Disappearance of mother of four still a mystery
Disappearance of mother of four still a mystery
Ashley Kelly
HAMPTON — When Mary Harrison's four daughters woke up the morning of Oct. 6, 1982, she was gone. Her absence was not unusual.
Harrison, 31, often left the girls alone in their two-bedroom house on Shell Road, but she usually returned days later. This time, she left without a suitcase. She left brand new clothes hanging in her closet with price tags.
She left without saying goodbye.
"I thought she went to the corner store and she would be back — but she never came back," said Sherrena Harrison, her oldest daughter. She was 12 when her mother went missing. The other girls were 11, 8 and 6.
Police are re-investigating her disappearance and now consider it suspicious because of the amount of time that has passed. There has been no activity on her driver's license, credit history or Social Security number since 1982, according to Hampton police Detective Randy Mayer.
"Everything ceased as of 1982," Mayer said. "Everything ceased after she disappeared."
The family behind the portrait
Mary Harrison smiles warmly in a family portrait that was taken several years before her disappearance. She's surrounded by her four daughters: Sherrena Harrison, Sherresa Owens, Shameka Harris and Sharmaneci Long. The girls' father, Horace Harrison, stands behind them. Everyone is smiling in the photo, but Sherrena Harrison says the family's everyday life was far from that "picture perfect" image.
She says her parents never divorced, but lived separate for part of the girls' childhood. It was a marriage laced with abuse and frequent arguments that the girls witnessed. Sherrena Harrison says their mother became addicted to drugs, and their father was an alcoholic.
"They use to fight all the time," the 41-year-old Sherrena Harrison said. "It was really bad."
Sherrena Harrison's memories are vivid and painful. She described a childhood where self-reliance arrived before puberty and was critical to the girls' survival. She says her mother would leave them for days without notice or regard for their well-being.
"There were periods of time when we didn't have running water in the house," she said. "We didn't have any money, no
food stamps left behind, no food in the refrigerator. You had to fend for yourself."
Newport News police were contacted by family when Mary Harrison didn't come home after her disappearance that October day. Her sister, Amy Collins, says she filed a missing persons report with both departments. The family also searched for her.
"We handed out fliers," Sherrena Harrison said. "We went out looking for her day or night. We looked everywhere in Hampton and Newport News."
Mayer began looking into Mary Harrison's case a month ago after speaking with Collins about a separate investigation. Collins mentioned her sister's disappearance, and Mayer pulled the old file.
"It appears that she just walked out and left everything behind," said Mayer, who has run Mary Harrison's name through a computer database that tracks data including criminal history, a person's credit and driver's license. Nothing has surfaced.
"Even a person that doesn't want to be found, at some point in 20 years they would pop up somewhere," Mayer said.
The family also hired a private investigator last year, but he turned up no clues.
No closure
During the two years that followed Mary Harrison's disappearance, the girls' lives lacked stability. They lived with various family members, staying as long as they could at each home — always fearing the state would separate them. The sisters say their lives got back on track when they went to live with Collins in 1984.
"I still call her Aunt Amy or Auntie, but she's the only mother I've ever known," said 34-year-old Long, the youngest daughter who doesn't remember much about her mother.
The girls' father died in a house fire in 1986. Collins raised them until they graduated from high school.
"It's been so many years," said 37-year-old Harris. "I've kind of come to terms that maybe she got another life. Maybe she just couldn't get herself together enough to know what to do….I've accepted the fact that she's not coming back. I don't think about it."
Harris, of Williamsburg, thinks her mother might have had an undiagnosed mental illness that led to her disappearance. She doesn't think her leaving was suspicious because she was always going by other names and might have changed her identity.
"I remember mail coming to the house under different names," Harris said.
Haunted by questions
Collins still keeps the smiling portrait of Mary Harrison and her children in her living room. It's a constant reminder of the baby sister who never came home.
"My sister has been gone for 28 years," Collins said. "There is hardly a day that goes by when I don't think about her."
There are other reminders for Collins, like when an unidentified body is found and it makes the news.
"I wonder, 'Is that Mary?'" she said.
Collins thinks her sister might have left under the stress of being a single mother. A few weeks before she went missing, she asked her sister if she wanted four little girls. Collins didn't take her serious.
For Sherrena Harrison, not knowing what happened to their mother bothers her every day. Each time a holiday passes, a child is born or a birthday is missed, she wonders where her mother is.
"This was my mom and she left behind four children," Harrison said. "Four young girls that grew up to have their own families and she is missing out on that. It hurts that she is not here."
The girls' disjointed childhood didn't become a crutch. They are all professionals. They are all mothers.
Harris and Long are nurses. Harrison and Owens both work for the federal government. They have eight children between them; seven boys and one girl.
"Although we were strong enough to go on with our lives and be successful," Sherrena Harrison said. "That part of our life kind of stopped in October of 1982."
Anyone with information about Mary Harrison is asked to call Crime Line at 1-888-LOCK-U-UP.
