REIDSVILLE, N.C. — Five years is a long time, especially when you are missing someone.

Tommy Welch disappeared Oct. 3, 2009. That night the plan was to have family night.

“We gave hugs [and said] we will be back later and we will watch a movie, get us some pizza, once kids went to bed — that was our plan,” said Carrie Price, Tommy Welch’s sister-in-law.

Price and her husband left Tommy and his mom at their Clemmons home. A little while later Tommy walked a half mile to his home and said he would be right back. He never returned.

“We had a feeling. We know Tommy, always keeps in touch with family,” said Price.

Days turned into months. Months turned into years.

“Hope is what keeps you going. You just never give up for something like that,” said Price.

Earlier this week investigators identified two bodies buried in shallow graves in the backyard of a Clemmons home. One was Tommy.

“It’s kind of closure. It’s peace to our hearts. We don’t have to search any harder for Tommy,” said Price.

The other victim is 37-year-old Joshua Wetzler.

Pazuzu Algarad, 35, Amber Burch, 24, have each been charged with first-degree murder and accessory after the fact of first-degree murder. Krystal Matlock, 28, is accused of helping Algarad bury one of the victims.

Price doesn’t know any connection her brother-in-law had to Wetzler or any of the three suspects.

“He was about family. He wouldn’t be into the things they were into. He wasn’t into drugs. He wasn’t into partying, just family mainly,” said Price.

The house where the Welch and Wetzler were discovered is just a few blocks from where Price and her family used to live.

“That tortures us every night. We were so close to him and couldn’t reach out further enough to get him, to help him,” said Price.

The case is still under investigation.