Where Is Tera Smith? Sherri Papini’s High School Friend Vanished On Same Road 18 Years Ago

On August 22, 1998, a young female jogger vanished without a trace in Redding, California, from the same trail that Sherri Papini was using when she disappeared from her rural home on November 2, 2016.

Related: Sherri Papini’s Husband Says She Was Found With Nose Broken, Head Shaved, Weighed Only 87 Pounds

Papini was found on Thanksgiving morning near Yolo and returned to her family. But the family of 16-year-old Tera Smith, who was a classmate of Sherri’s at Central Valley High School, did not have a happy ending. The teen was never seen again — and no trace of her body was ever found.

Tera’s father Terry told the Daily Mail that Sherri’s husband Keith Papini came over to talk to him following Sherri’s disappearance. Terry said he admitted to Keith that he had been “idle” and placed far too much faith in law enforcement when he daughter went missing. “We just expected them to do everything, they were the professionals and we weren’t, but I do think they made some mistakes and hopefully learned from their mistakes,” he said.

While Sherri’s case baffled investigators from the start, Terry said that the police immediately had a person of interest in Tera’s case —Troy Zink, the 29-year-old married martial arts instructor that her parents said that she was having a romantic relationship with.

Terry, 57, found his daughter’s journal entries and letters in her room after she disappeared in which she confessed her love for Zink and mental anguish over the affair.

He said that he believed his daughter met up with Zink so she could end the affair with him.

Zink, a convicted rapist who later served a four-year prison sentence for possession of firearms, was never named a suspect by the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office and was never arrested or charged in Tera’s disappearance because of a lack of sufficient evidence.

But in his only interview with deputies, Zink reportedly told police that Tera called him on the night she disappeared and asked to meet near her home. He admitted to picking her up, but said that she asked for a loan, and became “agitated” when he refused. He reportedly told deputies that he dropped her off near a random intersection — and after she walked away, he decided to drive to a remote area to “pray.”

Read more: DailyMail.com

Main photo: from Tera Smith missing poster [Shasta County Sheriff’s Office]