BY SUSAN VELA
The Cincinnati Enquirer
![[doherty]](/editions/1998/10/12/doherty_180x135.jpg)
Maggie Doherty keeps Erica's things in a bedroom. The plaque bears her daughter's picture.
(Patrick Reddy photo)
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GERMANTOWN, Ky. -- In a perfect world, Erica Lee Fraysure would be a freshman accounting student at Northern Kentucky University.
She'd take classes in the day, hang out with friends at night and, as she did in high school, find time to kiss her mother on the forehead.
But the world isn't perfect. The pretty teen with long brown hair and bright blue eyes disappeared a year ago on Oct. 21.
Her mother, Maggie Doherty, has hoped and prayed for her safe return.
However, in the past few months, hope that once seemed insurmountable has been losing ground to a mother's worst nightmare.
"She's dead," said Mrs. Doherty, sitting at the kitchen table of her rural Germantown home, about 50 miles south of the Greater Cincinnati area in eastern Bracken County.
"It's just been too long," she added. "I didn't want to face the fact that she was dead. But you can only deny it for so long.
"I've got to accept it sometime. She's not coming home."
Erica Lee Fraysure
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But Mrs. Doherty still has enough hope to sometimes talk about Erica as if she were alive. An investigation into her disappearance hasn't been able to answer the many questions that keep nagging at her.
"Who did this?" she said. "Why did they do this? Is that person still out there? Are they walking the streets, watching me? Are they watching her friends? Who's next? What's next?
"I can't go on like this. Life's just not normal."
Erica Lee Fraysure disappeared Oct. 21. Her 1988 Pontiac was found the next day between double rows of hay bales in a field off Fronks Lane Road, just outside of Brooksville.
The car was unlocked and her purse and other belongings were still inside.
Learning about the car made Mrs. Doherty and Erica's stepfather, Daniel Doherty, think the worst. The 17-year-old senior at Bracken County High School had many friends, plus her own car, bank account and a job at a pizza parlor. There was no way she would've run away, they said.
"You don't run away when you've got it all," Mrs. Doherty said. "I knew she'd been abducted, kidnapped or murdered."
Erica's father, Kevin Fraysure of Augusta, did not return calls. He has remarried.
Kentucky State Police Detective Robert Scott, lead investigator in the case, said 250 interviews have been conducted in efforts to learn what happened to Erica.
Helicopters and tracking dogs have been used, and lakes, ponds and septic systems searched. One of the most recent searches took place Sept. 30, when a private lake near Brooksville was dredged because of a psychic's Sept. 24 appearance on Montel Williams' TV talk show.
The psychic had told Mrs. Doherty that Erica's body was in water. The private lake off Ky. 1159 is about 2 miles from where Erica's car was found.
Investigators said they conducted the search because they wanted to check out all leads.
Mrs. Doherty acknowledges that she has become frustrated with the investigation and the fact that it still hasn't led her to her daughter, who would have turned 18 on May 6.
Detective Scott said he understands.
"The case is about a missing (teen) and her family," he said. "I can only imagine the frustrations her mother is going through. "Maggie has a daughter that's been missing nearly a year. I've been looking for her nearly a year, and I haven't found her.
"There's not a week that passes without something happening. The only thing I can tell you is that a day doesn't go by that I don't hope today is the day that someone with information calls."
Meanwhile, Mrs. Doherty has decorated her home for Halloween. There are festive candles and papier-mache pumpkins in almost every room. With a smile, she noted that Halloween was one of Erica's favorite holidays, second only to Christmas.
In the year since Erica disappeared, Mrs. Doherty has moved Erica's stuffed Winnie-the-Pooh dolls and bedroom furniture into a room upstairs. The room is decorated like her old one and only awaits Erica's return.
The same goes for a downstairs room, which Mrs. Doherty has furnished with a black wrought iron bed and clown pictures and knickknacks. Erica adored clowns, her mother said. A white commencement gown that the teen would've worn to her high school graduation ceremony hangs in the room.
Mrs. Doherty often spends time in both rooms, finding the calm and peace that she said reminds her of Erica. But sometimes she remembers the Oct. 21 school night when she did a rare thing by letting Erica go out.
The teen had worked the entire weekend, and Mrs. Doherty figured Erica deserved to have some fun.
"Bye, mom, I love you," the teen told her mother, who hasn't seen her since that night.
Despite the bad days, Mrs. Doherty plugs on. She is planning a vigil in Erica's honor. It will take place Oct. 21 at either the Bracken County Courthouse or Bracken County High School.
She also plans to distribute reward posters to homes, businesses and stores throughout town. The posters once were all over town but now have become a rare sight.
"I won't let them forget," she said in a forceful tone. "I'm not giving up. There's no way I'm giving up. (And) if someone murdered her, I want the death penalty."
Reward for information remains unclaimed
![[doherty]](/editions/1998/10/12/doherty_550x413.jpg)