM, Ore. -- With the 25th anniversary of her sister's death approaching, Janet Wilson e-mailed Salem police detectives in January to see if any progress had been made in solving the murders of the 32-year-old woman and her nine-year-old daughter.

"I really didn't expect to hear from anyone, or that I would hear the case was inactive or had been closed," Wilson said. "The very next morning I received an e-mail telling me there were two detectives currently actively working on the case. I was shocked."

But the anniversary came and went this weekend with still no arrest.

Salem police have long had a suspect, but don't have the evidence to file charges. The investigation is now in the hands of Detective Jeff Staples, who is trying to find something that might have been overlooked or can be re-examined.

"It's one of those cases that no one wants to put down and no one wants to give up on," Staples said.

On March 8, 1983, 14-year-old Jennifer Payne, who has cerebral palsy, came home from school to find her mother, Laurel Wilson, and sister, Erika Payne, gone. She was anxious about their absence and watched some television to ease her mind. She heated some leftovers before going to bed.

In the morning, the girl walked into Wilson's bedroom and found her mother and sister lying face down on the bed. The girl knew something was wrong but didn't approach. She didn't know what to do, so she went to school.

Police learned of the deaths later in the day, when Wilson's ex-boyfriend Colby Strom found the bodies. Mother and daughter had both died from gunshot wounds to the head.

Investigators determined Wilson and Payne had been killed shortly before Jennifer Payne returned home from school March 8. There were no signs of forced entry and no evidence of a struggle, and detectives quickly focused on a prime suspect who remains on their radar today.

Staples refused to name the suspect. He said the man was last interviewed in the mid-1990s and no longer lives in Oregon.

Detectives plan to re-interview Jennifer Payne next month. She went on to become a certified nurse assistant and currently cares for her grandparents and an aunt who is developmentally disabled.

Janet Wilson, a school principal in San Diego, gives out an award in her sister and niece's name, the Wilson-Payne Peacebuilder Award, to her students around the time of Erika's birthday, June 7. The award honors children who have been the most peaceful and kind in their class.

"I remember Sgt. Larry Stephens telling me, 'No one walks into my town and kills a mother and child in broad daylight,"' Wilson recalled. "I know how much blood, sweat and tears they've put into this case."