Johannesburg - Edna Piercey had just returned from a school camping trip. The 16-year-old excitedly detailed every part of her trip to her step-father while washing her dirty clothes that afternoon.
She then announced that she needed to go to her friend’s house to collect her school bag and that she would be back soon.
But as night fell on that October 14, in 2001, the teenager had still not returned.
Her mother, Janine Lottering, with the help of the community in Rustenburg, searched for her. She was not found.
And even now, nearly 13 years later, the anguish and fear have not left her, but the hope of finding Edna is still as strong as the day she disappeared.
Today, on International Missing Children’s Day, Lottering joins thousands of parents around the world and in South Africa to commemorate the children who found their way back home, to remember those who were victims, and those who had not yet been found.
For Lottering, though, it is a double-edged sword: not only did Edna go missing 13 years ago, her other daughter, Blanche, also disappeared, one year after Edna.
Twelve years ago Blanche vanished without a trace. She was found a few days later, brutally murdered.
Her face had been removed. There was a hole where her face used to be.
It later emerged that she had been strangled. She was just 15. No one was ever arrested.
Lottering always believed that both her daughters’ disappearances had been connected – that they had been taken by the same people. “But at least I know where Blanche is, it is my only comfort,” she said. On the 10th anniversary of Edna’s disappearance, she wrote her daughter a letter.
It read: “It has been 10 very long years since I have physically seen your beautiful face, heard your soft voice and felt your warm embrace. I miss you so much and crave your presence.
“The day you went missing and every day after is intense sadness and overwhelming emptiness for us.
“It is like violent surgery from within, without anaesthetic… but I am hanging in there, you will always be a part of my life no matter what.
“I will fight for you till I take my last breath, this is a promise, this is my duty.”
Today, Lottering continues to be involved with organisations, like Missing Children SA, in the hope that her little girl is still alive.
But for Refiloe Enele, 23, the anguish is still fresh.
Just hours after she stepped off a bus from Cape Town with her one-year-old son, Shabil, her nightmare began.
Enele met a woman named Busisiwe on the bus. Busiswe bombarded the young mother with questions about her son – how old he was, what he ate and what nappies he wore.
When they arrived in Joburg, Busisiwe offered to look after the baby while Enele had her eyelashes done at a hair salon.
But when Enele had finished, the woman had vanished with her baby boy. Shabil has been missing since April 30.
This week, police released a picture taken from CCTV footage of Busisiwe and have asked anyone who has seen the woman to contact the investigating officer, Sergeant Johannes Motshana, at 072 999 8959 or call Crime Stop at 0860 010 111.
Saturday Star