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[maryland missing]

Cortney Fry's photo: http://www.theyaremissed.org/ncma/gallery/ncmaprofile_all.php?A200401719S

Gone but not forgotten
Cortney Fry, a young Columbia mother missing since July, remains in the hearts and minds of family, friends and strangers. A candlelight vigil is planned for Sunday, Oct. 17.

By Cindy Stauffer
Lancaster New Era

Published: Oct 08, 2004 1:42 PM EST

LANCASTER COUNTY, PA - They will light candles and release balloons and hand out buttons with a photo of the petite blond woman no one has seen for three months.Cortney Fry’s family is holding a vigil for the missing 19-year-old from 3 to 6 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 17, at the Locust Street Park in Columbia.

The young mother vanished from her Columbia apartment in July, leaving behind a baby daughter and lots of questions that police and her family would like to have answered.

Did someone kill her?

Did she take her own life?

Did she, overwhelmed with motherhood and life, simply run away?

What happened to Cortney Fry?

“It would break my heart to think forever and ever it would just become an unknown, that we have no idea, and that’s the way it’s always left,” says Cortney’s aunt, Dawn Fry, a Maryland resident who is organizing the vigil.

Says Cortney’s dad, Charles “Skip” Fry of Columbia: “Week after week, there’s always somebody who comes up and says, ‘Didn’t you hear anything about your daughter?’ It’s almost a daily thing.”

Cortney’s other aunt, Amber Sliger, who lives in Mount Joy, says, “I don’t know, sometimes you don’t want to think about it. But you just want to find out what happened.”

This will be the second vigil Dawn Fry has held for her niece. The first one was spontaneous and not publicized.

On Saturday, Sept. 25, she drove to Columbia from her Columbia, Md., home and went to the park, where she displayed several posters with information about Cortney and offered pamphlets about postpartum depression, domestic violence and drug use, all issues she says may have impacted her niece.

Curious passersby approached her to see what she was doing.

“They asked who it was for,” she says. “They said, ‘Cortney Fry?’ The biggest response was, ‘Gee, they haven’t found her yet?’ “

Others honked their horns as they drove past.

Encouraged and enlivened, Dawn Fry decided to hold a second vigil, this time getting the word out so that others could come, share the family’s sadness and maybe even shed some light on what happened to Fry.

“Just getting it back into the consciousness of the local town, maybe the media, in the hope that something more can transpire,” she says.

Cortney Fry was last seen by her boyfriend, Micah J. Stewart, 18, when he left their apartment at 178 S. Fifth St., in mid-July.

Stewart told police that when he returned about 45 minutes later, his girlfriend was gone, leaving behind the couple’s then-2-week-old daughter, Giavanni.

Stewart didn’t report his girlfriend was missing. Two days later, when her dad stopped at the apartment and was told of his daughter’s disappearance, he was the one who contacted police.

Cortney Fry, who is 4 feet 10 inches tall and weighs about 100 pounds, did not have a driver’s license or a car. She did not take clothing with her.

She and Stewart had been having problems before her disappearance, friends said. In fact, police charged Stewart with disorderly conduct after being called to a domestic dispute between the two about a week before she disappeared.

Stewart had questioned whether he was Giavanni’s father, and the couple had taken the baby for a paternity test, which friends later said confirmed that Stewart was the father.

Lancaster County District Attorney Donald Totaro and Columbia Police Chief Joseph Greenya both said today the case is still actively being investigated but there are no new developments.

“We’re not giving up on it,” Greenya said.

As the family waits for answers, they hope the vigil will help them find some peace, maybe even some answers.

Dawn Fry says she will put out a box where people can put prayer requests or drop an anonymous tip.

The Rev. David Powers of Columbia Presbyterian Church will offer prayers for the missing woman and her family at the vigil. His church also will serve coffee and hot chocolate.

“God knows where Cortney is and he is with Cortney, no matter where she is,” he says, “and he is with all of her family members too.”

Dawn Fry says, “I think prayer does help, and community involvement. And just keeping in the public awareness has got to count for something.”

The family also will have buttons available with Cortney Fry’s photo on them. They will offer them for a donation, which will be placed in a trust fund for Giavanni, who is being cared for by Stewart’s family.

Skip Fry says the vigil will be difficult. Oct. 17 will be his 42nd birthday, a day he will mark without his daughter, or any idea of where she is.

“Answers, either way, would be nice,” he says.
© 2004 Lancaster Newspapers
PO Box 1328, Lancaster PA 17608, (717) 291-8811
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