Search continues for missing 2nd-grade teacher

Family and friends from California flew into New Orleans last week to join the search for a missing New Orleans teacher who has not been seen since saturday, March 3. More than 20 people split up into three groups to find the missing elementary school teacher Terrilyn Monette, who was last seen with an unidentified man in the parking lot of a Lakeview bar.

“The group right now, they’re calling out her name, going back over the same area,” Leary Hughes, a Monette family friend, told WWL-TV.

Also of press time, the teacher’s late-model Honda was also missing. City Park is just a few blocks away.

“I think this is one of the directions she could have possibly taken to go home,” Toni Enclade, Monette’s mother, told WWL-TV. “So, we’re just trying to see if we can find some kind of clue.”

Enclade, who has pleaded with anyone who has seen her daughter to return her safely to her family, led one of the search teams in City Park to find any clue that might lead authorities to Monette’s whereabouts.

Authorities have not ruled out search nearby bodies of water like Bayou St. John and NOPD officers planned to use horses to cover the entire terrain of City Park to find clues Friday.

“We’re just out here looking for any type of clues or anything that could possibly be my daughter,” Enclade said. “She was wearing glasses, jewelry, anything. Any type of clue that my lead us to her.”

As they searched frantically for any clue that might lead them to Terrilyn Monette last week, family and friends said they were holding onto hope.

“They’re hoping for the best, but it’s been five days now,” Hughes told WWL-TV. “And it’s going to be kind of hard, and if you find her alive, it’s by the grace of God.”

“It’s really difficult, but actually, basically, I’m trying to be strong, I’m trying to be strong because I feel like she’s going to need me, so I need to be strong. I need to be strong,” Enclade said.

Anyone with information on this case is being asked to call New Orleans police or Crimestoppers at (504) 822-1111.

This article originally published in the March 11, 2013 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.