New York : Audrey May Turk Herron
Catskill, New York was home to a beautiful, energetic, and selfless mother of three named Audrey May Turk Herron. Audrey was the glue that held everyone together. Audrey’s children were more important than life to her. She was the kind of mom that everyone wants. Always involved with her kids' interests. Sports, Brownies, she was there. She always took the girls shopping and included friends in the adventures. Especially her friend’s kids. When I spoke with Audrey’s long time friend Marie, you could hear the perk in her voice when describing Audrey as a mother.
Audrey’s oldest daughter, Sonsia, was conceived during Audrey’s first marriage and while the marriage didn’t last, their relationship continued as great co-parents to Sonsia. After divorcing Sonsia’s father, Audrey worked at a golf course off of County Rd 67 about 12 miles from Catskill in Freehold, New York.
This is where she met and fell in love with the owner’s son, Jeff Herron. The two get married in August of 1995. Then Sonsia would gain a half sister and sister a few years later.
Audreys care giving tendencies lead her into a part time career as a nurse at the Columbia Greene Long Term Care Facility also located in Freehold. Sonsia told me that she generally liked to work the swing shifts at the facility so that she could be with her and her siblings as much as possible.
In August 2002, the Herron family was moving into a new house on the golf course, Audrey was enjoying her position at the care facility and had put in for a promotion. She was thirty one and thriving, until August 29, 2002.
While on the late shift Audrey called home to Jeff excitedly telling him that she had gotten the promotion. Her shift ended at 11pm and she walked out to the parking lot with some fellow employees to drive the 12 miles home, but she would never make it home.
There are a few conflicting reports but some say that at 2 am, Jeff woke up and realized Audrey had not arrived home. Thinking she may have needed to stay late, or that Audrey stopped off at her mother’s house, Jeff went back to sleep.
At 6 am, when Jeff still had not heard or seen Audrey, he called her mom asking if she had seen Audrey. Sonsia had been on a month-long vacation with her grandmother in Florida and she had returned that day. Knowing that Audrey was missing Sonsia terribly, it is entirely possible she went straight there. Originally the plans were for Audrey to pick up Sonsia the following day after a doctor’s appointment.
Audrey’s mother said she had not seen Audrey and then he phoned the care facility to see if she picked up another shift. He learned that she had not.
An hour passed and Jeff called Audrey’s mom back and an official report was filed. When Audrey did not make her doctor’s appointment the panic began to set in.
The weather that night was rainy and the opportunity for an accident would be high. That afternoon Jeff notified all of Audrey’s friends, they all set out to search. At that point, everyone was optimistic that she just had a car accident and was broken down on the side of the road and could not reach out for help. In 2002, cell phones were not commonplace. Audrey however, had a bag phone. Jeff, Her mother, and friends all called and received no answer. The phone was dead or turned off.
The fact that no one had heard from Audrey was very strange. Audrey always checked in with Jeff when plans were changed. Some friends described Jeff as controlling, but he may just be a very Type A person. Wanting to know of any changes to play. Was it a red flag that Jeff didn’t have more of a panic reaction when he woke up at 2 am?
Once the police report had been filed, many more searches ensued. Helicopters, foot searches and more trips up and down the route Audrey would take home. Over 120 miles of roads and trails were searched. Audrey drove a black 1994 Jeep Grand Cherokee. Flyers are plastered all over town. Only one piece of evidence related to Audrey’s trip home was discovered.
“We only have one grainy video from Cumberland Farms in which it appears that [Audrey’s] vehicle does leave her place of employment and basically turn left, going west on country route 23-B. That’s the last of any kind of technological evidence we had,” Senior Investigator Kusminsky said.
Several lakes, rivers and ditches have been extensively searched but Audrey or her Jeep have never been found. As recently as May 2023, Adventures with Purpose had divers out looking for Audrey. No other evidence has been found.
There are several theories that surround Audrey’s disappearance. The first finger was pointed at Sonsia’s step father, Jeff. He seemed uncooperative to some and didn’t attend the vigils that friends held. Sonsia was moved out of the house back to her biological father very quickly after Audrey’s disappearance. Before Audrey disappeared, there were many fights between Audrey and Jeff regarding Sonsia. Jeff was more strict with Sonsia than with the other children and this was a point of contention for Audrey. To the point the couple had separated.
Had they gotten into another fight and Audrey leave again? Law enforcement and friends don’t believe so. If she was leaving him that evening, why would she have called him at 9pm to tell him about the raise?
A claim that perhaps the Russian Mob had a hand in her disappearance because Jeff’s father had a silent partner that also owned the golf course that was involved with Russian Organized Crime. There are some speculations that Audrey had walked in on an argument or conversation among partners and perhaps that is a motive?
Police have claimed to debunk this theory but many are still clinging to the possibility.
In 2016, there were rumors that an unnamed person of interest that worked at the Care Facility had flirted with Audrey and maybe he was a scorned lover after Audrey rejected him. This person had a history of rape and attempted kidnapping and once law enforcement learned of it, a search was done of this person’s property with cadaver dogs. A pond was drained hoping to find some sort of evidence but they came up empty handed.
Did Audrey get in a car accident on the way home? And if she was, why hasn’t she been found?
When Audrey was last seen, she was wearing dark green scrubs, with a turtleneck underneath. She had a scar on her right thumb, a mole on the inside of her right knee and wore eyeglasses. She had a #1 mom gold necklace and a white leather banded watch. She drove a black 1994 Jeep Grand Cherokee with New York license plates numbered X233UV. It did not have fog lights and had minor damage on the front passenger sized bumper.
