Photo: Courtesy Patricia Tam
Patricia Tam’s upcoming May 1 birthday will not be a day of celebration, but of sadness. It marks exactly two years since Tam’s 18-year-old daughter, Desirea Ferris, disappeared in Liberty, Missouri.
“The last thing she said was asking if everyone was going out for dinner and that she would be home that night because her and my other daughter had plans,” Tam recalls. “They had gotten me some stuff and they were going to have a cake, but she never made it home.”
But Ferris failed to return home that night after going out to meet up with friends in South Kansas City. When she didn’t come back to celebrate her mother’s birthday, her family grew worried.
Three days later, Tam called authorities, who deemed Ferris both endangered and missing. Tam believes her daughter had fallen into the wrong crowd of friends, some of whom might know what happened to her that night.
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On her birthday, Tam says she doesn’t focus on herself, only her daughter. “It’s too hard to even think about celebrating my birthday; that’s when she went missing. When she left that morning, she left me a card on her bed. I carry it with me every day.”
Tam says she has no plans to ever stop searching for her youngest daughter.
“She’s out there,” Tam says. “She’s coming through these doors no matter what, good or bad, whether she’s on her two feet or I’m carrying her, she’s coming home.”
Ferris is 5 feet 1 inches tall and weighs 101 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes.
Anyone with information is urged to call the Kansas City Metro Crime Stoppers anonymously at 816-474-TIPS, or the Liberty Police Department at 816-439-4701.
For more information on Desirea Ferris’s disappearance and the stories of other missing young people,subscribe now to PEOPLEor pick up this week’s issue, on newsstands Friday.
source: people.com
