“Twenty-five years is a prolonged time to be without our daughter,” mother Marilyn Smith told KRCR in 2023 old to the anniversary of Tera's disappearance. “And, to imagine what might per chance presumably well per chance [have been] with our family… We're actually grateful for the group and their toughen. Of us nonetheless potential us and narrate they take into accout Tera and we're grateful for that.”

She and Tera's father Terry Smith admittedly gave up hope a prolonged time within the past that Tera would near support safely, but they nonetheless desire justice.

Listed below are the overall crucial points on the haunting cold case introduced support into the news by Sherri's kidnapping hoax:

Who’s Tera Smith?

Tera Lynn Smith, the oldest of 4 siblings, “had a amount of passions and interests,” mother Marilyn told NBC News' Dateline in 2022. “She loved horses. She loved basketball, nature. Her freshman one year of high college, she used to be homecoming queen and arm wrestling champ.”

The Central Valley High School junior used to be additionally a talented creator who loved poetry and had “a deep spiritual side,” Marilyn persisted. Added father Terry Smith, “We own volumes and volumes of her journals.”

She began doing Taekwondo “thanks to the connection to the earth,” Terry shared. “All that actually appealed to her.”

Tera additionally helped out on the family enterprise, the Oasis Fun Heart, a role for limited golf and other video games in nearby Shasta Lake.

What came about to Tera Smith?

On the Saturday night in August 1998 she went missing, Tera used to be grounded and no longer presupposed to exit sooner than she used to be as a consequence of work that evening on the Oasis.

“I cling she had snuck out,” Marilyn said, explaining the punishment. “She wasn't the exact child, whatsoever.”

She and Tera had spent indispensable of the day together working errands sooner than Marilyn dropped her eldest child at dwelling and went ahead to work. When Tera didn't present up as expected an hour later, Marilyn known as the dwelling.

Daughter Sierra told her that Tera had said she used to be going for a 20-minute scoot but hadn't returned, Marilyn recalled. “I came dwelling and appropriate drove the overall roads that I thought she might per chance presumably well per chance additionally very well be jogging on,” she said, “and couldn't discover her.”

Sierra, who used to be 11 on the time, remembered how their of us ancient to train them in no formula to leave the dwelling at night on their very cling. “I used to be treasure, 'Tera, you're no longer allowed to dart,'” she told KRCR in 2022. “She told me that she would be support sooner than our of us ever purchased support dwelling. I take into accout staring at her as she jogged out of my line of take into story.”

Tera's next-youngest sister Kyra Smith used to be at a pal's birthday party when she purchased a call from her of us to cling in for Tera at work—and he or she wasn't comfortable about it.

“So I used to be pissed off with her till…it turned exact,” Kyra told Dateline. “Except we realized she is now not any longer going to be coming dwelling.”

Who used to be Tera Smith dating when she disappeared?

Sooner than they known as police, Tera's family known as a bunch of her pals, one of whom said the teenager might per chance presumably well per chance additionally own been having some own of relationship with her married Taekwondo teacher, 29-one year-passe Troy Zink.

When Terry talked to Troy that night, the martial arts teacher said he'd viewed Tera earlier that night when he gave her a scamper, Terry told Dateline.

The Shasta County Sheriff's Put of job said that Troy, while he used to be interviewed throughout the direction of the investigation, used to be below no circumstances a suspect or particular person of curiosity in Tera's disappearance.

“Gave us the identical anecdote that he caught to all over,” Terry said. “That he had picked up Tera, dropped her off a pair of mile and a half of from our condo—two miles, three miles from our condo. And then had long gone up to… a hill nearby known as Cling Glider Hill.”

Days later, Terry recalled, they were going by Tera's mattress room taking a stumble on for clues after they came across what perceived to be a letter to Troy about ending irrespective of used to be going on between them.

Troy—who, per courtroom info reviewed by Dateline, used to be convicted of spousal rape in 1992 (a price he denied)—told police that Tera known as and asked to search him on the night in ask. When he confirmed up on the Smith family dwelling, she asked if he might per chance presumably well per chance loan her $2,000, Troy said, in accordance with courtroom paperwork obtained by Dateline.

He told Tera he didn't own that indispensable on him but he'd give it to her if she told him what it used to be for, Troy told investigators. She purchased offended, Troy persisted, and then asked for a scamper.

Had been there any suspects within the disappearance of Tera Smith?

To this level, no arrests own been made or suspects named in connection with Tera's disappearance.

Investigators “did the due diligence,” Shasta County Sheriff's Lt. Chris Edwards told Dateline, “and, you realize, investigated and interviewed folks that were shut to her, that knew her, and followed all those leads out.”

Became as soon as Tera Smith ever came across?

No mark of Tera has ever been came across, nor evidence to display what might per chance presumably well per chance additionally own came about to her.

Per the California Division of Justice's missing particular person role, the 5-foot-7 blonde with blue eyes used to be last viewed wearing a white sports bra, multicolored working shorts, and white and navy Nike working sneakers.

“At the time, we actually felt pleased that they were giving it their all,” Terry told Dateline of authorities' efforts to discover Tera. “They introduced in cadaver canines….We own a lake nearby…They nearly drained that lake.”

He persisted, “We actually feel treasure they actually gave it their considering potentially six months to a one year. And then it used to be a actually crucial case for another one year or two. And since then, it's shelved. It's fully cold. Stone-cold.”

While Tera's mother known as the realization that she wasn't coming dwelling “a gradual process,” Terry said he felt treasure the hunt used to be a misplaced cause after two days.

“I cling Marilyn held on to hope far longer than I did,” he said. “I used to be convinced that she used to be long gone from virtually the discover-dart.”

How did Sherri Papini's kidnapping hoax impact Tera Smith's family?

At the time of Sherri's disappearance in 2016, Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko nonetheless saved a picture of Tera on his desk.

Sherri “is 34 years passe, but she seems indispensable younger,” he told the Sacramento Bee while the hunt used to be underway. “They might per chance presumably well additionally potentially dart for sisters.”

Sherri's then-husband Keith Papini reached out to Tera's father for advice throughout that point, Terry telling the Bee he might per chance presumably well per chance ideal present the insecure partner to lisp that investigators attain all the pieces that it is doubtless you’ll presumably well presumably presumably imagine to discover his wife.

“I didn't own a amount of comfort to provide him,” Terry said. “I'm no longer exact assured that anything's going to shut out of it, but how attain you train somebody five days after their wife's long gone missing that she's potentially long gone for factual?”

However Sherri came support on Nov. 24, 2016. And more than five years later, she used to be arrested for mendacity to federal authorities about being kidnapped.

“I would favor to utter that it's no longer upsetting and appropriate with the draw to own so indispensable compassion,” Tera's sister Sierra told KRCR in March 2022 after Sherri's arrest, “but I will be able to't due to the it is so upsetting.”

Sherri even had dinner at Marilyn and Terry's condo at one level after her return.

“She must be ailing to own near up with that anecdote and to damage herself the potential she did,” Sierra said. “She's appropriate no longer well.”

In Hulu's Ultimate Wife, Keith lamented going to search Tera's family below what he didn't know on the time were faux pretenses.

Sherri “allowed me to take her over to that condo after the truth,” he said, “and he or she appropriate mendacity straight to their face is one thing that has been very complicated for me [to process].”

Where does the investigation into Tera Smith's disappearance stand?

Tera's disappearace is nonetheless an originate missing particular person case, Shasta County Sheriff's Sgt. Jake Duncan confirmed to E! News.

He said they continue to work on any fresh leads and records that is accessible in and the final public is impressed to call in with tips.

Lt. Chris Edwards told KRCR in August 2023 that hope stays alive in their role of job.

“I attain actually feel that somebody accessible does own info on this case,” he said, “and we’re going to have the option to discover that solved.”

In lieu of hoping to search their daughter all over again, the Smiths would on the very least treasure some solutions.

“There are masses of cold conditions accessible that might per chance below no circumstances be solved,” Terry told Dateline. “We appropriate cling on to the hope that ours won't be a form of.”

Kyra added, “We desire justice nonetheless. We don't desire somebody able to doing one thing treasure this out appropriate living their lives.”

Where is Tera Smith's family now?

The Oasis Fun Heart is nonetheless within the family, race by Marilyn and Terry's son, Trevor Smith. He and sisters Kyra and Sierra are all married with kids of their very cling.

On the twenty fifth anniversary of Tera's disappearance in 2023, her family picked up trash on Inclined Oregon Path, where she used to be last viewed, as they did yearly. “Tera used to be an adamant recycler,” Terry told KRCR, “and he or she loved retaining the earth clear.”

Kyra moved away from Redding as an grownup, but resolved to focal level on Tera's existence “and the overall factual,” she told Dateline. “Because I don't desire to focal level on the grotesque crucial points of her disappearance.”

Sierra additionally needs to preserve in tips Tera as she used to be “in likelihood to finding one thing I wouldn't desire to search or know.”

She told KRCR in March 2022, “I cling all of us actually feel dazzling at peace with the truth that she's long gone and we'll look her within the subsequent existence.”