Woman had strained relationship with daughter who disappeared from Highland Park area in 1991
http://triblive.com/news/unfound/13...ghter-who-disappeared-from-highland-park-area
The last time anyone saw Terri Slaugenhoupt, she was on her way to a CoGo's convenience store two blocks from her Highland Park apartment.
She never made it.
Slaugenhoupt's disappearance on Jan. 6, 1991, did not get the attention of a lot of missing person cases, but it still haunts her mother, Charlotte.
In the 27 years that Terri has been missing, there have been virtually no sightings or leads. Her mother hopes that renewed attention will finally answer the question of Terri's whereabouts.
I've always felt that her case ... fell through the cracks, Charlotte Slaugenhoupt said. It just sort of started slipping away.
Slaugenhoupt, 79, keeps a file on Terri in her small Springdale apartment, but the dates are old everything from a 1991 edition of a Pittsburgh Crime Stoppers magazine to a 2006 email from the producer of a TV show called Missing. The last time she talked to a Pittsburgh police detective was two years ago.
The only reason (the case) is open is because I won't close it, she said.
The Pittsburgh Bureau of Police did not return phone calls seeking comment.
Terri Slaugenhoupt grew up in Aspinwall, the third of four children, and attended Fox Chapel Area High School. Charlotte was divorced and often worked long hours to provide for her children.
Terri did well in school until the 10th grade, when alcohol started to become a problem.
When she was not drinking, she was my normal little girl, her mother said. I have to blame some of it on me because I wasn't there all the time.
Terri spent time in rehab, in counseling and in Alcoholics Anonymous, but her periods of sobriety were always followed by relapse, Slaugenhoupt said.
During the 10 years Terri lived away from home, the mother and daughter had a fraught relationship. Terri stayed in touch calling on birthdays, Mother's Day and Christmas but kept her distance.
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