PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Jessica Borreson just wants to cry and sleep. “Today is a horrible day,” the 33-year-old mother told KOIN 6 News.
Twenty years ago — October 7, 1999 — was the last time anyone saw Jessica’s mother, Teresa Davidson-Murphy. There have been no sightings of the then-Rainier resident and there’s no determination about what may have happened to her.
“I do suspect foul play,” Jessica said, but “the worst part about everything is not knowing because there’s never an answer because you don’t know.”
About a month before her mom went missing, Jessica said she got into a fight with her mom because “I didn’t get my way.”
“I remember slamming my bedroom door and stomping off and saying, ‘I wish you weren’t here,’ you know, just mouthing off, being a teenager and saying dumb stuff,” she told KOIN 6 News. “The next thing you know she’s not there and it’s a strong feeling of ‘Be careful what you wish for and don’t ever take anybody for granted because you never know when your last moment with that person is.”
Teresa Davidson-Murphy was 34 at the time she was last seen. The Oregon State Police put out a “Missing Person” flier about a year after her disappearance that said the last person to see her was her husband, Richard Murphy, “at her residence in Rainier on Thursday, October 7, 1999.”
Her vehicle and personal belongings were left at her home, OSP said. Murphy told the police her .45 caliber handgun was missing.
Jessica said her mom dropped her off at a relative’s house because they were going to an out-of-state volleyball match for a few days.
NamUS: The case of Teresa Davidson-Murphy
“I talked to her on the phone on Saturday and she didn’t really sound like herself, but I really didn’t think too much of it,” she said. “But she just never showed up and that’s not like her.”
She said her mom and Richard had been married about a year and moved from Puyallup to Rainier because Richard wanted to be closer to her family.
Teresa, she said, would never leave her kids. “No way. No way. Not as close as my mom and I were. She wouldn’t just up and leave me.”
Facebook: Help Find Teresa Davidson
Teresa’s mother is still alive but ill, Jessica said. “All she wants before she passes on, she wants to know what happened to her daughter because that’s her only biological daughter.”
She described her mom as “caring, loving, supportive, always there. She’d give her shirt off her back to somebody that needed it with or without knowing them. She was confident. She was smart. She was funny.”
Jessica, who is married and now lives in Klamath Falls, wants answers and believes someone knows something.
“I just want everybody to know if you know something, please say something. If you’re scared to say something, find a way to say something. You know, if you’re scared to say something, go to the police and tell them that you’re scared. They can do something to help you. You know, there’s a family that loves her and misses her. You know, her grandkids have never met her and it’s even harder to explain to them.”
The case remains an open investigation. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Oregon State Police.
