Aspiring lawyer Stepha Henry, 22,
disappeared in Florida - far from her East New York home.
"When your child is missing and you
don't know where the child is, it's the worst nightmare," her mother,
Sylvia Henry, told Brooklyn News. "We have no answers, and I would
like to see this case move more quickly."
The John Jay graduate took the fateful
trip to Miami Gardens, Fla., to visit relatives in May - a gift for her
sister Shola's 16th birthday.
The night before her flight back to New
York, an acquaintance picked her up in a black sedan to go to the Peppers
Cafe in Sunrise, Fla.
He later told cops they parted ways
inside the club. Stepha Henry checked her cell phone voice mail at 4:13
a.m. on May 29 and hasn't been been heard from since.
"Certainly we feel she's met with
foul play," said Miami-Dade County Police Commander Linda O'Brien.
"This is totally out of the norm for
her behavior. She's very close with her family, getting ready for law
school," O'Brien said.
In Brooklyn, Stepha Henry's life awaits
her. She will turn 23 later this month.
"She always had parties for her
birthday. Last year, we had a party at the house," said her mother,
who quit her job as a bank officer and moved to Florida to search for her
daughter.
Sylvia Henry recently cleaned her
daughter's room and neatly folded up the clothes she left out while
packing for her trip.
Her father, Steve Henry, stayed in
Brooklyn to work as a rail car technician and look after Shola.
Each time the doorbell chimes at the
family's Alabama Ave. house, the father's hopes rise that his daughter has
returned. "I just hope it's her," Steve Henry said. "When
you go to the door and see it's not her, you're disappointed."
Stepha Henry's footsteps still echo
through the Bethlehem Baptist Church on Linden Blvd., where she was an
active member.
"Our entire congregation feels
devoid because these wonderful, luminous eyes aren't here," said the
Rev. Larry Camp.
Miami-Dade cops are following up on all
tips, but so far with no concrete results.
After a stay at home, Sylvia Henry was to
return to Florida this week to continue her search.
"I'm not going to stay in New York
until I get a breakthrough," she said. "I have to go back to
search for her."
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