Mother seeks help from Vicksburg community to find son’s guitar

VICKSBURG, MS. – Shelley Leyens is seeking help from the Vicksburg community to help find her son’s guitar, a Crafter acoustic, after pawning it sometime last year. The guitar was a Christmas present from 2018. Her son, Nick Dorrell, passed away in December after struggling with addiction. He was 27 years old.

“He’d asked for a guitar for Christmas in 2018. Specifically, he asked for a ‘pawn shop guitar’.” I think, to him, a used guitar has more soul,” said the mother.

Just after Nick passed away in December of 2023 the mother, still grieving from the loss of her son, began searching for “anything and everything that was his.”

“Anything I could hold on to that would connect me in someway with my son. I thought about his guitar because he and I had recently discussed it, and he seemed to think that the pawn shop would still have it and that he could get it back. But he’d not told me where he pawned it,” said Leyens.

On December 28, the morning of Nick’s memorial service, Shelley’s husband, Laurence, went to various pawn shops in town, and found records that Nick had pawned it to Top Dollar Pawn, and it had sold, but there was no record of who’d bought it.

After the initial search, the numb days and months that follow a tragic loss put the guitar briefly out of mind

“Don’t let your past define your name”

“The past 7 months have been hell. It is unlike any other heartache. There is no recovery. Just learning to live with it. Prayer, my family, my co workers, friends, sweet people who are unfortunately in this same terrible club sending me support books, and a lot of therapy have helped me grow around my grief,” said Leyens.

Since her son’s passing, she’s read and heard so many stories similar to Nick’s.

“With fentanyl, the relapses are too often fatal. And, it’s not just relapses that kill. Dealers are lacing fentanyl into other drugs,” she said.

“Life can get hard sometimes, I know”

“Sam Barber’s “Straight and Narrow” always makes me cry. The melody is haunting and the lyrics sound like what we all said to Nick so many times, about not giving up. And I know he tried, like so many others. So last week, a fresh surge of tears fell while listening to “Straight and Narrow,” but this time I suddenly remembered Nick’s guitar and that going to a pawnshop is [what] many do for fun or as a way to make money, and will frequent the same shops to check on new inventory or to sell something.”

Initially, her plan was to revisit the pawn shop to leave her information in hopes that someone who bought Nick’s guitar would see it and reach out to her, or at least hoping to find a date of purchase. With Labor Day weekend approaching, the family were already planning on going to visit Leyen’s parents who live near Vicksburg, they made a plan to stop by Top Dollar Pawn.

“The current owners were so kind. They wrote down my information, and they have a picture of the head [stock] of the guitar,” said Leyens.

“You got to get up and walk the straight and narrow”

On Tuesday, Leyens made a post on her personal Facebook page and received an outpouring of love, support and suggestions on how better to find her son’s guitar. An important tether to who her son was.

“The outpouring of support on this has been humbling. I want to tell everyone thank you so much. From the shares to the information to the thoughts, prayers, support. Thank you so, so much,” said Leyens.

“Since the post, I have tons of people reaching out with good ideas and help. Some know the former owner, and one reached out to her and found that her records are sealed right now, but she is trying to remember. Someone from TN, a pawnbroker who also lost her son, informed me that Mississippi has a 60 day hold policy for pawnshops, which will help me narrow down the time frame of when it may have sold from Top Dollar Pawn,” she continued.

“This morning it dawned on me that the pawnshop we bought it from back in 2018 may still have our transaction recorded, and may even have the serial number for the guitar,” said Leyens, “So that is my mission today: to go there, and as the sweet fellow angel mom from TN said, “keep digging.”

If you have any information, contact us here at the Vicksburg Daily News. The serial number for the guitar is: 1H070800:3