A long, trying year

It has been 12 months now since anyone saw Tom and Jackie Hawks.

For the Hawkses’ family and friends, it has been a long, painful year -- an unimaginable year.

The sad story started in November 2004, when Tom and Jackie Hawks disappeared -- friends and family assumed the retired couple, who had been living in Newport Beach, had set sail on their boat, Well Deserved. Then, their boat turned out to be moored here in Newport, and the mystery deepened.

Newport Beach Police detectives began piecing the story together. First, charges were filed involving money laundering. After months of investigation, police decided the Hawkses were killed by five people, including a young couple who had approached the Hawkses about buying Well Deserved. The five people now face murder charges, though no trial dates have been set.

And so the waiting continues for Tom and Jackie Hawks’ friends and family.

The waiting must be unimaginable.

A year after this terrible saga began, our thoughts -- and, we are sure, the thoughts of the Newport-Mesa community, as well -- are with those who knew the Hawkses, with those whom the Hawkses loved.

A year after this saga started, we hope that solace comes soon and that the expected trials do not drag out unnecessarily.

We also hope that justice is served, that the trials are fair, and most of all, that the truth of the Hawkses’ disappearance is made known.