Jennifer Teague

Has been missing for almost a week. Have you seen her?

I haven't slept properly since I heard Sunday morning. You see Jennifer lives in my community. She actually lives a few houses away from my Husband and I's first house that we rented. She is only 18. Jennifer was on her way home from work Wednesday night/morning (it was around 1am) and never made it home. Apparently she stopped at the convenience store where she ran into friends. Her mother thought she was staying at a friends house, but it wasn't until the next evening (Thursday) when she didn't show up for work again that her parents knew she was missing.

I am not here to judge. I have three sisters ranging from two years older than me to fourteen years younger. If one of us did not come home on time my mother was up pacing the floors. Thankfully for her my youngest sister was able to carry a cell phone. They were just being invented when I was 18. The rule in our house was you had to let Mom know you were home before you went to bed. If you were staying at a friends house, you made arrangements. Although we did walk home at 1am back in the '80's, neither of my younger sisters did in the '90's. We live in a different world now.

The weirdest thing for me is that it is so close to home. You hear of stories, see the news, but you never expect to see it in your own community. Our community is rather large, we are up to 60,000 residents now. Larger than some small towns. People heard yells, arguing, screams, someone went outside to see, but couldn't see anything. Now I am glad that my Husband and I are a little nosy. We check out all sorts of sounds at night, we have witnessed car accidents, kids partying, egging houses, doing stuff they aren't supposed to, someone breaking into model homes. I don't feel bad now. I just feel bad that I no longer live close to Jennifer.

Our prayers go out to her family and all the people in the search party looking for Jennifer. We pray she is safe and not gone. I wanted to join the search party, until I realized that if I was the one to find her, I would never forget that. I don't think I can add that one more thing to my memory right now. For now, I lie awake, listening, wondering, how on earth does this happen.