Toni Lee Sharpless stares out from the picture her mother holds. At the time it was taken, Toni was in her late twenties. She is dressed all in white, the uniform of a nurse topped off with a neat squared cap. Her smile is genuine, her teeth at least as bright as the uniform she wears. Her eyes, too, glow.
By contrast, her mother looks strained. Also smartly attired, her short grey hair and glasses make Donna Knebel look business like. But the neatness of her appearance fails to hide the stresses and strains her face displays. This is not surprising. Her daughter has been missing for eleven years. 'You can't imagine it until you go through it. It's like a void, a big hole you're falling into and can never touch any sides or reach the bottom,' she said, referring to the unimaginably difficult decade she has just lived through.
Toni was a young woman who had her fair share of troubles. They were not her own fault. But she had found the strength to make the courageous and impressive effort needed to put her life back on track. It seems, though, that everything went wrong once more when she decided to let her hair down after a long spell on the wagon. Then, something took place that led to her disappearance. As to what happened in the early hours of August 23rd, 2009 ? well, nobody is completely sure. The possibility remains that they never will be.