Aug 10 2018 -
New York mother Audrey May Herron still missing 16 years since disappearing after work
n August of 2002, Shirley Olmstead was driving her RV from Florida to New York with her 10-year-old granddaughter Sonsia Court. The pair were on their way home from a long vacation in the Sunshine State.
Audrey May Herron
Sonsia told Dateline that, while she’d enjoyed the vacation, she was looking forward to seeing her mother, Audrey May Herron, after being away from her for over a month. Audrey, 31 at the time, had stayed at their Catskill, New York home with Sonsia’s stepfather, Jeff, and Sonsia’s two younger half-siblings.
“While I was gone, my mom and I would talk often. If not every day, then every other day,” Sonsia told Dateline. “She was always in contact with my grandmother, and I talked to her while we drove home.”
When Shirley and her granddaughter arrived home, they went straight to Shirley’s house. Since Audrey was a full-time nurse working evenings at a nearby nursing home, it would be too late when she got off work at 11:00 p.m. to pick up here daughter, Sonsia.
“I called Audrey and she said she had a doctor’s appointment the next morning, but she would pick Sonsia up after that,” Shirley told Dateline.
But early the next morning, around 6:00 a.m., Shirley got a call from Audrey’s husband Jeff.
“Jeff called and asked if Audrey was at my house. It would not have been unusual for her to stay over with me, but normally she would call him and let him know,” Shirley said. “I said she wasn’t there, but I didn’t think anything of it. So I dozed back off.”
An hour later, Jeff called again. Audrey still hadn’t come from work, and he was concerned. Shirley says a family member who used to work in law enforcement got in touch with authorities and reported Audrey missing.
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Senior Investigator Kusminsky told Dateline authorities conducted extensive searches involving aviation and dive crews.
“We did, basically, a nine-mile-radius foot search of every building, every road, every body of water that the car could have ended up in,” he said, referring to the 1994, Black Jeep Grand Cherokee Audrey drove to and from work. “Every asset available to us, we used.”
Audrey’s mother Shirley told Dateline there has been no activity on her daughter’s credit or debit cards since she disappeared. Senior Investigator Kusminsky added that Audrey did have a cell phone, but when they attempted to ping it, there was no connection.
“In other words, it was off or destroyed, or the battery was dead,” he explained.
Investigators say there was only one security camera that captured Audrey’s planned route home.
“We only have one grainy video from Cumberland Farms in which it appears that [Audrey’s] vehicle does leave her place of employment and basically turn left, going west on country route 23-B. That’s the last of any kind of technological evidence we had,” Senior Investigator Kusminsky said. “We can’t confirm it’s the vehicle -- but it appears to be -- because the quality of the video was very poor and very grainy, and it does appear to leave at the time she would have ended work.”
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While they’ve had “well over one thousand leads” on this case in the sixteen years since Audrey disappeared, none of her belongings have ever been found.
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“She has three children that have lived years and years not knowing what happened to their mom,” Shirley added. “It’s time, if anyone knew anything – and I think someone does – that they would come forward and help these children move on with their lives.”
Audrey May Herron would be 47 years old today. She is described as being 5’0” tall and weighing about 105 lbs. at the time of her disappearance. She has light brown/blonde hair and hazel eyes. She was last seen leaving work wearing dark green medical scrubs and a blue turtleneck. Her car, a 1994 Black Jeep Grand Cherokee, has never been found. If you have any information on Audrey’s whereabouts, please contact the New York State Police at (518) 622-8600.
Family believes ‘someone has to know something’ in case of missing New York mother
