Picture: Mary and Doug Lyall sit in their Ballston Spa home Wednesday with a box of signed petitions in favor of 'Suzanne's Law.'
CLARK BELL/The Saratogian

BALLSTON SPA -- Mary Lyall returned home to Ballston Spa from vacation recently and found an unfamiliar phone number on the family's caller ID.

'I tried to find out who it was,' she said. 'Pretty soon, I just called them. It was a car company wanting to sell us something. But you never know.'

Lyall and her husband, Doug, still hope to hear from their daughter Suzanne, who as a sophomore computer science major at the University at Albany, disappeared from campus two years ago today. They say their hearts still jump every time the phone rings. Is it her? Someone who knows what happened? The state police with news? Another of the hundreds of self-styled psychics who have already contacted the family?

Clues in the case have been hard to come by. Lyall's ATM card was used in an Albany Stewart's Shop March 3, 1998 but only $20 was withdrawn.

State police strongly suspect she was killed.

'I think we're just frozen on that day,' Douglas Lyall said.

He said the anniversary has more of an effect on Mary. She choked up as she explained that her daughter would have graduated this May.

Doug said he no longer has the emotional highs and lows he experienced soon after the disappearance.

'Now its just sort of a grind,' he said. 'It's as if nothing has happened to us since this happened.'

They've collected more than 25,000 signatures on petitions to get 'Suzanne's Law' passed by the state Assembly. The state Senate passed the law in 1999 and renewed its support Wednesday.

If Suzanne's Law is enacted, a person convicted on one of 30 felonies, such as aggravated assault and rape, would have the criminal charge bumped up to a higher count. A Class C felony committed within 1,000 feet of a school would be elevated to a Class B charge.

It would also create assault-free zones around New York schools, colleges and day-care centers. The concept is similar to drug-free school zones.

'These are people who have every right to be bitter about what happened to them,' Assemblyman James Tedisco, R-Schenectady, said. 'These people are my idea of heroes. I'm proud to have them in my Assembly district.'

Tedisco called on the Democratic majority in the Assembly to bring the bill to a vote. Doug Lyall said petitions are available at Ballston Spa businesses and through the Ballston Spa Elks Lodge and through a Web site dedicated to the search.

The Lyalls have attended retirement dinners honoring two of the investigators who worked the case from the beginning Doug said.

'They've become our friends,' he said. 'What we are doing now is basically just waiting for something to happen. It will depend on somebody coming forward. We have to wait for a relationship to sour, so then someone who knows something feels able to come forward.'