17 Years Ago...Terry Tersak Vanished in Asheville, NC

Terry Lynn Tersak met and married her husband, Stefan Tersak in the year 2000. Shortly after, she gave birth to their son, Xander, who was diagnosed with autism.

Terry and Stefan, in the year 2009, were living in Asheville, North Carolina. This was a few hours from Terry’s hometown of Raleigh, North Carolina, and Terry had become estranged from many members of her family.

Her life in Asheville was also very quiet, as no one really knew her and Stefan. They lived a fairly isolated lifestyle, it seemed.

On June 1, 2009, Terry called a cousin in Garner, North Carolina, and told her she was going to head up for a visit.

But she never arrived.

Terry has never been seen or heard from since.

Where is Terry Lynn Tersak?

The case of Terry Lynn Tersak seems to be a confusing one. We have two sides. Two sides that are very much opposed to each other. Harsh words, social media attacks, and rumors have swirled as everyone picks a side to support.

So, I’ve chosen, of course, to stand on Terry’s side. Bypass all the bickering and fighting and not knowing who to believe and let’s take a look at what’s going on here.

What’s also interesting, and worrisome, is that while she was last seen or heard from in June 2009, she wasn’t officially investigated as a missing person until May of 2011.

Who is Terry Lynn Tersak?

Terry Lynn Pendergraft was born on April 8, 1976. She grew up in the West Raleigh area of North Carolina.

Raleigh is North Carolina’s capital city, so it’s a pretty big area. West Raleigh in particular encompasses all the little neighborhoods on the west side of the city.

Terry went to Athens Drive High School in Raleigh.

It seems like Terry had a fair amount of family and relatives in the area, but she would leave town with her husband in the year 2000, and would soon become estranged from her father. (Her mother had previously passed away, and she was said to have been very close to her mother).

Terry married Stefan, who was about 20 years old than her, in 2000. Together they relocated to the Asheville area but kept a pretty low profile. No one in the town really knew Terry or Stefan.

Shortly after their marriage, Terry gave birth to a young boy who she would name Xander. Xander would be diagnosed with autism.

Terry’s mothering skills are debated, depending on which side of the family you listen to.

During the next few years, Terry did smoke some marijuana here and there, according to her family, and she did spend some time on probation for a 2007 marijuana-related conviction. But her husband Stefan says she was more into drugs than just that- her family and friends that she did stay in touch with, deny this.

Terry worked as a stripper at a local strip club for a while to earn some money but had allegedly quit working there around the same time as her marijuana conviction.

THE DISAPPEARANCE.

On June 1, 2009, Terry called her cousin Jamie, who lived in Garner, North Carolina. Garner is a south Raleigh suburb and is about 250 miles from the Asheville area.

Despite the distance, Terry told her cousin she was going to drive up and visit her for a bit. Any other details of that conversation really aren’t known.

For some reason, despite the fact that Terry had just bought a new SUV, Terry told her husband she was getting a ride from a friend named “Jen” up to Raleigh, and he was to pick her up at a specified address in Clayton, North Carolina.

Clayton is about 10 miles southeast of Garner.

Terry never showed up at her cousin's, and Jamie couldn’t reach her. She tried to call other people in the family, but no one had heard from her. Jamie herself was only 22 years old at the time and said she just wasn’t sure what to do.

Stefan was supposed to pick up her at this place on June 20. Stefan said he went there as instructed to pick her up, only to find out that the address she gave him was a fake address and did not exist.

He was immediately suspicious and said he went straight to a storage unit that he and Terry had and found that it had been cleaned out. At that point, he realized that Terry had left him and Xander.

Stefan said he did call the police to file a report about the storage unit, but he said the police refused to take any information from him and document it.

That seems suspicious, I agree. But sometimes Law Enforcement doesn’t want to get involved in domestic issues, so I’ve seen this in a lot of cases. There really wasn’t any evidence of a crime, at least in the eyes of law enforcement.

Of course, there is no evidence at all that law enforcement was called out, so that story could go either way for me. Law enforcement didn’t document it, or Stefan is lying.

Within a few months of her disappearance, Stefan sold Terry’s SUV and moved out of their home in Asheville, taking Xander and moving to Austin, Texas.

It was his belief that Terry had just abandoned them, so he found no reason to hang around Asheville.

He did say that in addition to Terry having problems with drugs (which her family denies), she also struggled to be a mother and raise a son with autism. Another claim that her friends and family deny.

But her relationship with others was so limited, it’s hard to know if her friends and family would even know that.

Terry’s cousin, Jamie, whom she was allegedly going to visit in Raleigh begged her dad to report her missing, but he refused. He told Jamie that she was probably just hiding from bill collectors.

And since Stefan believed she had just left him, he didn’t report her missing either.

It wouldn’t be until May 2011 that Terry’s father finally realized something might be wrong, and reported her missing.

THE SEARCH.

Law enforcement finally takes a missing person report from Terry’s father in May of 2011. And as they start investigating, they realize that there is a variety of versions here.

First, Stefan claimed he just thought she left him, but his stories to law enforcement and then some media reports were odd. He would go on and on about strange unnecessary details about Terry, such as what she used to dye her hair, her favorite colors, and other details that were irrelevant.

Terry’s family claimed that he was trying to distract everyone, and he was trying to point the finger elsewhere. Which he did.

Terry’s family set up a Facebook page, and it became obvious that Stefan might be their target of suspicion. Stefan retaliates by also setting up a Facebook page of his own for Terry.

There are two active Facebook pages set up right now for Terry’s missing person case.

To make things even more interesting, Stefan set up a website to call out Terry’s family’s accusations and provide his defense.

It’s just mind-spinning to read through it, and I don’t know if that is the intention of the site or to actually defend his side of the story.

The search is confusing. For one, the report taken by Law Enforcement has her date of last contact as of June 1, 2009. This is also what is listed on her NAMUS profile, as does her Charley Project page.

But then, Stefan drops a bombshell. He says she showed up at his new apartment in October of 2009 and they had a brief conversation. He said she told him she was staying in Boone, North Carolina.

I don’t know how she supposedly found his new apartment, and I’m not sure if he was still in North Carolina or if he was already in Austin, Texas by then. Supposedly she did show up at his place, but they only chatted for a few minutes, and then she left.

And the only information we learn from this is that she was maybe living in Boone, North Carolina.

Boone, North Carolina is about 2 hours north of Asheville. Both cities border the Smoky Mountains, so they are near some pretty rural areas. It’s not known who she might have been with, how she even got there, or how she was supporting herself.

Boone is also about 3 hours to the west of Raleigh, North Carolina.

Is this a case of a woman who just wanted to leave her husband and child?

I do have quite a bit of questions in this case.

THE QUESTIONS.

Let’s talk about what questions I have, going back to the beginning.

1. Why was Terry’s relationship with her father strained? Was it in any way related to her marrying and leaving town with Stefan? This isn’t really addressed, but it might point to why there is a lot of finger-pointing here. I couldn’t find anything specific to really explain why this was.
2. Why didn’t Terry take her own vehicle? I guess on the surface here, it was because someone we only know as “Jen” picked her up. So, if you believe Stefan’s theories, she left with a friend with the intention of abandoning her life in Asheville. Maybe taking her car would have enabled her to be found? Maybe it was easier to just abandon her vehicle?
3. What do we know about Terry’s history as a mother? Was she indeed struggling? Motherhood is tough, and maybe she needed help? Help she wasn’t getting? Or, was she the opposite of what we hear from Stefan- was she a doting and loving mother who would never leave her son? I feel like we need to hear from someone who really knew Terry personally. A friend. Someone who isn’t going to immediately jump sides on the debates here. Someone who can just shed more insight as to who Terry really was leading up to her disappearance. A neutral party. Does someone like that even exist?
4. What’s the story with the strange, non-existent address that Stefan was supposed to pick Terry up at on June 20? Was this a normal thing? What does Stefan say about her not taking her own car and having to drive a couple of hours to go pick her up? This just sounds really weird to me, but there could be a good explanation for it.

I’m guessing since 2-years went by from the time she was last seen and when she would finally be reported missing, there isn’t any evidence in the way of CCTV footage or even anyone who could confirm seeing Stefan- possibly at the storage unit that day he discovered it empty? I know I wouldn’t remember just seeing someone at a storage 2 years later unless there was something odd about the encounter. Unfortunately, with so much time going by, witnesses and evidence are non-existent.

Let’s discuss possibilities.

#1: Terry did just run away from her life. Maybe that’s why there is no evidence otherwise, and maybe Stefan is telling the truth about seeing her as late as October of 2009.

But with so much time going by, it makes you wonder. Why not show up somewhere by now?

It’s been almost 13 years.

Would she not have checked up on her son in all that time? Or her friends and family that she did speak to, like her cousin Jamie, whom she was allegedly on her way to see in June of 2009?

It’s been done.

#2: Terry ran into foul play. Stefan’s actions are bizarre- to say the least. The website he set up (no longer active) goes into such detail to point out how much Terry’s family and friends are wrong when they point the finger at him. He said it is a coverup. Does he think they are guilty of something? Or merely just deflecting attention on him?

Stefan does claim that Terry’s drug use was much worse than that, and she had been talking about entering a rehab facility. Although her family doesn’t believe that.

Another thing I want to mention is that official reports have Stefan’s name listed as Stefan, but some unofficial sources say he identifies himself as Stephan.

So here we have a missing 33-year-old mother, a woman no one reports missing for two years. And then when she finally is, a massive battle begins between the husband and the family.

There are also some weird occurrences that happen in Stefan’s story. The friend ‘Jen’, the leaving behind of her new car, the storage unit, leaving town, and an encounter with Terry a few months after she allegedly disappeared.

And while it appears that Terry may have had some questionable habits- notably, her stripping job- it seems that was well in the past for her.

What do you think happened to Terry Lynn Tersak?

Terry is described as a 5-foot-tall, caucasian woman who weighed around 90–100 pounds when she was last seen. In June 2009, she was 33 years old when she was last seen.

Terry has brown hair and blue eyes.

If you have any information as to the whereabouts of Terry Lynn Tersak, please contact the Asheville Police Department at 828–259–5945.

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