NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — Jerhita Turner has spent the last 16 years wondering what happened to her mother, Anne Turner.
Jerhita last saw her mother on June 23, 2008, when Anne left their home to walk to the bus stop a few blocks away so she could get to her job at Busch Gardens.
“It’s difficult,” she said as we walked down the 13th Street in Newport News and passed the home where she and her mother once lived. “Where is she? What happened to her? And will we ever get closure?”
Anne never showed up for work that day, and she never returned home that night.
“Immediately [our family] went in panic mode,” said Jerhita. “We knew it was bad.”
Jerhita, who was 19 years old at the time of her mother's disappearance, filed a police report with Newport News police for her mother’s disappearance. Anne was 39.
I asked, “It would not be like your mom to leave her family and not say anything?”
Jerhita responded, “No. She loved her family. She had so much loyalty to her family. She would not have left her children, her parents, her sisters, her nieces and nephews.”
“She wouldn't have left us,” Jerhita emphasized.
Jerhita said she and her family made flyers on their own and spread them throughout the community, hoping someone would share any information that would lead to her mother’s safe return. As she shared the old missing flyers, she glanced at one of the last photos of her mother, and paused.
“[Her] smile is gone,” she said.
I asked, “Why do you think that was?”
Jerhita said, “Because of everything she was dealing with in her life [at the time].”
Watch: Investigation into racial disparities in missing persons news coverage
According to Jerhita, her mother ended a serious relationship with a man days before her disappearance.
I responded, “You were worried about your mom.”
“Absolutely,” she said. “Absolutely.”
Jerhita said Newport News police questioned the man, but he was never named as a suspect in Anne’s disappearance.
Newport News police have said Anne was potentially spotted at a Walmart in Franklin a few days after her family last saw her in Newport News, but there has been no other trace of her in more than 16 years.
“I do not think that she is still alive,” Jerhita said.
I asked, “Do you think someone took her life?”
“Yes,” Jerhita said.
Jerhita told me she has heard from Newport News detectives a few times since her mother’s disappearance in 2008, including a visit to retrieve her DNA so investigators could compare it to any remains found.
Newport News police released a video in 2023 pleading for leads in Anne’s case, saying “her family has not given up trying to find answers surrounding her disappearance. Neither have we.”
I reached out to the Newport News Police Department this year with several questions, including:
- Has a person of interest ever been developed in Ms. Turner’s case?
- Does her case fall under the cold case homicide team?
A police department spokesperson said Anne’s case is active and is “still being investigated as a missing persons case.”
A 2013 report by the Daily Press said police searched a farm in Franklin with cadaver dogs, but found nothing.
Jerhita said she hopes another 16 years won’t pass without knowing what happened to her mother. Until the mystery is solved, she has made this vow.
“I will never stop fighting for her, ever,” said Jerhita.
Newport News police are asking anyone with information about Anne Turner’s case to call the anonymous Crime Line at 1-888-LOCK-U-UP, submit online at P3Tips.com or through the P3 Tips App. According to police, “tipsters never have to testify in court and could be eligible for a reward of up to $1,500 for tips leading to an arrest.”
