Police go airborne in search of missing woman

TECORA YOUNG ...Has not been seen since Oct. 18. A Veterans Day search by air of the roadways in northern Cherokee County failed to turn up any evidence of a woman who hasn't been seen since she drove away from a relative's birthday party Oct. 18.

Sheriff Bill Blanton said the air search concentrated on the various routes from Gaffney to Inman in the hopes that investigators could spot Tecora Young's vehicle.

Young, a 77-year-old Asheville woman with Gaffney ties, was last seen when she was visiting an aunt on Estelle Road. After leaving a birthday party there between 8 p.m. and 8:30 p.m., family members say Young headed for a cousin's home on Birnie Street where she planned to spend the night. She never arrived on Birnie Street, however, and neither she nor her green Buick sedan have been seen since.

For Young's family, the hardest part has simply been not knowing what happened.

"We just don't know," said her daughter-in-law Eathelle Huey. "We just want her home. We love her, miss her and want her home."

Blanton said investigators from his office have already been in contact with numerous police agencies between Gaffney and Asheville, seeking their assistance in searching along highways in their jurisdictions. A second search by air of Cherokee County roadways is possible, though Blanton couldn't say exactly when that might happen or where investigators might look.

Known affectionately as "Mamma T," Young was born in Gaffney and has many relatives here, Huey said. Before her retirement, Young operated a restaurant in Asheville. Since then, Huey said her mother-in-law had been working with a foster grandparent program in North Carolina.

"She just enjoys her babies and talks about them all the time," Huey said.

Since Young's disappearance, her family repeatedly has been driving along all of the routes she might have taken in the hopes of finding her car. Noting that Young, who knows Gaffney roadways well, would have traveled on Highway 150 from Estelle Road, her family has walked the roadway several times.

"There's a lot of areas with kudzu on them," Huey said. "We can't see under that. That's my fear ... we can't see her."

Last Saturday, the family members began passing out flyers at local businesses in the hopes that someone saw something.

Blanton said investigators haven't been getting any leads and at this point have no firm idea what might have happened to Young.

"That's the reason we're trying to search the interstates, too," he said. "We just don't know,"

Going forward, Blanton said his department would continue to run down any of the leads that come in and continues to keep an eye on Young's cell phone service and her credit cards, neither of which have shown any activity since her disappearance.

"Every time the phone rings, on the first or second ring I'm answering the phone," Huey said. "We're just tense and nervous. At the same time we're praying."

Young's family has established a reward fund for information at the CPM Credit Union, 240 E. Blackstock Road, Spartanburg, 29301.

The Cherokee County Sheriff's Office is asking anyone with information to call the office at (864) 489-4722; or CrimeStoppers at (864) 489- CRIME.