Post by LadyBlue on Apr 16, 2012 9:33:39 GMT -5
ASHEVILLE — One day in June 2009, Terry Lynn Tersak planned to visit her family in Raleigh and bring her 5-year-old son along. Tersak told family she would arrive that night.
The family waited and waited, but the mother and son never arrived.
Stephan Tersak, Xander’s father, eventually took the child to Texas, where they live now.
But no one has heard from Terry Tersak in almost three years.
“It’s like she’s dropped off the face of the Earth,” city police Det. Kevin Taylor said.
The exact day she was last seen is unclear because no one reported her missing until May 24, 2011 — nearly two years after family last had contact with her.
Stephan Tersak told police his wife started using drugs after Xander was diagnosed as autistic. He said she abandoned them in June 2009 because of the stress of dealing with an autistic child.
He said he didn’t report her missing because she left on her own accord and he thought she would come back at some point.
Thomas Pendergraft, Terry Tersak’s father, and other family members dispute the husband’s story.
They do not believe she would abandon her son and think her husband knows more about her disappearance than he claims. They said Terry and Stephan Tersak were having marital problems at the time of her disappearance.
Pendergraft, 67, initially didn’t think anything was wrong when his daughter didn’t show up in Raleigh.
He eventually filed the police report after family members urged him to do so.
“She has not contacted me before for several months and then sometimes she’ll show up,” he said. “But three years is just not right.
“Everyone here in the Raleigh area misses her and keeps asking me if I’ve heard anything.”
Tersak, who is originally from Raleigh, moved to Asheville with her husband and son in 2008. Taylor said the Tersaks moved here for Xander, and they enrolled him in an autistic program at Asheville City Schools.
They lived in a couple of places in West Asheville, Taylor said. But, apparently, they did not get to know many people here.
www.citizen-times.com/article/20120415/NEWS/304150070/Asheville-police-seek-woman-missing-since-09?odyssey=nav|head
The family waited and waited, but the mother and son never arrived.
Stephan Tersak, Xander’s father, eventually took the child to Texas, where they live now.
But no one has heard from Terry Tersak in almost three years.
“It’s like she’s dropped off the face of the Earth,” city police Det. Kevin Taylor said.
The exact day she was last seen is unclear because no one reported her missing until May 24, 2011 — nearly two years after family last had contact with her.
Stephan Tersak told police his wife started using drugs after Xander was diagnosed as autistic. He said she abandoned them in June 2009 because of the stress of dealing with an autistic child.
He said he didn’t report her missing because she left on her own accord and he thought she would come back at some point.
Thomas Pendergraft, Terry Tersak’s father, and other family members dispute the husband’s story.
They do not believe she would abandon her son and think her husband knows more about her disappearance than he claims. They said Terry and Stephan Tersak were having marital problems at the time of her disappearance.
Pendergraft, 67, initially didn’t think anything was wrong when his daughter didn’t show up in Raleigh.
He eventually filed the police report after family members urged him to do so.
“She has not contacted me before for several months and then sometimes she’ll show up,” he said. “But three years is just not right.
“Everyone here in the Raleigh area misses her and keeps asking me if I’ve heard anything.”
Tersak, who is originally from Raleigh, moved to Asheville with her husband and son in 2008. Taylor said the Tersaks moved here for Xander, and they enrolled him in an autistic program at Asheville City Schools.
They lived in a couple of places in West Asheville, Taylor said. But, apparently, they did not get to know many people here.
www.citizen-times.com/article/20120415/NEWS/304150070/Asheville-police-seek-woman-missing-since-09?odyssey=nav|head
