Family members of a missing 26-year-old schoolteacher say they are baffled by her disappearance, but determined to believe she is still alive.
Terrilynn Monnette was last seen March 2nd — in an image captured at around 5 a.m. by a red light camera in New Orleans, where she lived and taught second grade at Woodland West Elementary School. The image showed Monnette seemingly alone in the car, according to a cousin, David Dirks.
Previous news reports said she told friends, with whom she had gone to Parlays’ bar on the 800 block of Harrison Avenue in the Lakeview section of New Orleans, dressed in a light gray and green striped sweater and jeans, on the night of Friday, March 1st, that she was going to lie down in her car.
A feeling of disbelief
Her older sister, Kandice Enclade, doesn’t believe it.
“I know my sister and I know that she wouldn’t sleep in her car,” she told theGrio Wednesday night.
Enclade said she last spoke with her sister on the night she disappeared.
“It was basically a daily phone call that we always did,” she said. “I was actually on my way to the grocery story and she was on her way to dinner with her college friend that she always goes out with and a couple other friends. She was telling me about her nomination for teacher of the year and how excited she was about that. We told each other that we loved each other, which we always did, and then we said goodbye. And I never heard from her again.”
Enclade said her sister moved to New Orleans, where their family has roots, a little over a year ago. She went as an exchange student to Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, after graduating from California State University San Bernadino. One of the friends she went out with on the night of March 1st was a male friend from Southern. The two went out in a group. As far as the family knows, all of the friends were questioned by police, but there are no known suspects in Monnette’s disappearance.
Enclade said she and her sister, and their parents, are very close, and that they spoke daily. She said her sister only knew a small number of people in New Orleans. including the friend from college, and colleagues from work. She knows of no one who would want to harm her sister, whom she said “got along with everyone.”
An outpouring of support
Both Dirks and Enclade praised the support they have received from the New Orleans community. Mayor Mitch Landrieu attended one of the vigils for Monnette, and she said more than 300 people joined in the search for her sister in the area around the club. The family live in Long Beach, California, but have traveled regularly to New Orleans to keep up the search, and to keep Terrilynn’s name in the media. They said they have received support from Tom Joyner and Ricky Smiley, who have mentioned the case on their morning radio shows, from TV and radio personality Jacque Reid, the national spokeswoman for the Black & Missing Foundation (which has also taken up the case), and from comedians Kevin Hart and Kim Coles, who helped raised a portion of the now $20,000 reward in the case, via a comedy benefit in Los Angeles.
But despite the outpouring of support, there seems to be no trace of Terrilynn, or of her 2012 Honda Accord.
“The fact that we can’t find the car or her, it’s even more bizarre,” she said. “It’s just like she vanished.”
Enclade said the area where the club is located is well lit and modern — not at all rural — and that there are no wooded areas or embankments for a car to tumble over. She said there were no 911 calls reporting an accident on the night Terrilynn disappeared, and that both police and private search firm Texas Equusearch have searched the canals in the area where the club is located, and found nothing. Most recently, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries announced they would join in the search. Starting Wednesday, they planned to use sonar equipment to probe Lake Ponchartrain for signs of the missing woman or her vehicle.
The family is clinging to hope that she is alive.
“We just have to cling to our faith,” Dirks said, “and to believe in miracles.”
“I really feel that in my heart and I believe that someone kidnapped her and is holding her,” Enclade said. But she admits that she has also prepared herself for the worst. “I honestly just want some type of closure. Of course we’re praying for the best. I feel like I have [prepared,] but my parents… I don’t think so.”
Mostly, Enclade says the family plans to keep making the trek to New Orleans. “Me and my mom and my dad plan to go down, if we have to go down there every month,” she said. “We’re planning a benefit concert at the House of Blues in May. And of course while we’re down there we’ll be doing another vigil.”
The search is not over
They’ve also set up a Facebook page dedicated to Terrilyn, where they post flyers, and pitch T-shirts with Terrilyn’s picture, and receive the prayers of strangers and friends. They’ve even created a #FindTerrilynn hashtag on Twitter.
Enclade calls her sister “sweet,” and “very kind.” And she says the family will not give up hope of finding her.
“She actually was supposed to be the godmother of my child, and my daughter is seven weeks old,” she said. “She hasn’t gotten a chance to meet her yet.”
Follow Joy Reid on @TheReidReport.