It's been nearly seven months since Stepha Henry disappeared during a visit
to Florida with her younger sister.
In that time, Henry's family have given up their summer barbecues, observed
her 23rd birthday in September with prayer and held a sad Thanksgiving
dinner.
"We were all in tears," Sylvia Henry, Stepha's mother, recalled of the
Thanksgiving dinner at the family's home in Brooklyn. "It wasn't the same."
Now the Henrys are facing their first Christmas since the unsolved
disappearance of the John Jay College honors graduate.
"This Christmas won't be much of a Christmas," said her father, Steve Henry.
Stepha Henry and her 16-year-old sister, Shola, flew to Florida just before
Memorial Day to celebrate Shola's birthday. They stayed with relatives, who
last saw Henry on May 29 getting into a black sedan driven by a man.
That night, Stepha Henry had talked to her mother by phone, telling her she
was getting ready to go to a nightclub. Henry had made friends in South
Florida during numerous visits to the area, her family has said.
Miami-Dade County police have examined abandoned cars and traced signals
from her cell phone but still haven't figured out what happened to Henry.
The case remains open and investigators are still following leads, officers
said.
Last Christmas, Henry had a gift for seemingly everyone, even for aunts,
uncles and cousins in New Jersey, her mother said. She also did much of the
cooking. The family listened to music such as soca, reggae and R&B, she
said.
This year's family celebration will be more low-key, with a scaled-down
dinner and not a lot of gift exchanges, Sylvia Henry said.
"It's going to be very sad," she said. "We are not in the mood right now to
celebrate anything. We're going to be mellow and prayerful. We will not
celebrate in a big way as when Stepha is here."
Sylvia Henry had vowed to stay in Florida until she found out what happened
to her daughter, but returned to New York in November.
She refuses to entertain the possibility of her daughter's disappearance
remaining unsolved. She said she talks with Miami-Dade police detectives on
average three times on weekdays.
"I'm still hopeful," she said. "I'm still praying and hoping."
[Source]
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Family Faces Christmas without Daughter
UPDATE:
Two people have been arrested in connection with the stabbing of Marisha
Jeter, 16.
Pernell Clayton Thompson, 20, and his wife, Yolanda Dee Thompson, 19, were
charged with murder, police said.
The Union Public Safety Department said that the Thompsons asked Jeter to
meet them near the Union YMCA.
They said that Jeter was then killed by the Thompsons, and her body was then
put in the Broad River under the bridge connecting Union and Chester
counties.
Authorities said Jeter's car was then driven several miles into Chester
County, where it was set on fire.
Sunday afternoon, the coroner said that Jeter's cause of death was a stab
wound to the neck.
Both suspects are being held at the Union County Jail.
[Source]
Police have found the body of a missing Upstate teen in the same river that
another missing woman's body was found the day before.
Saturday, the body of 16-year-old Marisha Jeter of Union County was pulled
from the Broad River in Chester County. She had been missing since Thursday.
On Friday, workers at a hydroelectric power plant in nearby Cherokee County
found the body of 25-year-old Verlisha Littlejohn of Gaffney, who had been
missing since November. Dental records were used to make the identification,
but a cause of death had not been determined.
Both women's cars are still missing. Jeter's was a bright pink 1994 Toyota
Celica with South Carolina license tag 765 VGX. Littlejohn's green 2000 Ford
Escort has South Carolina license plate 657 UXL.
Union police Chief Sam White said Saturday authorities are investigating
Jeter's death as a homicide, though an autopsy had not yet been performed.
Union police asked the State Law Enforcement Division for help in its
investigation, SLED spokesman Russell Feaster said Sunday, but Cherokee
County did not request help in the Littlejohn case. Feaster said the agency
is not investigating whether the two cases are connected, but that
possibility has not been ruled out.
Jeter, the daughter of Union County School Board member Manning Jeter, was
last seen at a McDonald's restaurant Thursday evening. Her body was spotted
Saturday by a Spartanburg art student taking photographs from a bridge in
Lockhart near the county line between Union and Chester counties.
"We were hoping to find her, and this is certainly not how we wanted this to
end for Marisha and her family," White said.
[Source]
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According to authorities, the Thompson’s asked Jeter to meet them near
the Union YMCA.
There, they killed Jeter and dumped her body in the Broad River.
The couple then drover the girls 2000 Pink Toyota Celica several miles
down Highway 9 in Chester County, and set the car on fire.
According to the girls father he built the car for his daughter.
There is no clear motive at this time
