Could this case be connected to Tera Smith's disappearance? Could it be that someone who knew both of them was obsessed with them and continued to be obsessed with SP for all of these years? I know this doesn't explain why SP was released and why TS wasn't. I also know this doesn't explain why two women took her. I'm just trying to see whether there is any connection between the two cases. They seem to bear a resemblance.
Terry tells PEOPLE that the night she disappeared, Tera had plans to meet with her married 29-year-old martial arts instructor and romantic interest, Charles Troy Zink, to end their relationship.
Zink had previously pleaded guilty to a felony rape charge in the early ’90s and served 300 days in jail, according to The Redding Herald Record.
Terry believes that by Tera breaking it off, Zink “saw this could go bad for him, and I think he killed her and disposed of the body.”
“This guy is a menace, a screwed-up guy,” Terry says.
He says he based his assumption about the planned breakup on Tera’s diaries and an unmailed letter found in her room after her disappearance.
“She tells him in the letter she knows she made a huge mistake, she never should have gotten involved with him, that she didn’t want to leave this life and hang her head in shame,” Terry says. “This letter was never delivered, and rather than give him the letter we believe she wanted to confront him in person to break it off.”
When Tera didn’t show up for work at 6 p.m. that August night, Terry and other family members went looking for her.
Terry says he was told during the search, by one of Tera’s friends, that his daughter was romantically involved with Zink. That night, he went to Zink’s house.
Terry says Zink wasn’t there, and he didn’t show up until 11:30 p.m. “Zink is an avid four-wheeler guy, he knows the back roads. He had five and a half hours to get rid of the evidence, and he’s been smart enough to keep his mouth shut,” Terry says.
Zink has denied involvement in Tera’s disappearance, according to The Redding Record Searchlight. But Sheriff Bosenko says he remains a person of interest, and the investigation is still open. “He refused to cooperate with investigators at the time,” Bosenko says.
Zink told Terry (and reportedly told authorities) that he picked up Tera near her home after she called him at work to borrow $2,000.
“He claims she was upset when he didn’t have it and drove her to a spot three miles from our house, dropped her off at a busy intersection, and then drove to Hang Glider Hill [a brushy hilltop] and prayed for five hours,” Terry says.
But he notes that of the thousands of tips called in after Tera disappeared, not one person saw her on the busy road.
Authorities discovered that in the days after Tera’s disappearance, the tires on Zink’s vehicle, a Ford truck, had been replaced with ones in worse condition and the truck had been thoroughly cleaned, according to the Record Searchlight.
http://people.com/crime/sherri-papini-missing-tera-smith-1998-disappearance-redding/