Terrilynn Monette

How you can help: Terrilynn Monette is described as an African-American female, approximately 5'8" tall, weighing 180 pounds and having a light complexion with long brown hair. She was last seen driving a 2012 black two-door Honda Accord with Louisiana license plate WUN494. If you have any information, please contact the New Orleans Police Department at (504) 821-2222 or Texas EquuSearch at (281) 309-9500.
(CNN) -- Terrilynn Monette had no problem uprooting her life to help children.
When the California native learned of the "teachNOLA" program, which sends educators to New Orleans to teach in impoverished areas, she packed her bags and headed to Louisiana.
"I always wanted to be a teacher, and what better place to teach than New Orleans, where passionate teachers are needed most?" she said in a 2011 video.
Her dedication and excellence in the classroom earned her a "Teacher of the Year" nomination in her district.
But after a night celebrating the accolade with friends, the 26-year-old vanished.
Mom's tearful plea for missing daughter Search for missing New Orleans teacher
That was almost two weeks ago. With each passing day, her family's anxiety compounds.
"There's total emptiness in my life right now. I miss my daughter so, so much, no one can hardly believe the impact that she has had on our family," said Monette's mother, Toni Enclade.
"She's a beautiful person. She walks in the room, she lights up with her beautiful smile. I can't imagine anyone that would take her away from us."
Hundreds of volunteers and police have scoured New Orleans, but are no closer to finding Monette.
New Orleans police said she was last seen on March 2 at Parlay's, a bar in the Lakeview area of the city.
One of the bartenders working that night had to "cut off" Monette, indicating the bartender felt she had too much to drink and should no longer be served, bar manager Anna Boudousque said.
Monette told her friends she was going to sleep in her car before driving home because she had been drinking, police said.
She was seen about 4 a.m., talking to an unidentified man in the parking lot, police said.
Authorities said that man has been interviewed and is not considered a suspect in the disappearance.
Jefferson Parish sheriff's deputies even used magnets and grappling hooks to search a local bayou between the bar and Monette's home, but found no sign of her missing 2012 black Honda Accord.
Enclade told CNN on Wednesday that she believes someone has taken her daughter -- a new aunt -- against her will.
"Terrilynn was supposed to be the baby's godmother, and I know she wouldn't have just left on her own like that," she said.
A star teacher
In her first year of teaching second grade at Woodland West Elementary School, Monette turned one of the lowest-performing classes into one of the highest achieving.
"She is wonderful, she is vibrant. She is determined. She holds her students to the highest of expectations," Principal Amy Hoyle said. "She is very loving with her students. They are a family."
Enclade said she and her daughter usually speak every day, and it's extremely uncharacteristic for Monette to drop out of sight.
Friends and family have erected a billboard in downtown New Orleans seeking help in finding Monette, but to no avail. They also created a Facebook page.
"It hurts," Monette's aunt, Sheryl Bennett, told CNN affiliate WDSU. "There's a lot of danger out here."
But in her 2011 video, Monette said she had no qualms about starting her teaching career in New Orleans.
"I absolutely do not regret my decision to move out here. Becoming a teacher in New Orleans is one of the best decisions I've ever made in my entire life."
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Monette poses for a photo at the start of her job at Woodland West Elementary in October 2012.


Signs from the NOPD dot the city

Terrilynn Monette, a 26-year-old elementary school teacher who helped her second-graders turn their academic performances around, has apparently vanished.

The California native, who moved to New Orleans as part of that city's initiative to improve teaching in impoverished zones, was last seen with friends on March 2 after visiting Parlay's, a bar in the town's Lakeview section, police tell CNN.

That night, Monette had been "cut off" by a bartender who said she had too much to drink, according to Parlay's manager Anna Boudousque. The teacher was celebrating her nomination as "Teacher of the Year" in her district.

Police said Monette told her friends she'd sleep it off in her car, a 2012 black Honda Accord, before driving home, and was seen around 4 a.m., talking to an unidentified man in Parlay's parking lot.

Since then, both Monette and her car have disappeared.

Authorities tell CNN that the man in the parking lot has been interviewed and is not considered a suspect in the case. So far, there are no suspects or persons of interest.

Jefferson Parish sheriff's deputies, using magnets and grappling hooks, have searched a bayou between the bar and Monett's home, and investigators are reportedly continuing to review security footage from outside Parlay's. Billboards have also gone up in downtown New Orleans, asking the public for assistance.

Monette is originally from Long Beach, Calif., and a graduate of Cal State San Bernadino. A vigil for her was held last weekend at Wilson High School in Long Beach, say reports.

Her mother, Toni Enclade, told CNN: "She's a beautiful person. She walks in the room, she lights up with her beautiful smile. I can't imagine anyone that would take her away from us."
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New Orleans police are desperately searching for 26-year-old Terrilynn Monette. The second-grade teacher disappeared over a week ago after leaving a bar with friends.

"There’s total emptiness in my life right now," said her mother, Toni Enclade. "I miss my daughter so, so much."

Terrilynn's family, friends and sorority members have come from as far away as California to find her. Now, Texas Equusearch will lend its resources to the effort.

The group was started in 2000 after the abduction and murder of director Tim Miller's daughter. They've been involved in several high-profile cases, helping in the search for Natalee Holloway and, more recently, Caylee Anthony.

Miller joins HLN's Evening Express in the 6 p.m. ET hour.
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A talented young teacher credited with turning around her underperforming elementary school class in New Orleans has been missing for almost two weeks.

Second-grade teacher Terrilynn Monette was last seen on March 2 after a night of drinking with friends. The 26-year-old was celebrating her nomination as "Teacher of the Year" in her district, CNN reported.

A barkeeper cut off the tipsy Monette, who told friends she was going to sleep it off in her car parked nearby, WGMB reported.

Friends said they saw the California native talking to a man near her car at 4 a.m. -- by sunrise she and her 2012 black Honda Accord were gone without a trace.

Her cellphone stopped emitting a signal several hours before she disappeared, police said.

The man that she was seen speaking to in the wee hours of the night has been interviewed by police and ruled out as a suspect in her disappearance.

Volunteers, including co-workers from Woodland West Elementary School and family members from her hometown of Long Beach, turned out in droves to search for Monette, WWLT reported. More than 200 people checked New Orleans' City Park, which is near Parlay's Bar in the Lakeview section where she'd been partying with friends.


The city's "Teach NOLA" program, which sends new teachers to troubled schools, attracted Monette, the New Orleans Times Picayune reported. She is credited with significantly improving the performance of her students.

Monette is 5 feet 8 inches tall, weighs about 180 pounds and has long brown hair. On the night she vanished, she wore a pink and yellow sweater and jeans. Her left leg is tattooed.

if you have seen Monette or have any information, please call the New Orleans Police Department at 504-658-4000.
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Friends said they saw the California native talking to a man near her at about 4 a.m the morning of March 2. By sunrise, "she and her 2012 black Honda Accord were gone without a trace. The man that she was seen speaking to in the wee hours of the night has been interviewed by police and ruled out as a suspect in her disappearance," the Associated Press reported.
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(CBS) NEW ORLEANS - Terrilynn Monette, a 26-year-old elementary school teacher from Long Beach, Calif. who disappeared in New Orleans on March 2, is still missing after nearly 13 days of searching, CBS affiliate WWLTV reports.
EquuSearch, a Houston-based company that specializes in the search and recovery of missing persons, has been using sonar equipment to search bayous and ponds in the area, the station reports.

Monette was last seen on March 2 outside a bar in the Lakeview neighborhood of New Orleans. The bar was not far from City Park, which she could have traveled through to go home. Her 2012 black Honda Accord is also still missing.

"I think this is part of the process of elimination, in case a vehicle did end up in the water," Tim Miller, founder of Texas EquuSearch, said of his company's involvement in the search.

EquuSearch said they have the ability to look through up to 1000 feet of water - much like they did in the Natalee Holloway case in Aruba. According to Tim Miller, founder of Texas EquuSearch, the company has looked through a number of bodies of water in City Park and they have ruled out the possibility of a vehicle being in those waters.

Despite the extensive search, which is still continuing, there has been no sign of Monette or her car.

Monette's mother, Toni Enclade, said she appreciates the search efforts.

"...I hope and pray that they find something, some type of lead or something, to my daughter's disappearance," Enclade said.

Monette had been working in New Orleans for "Teach NOLA," a program that places educators in impoverished areas.
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(CBS) NEW ORLEANS - Police say surveillance video shows Terrilynn Monette, a 26-year-old elementary school from Long Beach, Calif. who disappeared in New Orleans on March 2, was driving alone in her car when she left a bar around 5:15a.m. on the day she was last seen, CBS affiliate WWLTV reports.
The New Orleans Police Department has reviewed three red light cameras which reportedly show Monette leaving Parlay's Lounge, a bar in the Lakeview neighborhood of New Orleans, and heading towards City Park in her black 2012 Honda Accord. Officer Hilal Williams, a spokesperson for the NOPD, confirmed Monette was alone in her car.

It is unclear where Monette was headed after a certain point and her car has not been found, according to the station.

A number of searches have been conducted by authorities and family members since the teacher went missing.

EquuSearch, a Houston-based company that specializes in the search and recovery of missing persons, used sonar equipment to search bayous and ponds in the area. According to Tim Miller, the founder of the company, they have ruled out the possibility of a vehicle being in those waters, the station reports.

Monette had been working in New Orleans for "Teach NOLA," a program that places educators in impoverished areas.
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Equusearch suspends hunt for missing teacher
By Craig Johnson

updated 12:39 PM EDT, Wed March 20, 2013

Search team tells CNN 'We know where she's not at'
Teacher of the Year nominee has been missing since March 2

Searching New Orleans: Where is Terrilynn Monette?
Texas-based search and recovery team Equusearch announced Wednesday that they have suspended the search for New Orleans schoolteacher Terrilynn Monette, who went missing March 2 after a night out with friends.

The New Orleans Police Department investigation into Monette's disappearance remains open.

Equusearch, a group involved in several high-profile cases, including the search for Natalee Holloway and, more recently, Caylee Anthony, had been mobilized to help the search, filling a need for items like sonar equipment. They have been foiled by one false lead after another in Monette's case, and say that they've exhausted their search.

The crew has focused on the literal underbelly of New Orleans, the murky waterways and bayous that could contain a submerged vehicle -- and there have been plenty found, but not Monette's.

“There was a second there when we thought we might have found something,” Equusearch director Tim Miller told the Times Picayune. “We found a car that looked like hers and had a sunroof like hers. We had divers go in, but then, it turned out again to be a false alarm.”

Monette and her black 2012 Honda have not been seen since March 2, the night the 26-year-old Teacher of the Year nominee went to a bar with friends.

Investigators have confirmed that surveillance video shows Monette leaving the bar and driving toward an area of the city alone, HLN has learned.

This week, Crimestoppers announced that the reward for information leading to the whereabouts of Monette had hit $3,500, after an anonymous donor added $1,000, HLN affiliate WDSU reports.

How you can help: Terrilynn Monette is described as an African-American female, approximately 5'8" tall, weighing 180 pounds and having a light complexion with long brown hair. She was last seen driving a 2012 black two-door Honda Accord with Louisiana license plate WUN494. If you have any information, please contact the New Orleans Police Department at (504) 821-2222 or Texas EquuSearch at (281) 309-9500.

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NEW ORLEANS —NOPD Lt. Chris Kalka addressed the media for about seven minutes Friday afternoon.
Through interviews with bartenders and people present at Parlay’s, he said police have concluded that Monette did not consume an excessive amount of alcohol at the Lakeview bar.

After reviewing other surveillance videos, investigators saw Monette turn left off of Harrison Avenue onto Marconi Drive, where she was last seen that morning.

Kalka added that between five and 10 minutes after she was caught on camera at the intersection of Harrison Avenue and Marconi Drive, a jogger jogged by the intersection.
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(CBS/WWLT) NEW ORLEANS - New Orleans Police Department said Friday that missing teacher Terrilynn Monette did not drink an excessive amount of alcohol and cameras did not show her being followed as she drove home the night of her disappearance.

According to CBS affiliate WWL, Monette and a friend went to two restaurants on March 1, before heading to Parlay's Dream Lounge in Lakeview around midnight where they met three other people. Police say they interviewed bar employees and patrons, all of whom said the missing teacher did not consume an excessive number of drinks.

Monette's phone reportedly stopped working just before 1 a.m., and police believe it may have run out of battery.

Around 3:30 a.m., Monette left the lounge and went to her car for 45 minutes with a man, WWL reports. "He said, at the time, that she was passed out in the driver's seat and appeared intoxicated. He thought it was best for her to 'sleep it off,'" police said.

She reportedly left the parking lot around 5:15 a.m. Cameras show her alone as she turned onto Harrison and then left onto Marconi. The camera at the Harrison and Marconi intersection was the last to capture her image, police said.

Police say it did not appear any cars were following her before that point, WWL reports.

A few minutes after she drove past the camera, a jogger is spotted on the camera at Marconi and Harrison. Police are asking this jogger or any jogger that was in City Park around 5 a.m. on March 2 to come forward with any information.

Anyone with information is asked to call Crimestoppers at 822-1111.

Monette had been working in New Orleans for "Teach NOLA," a program that places educators in impoverished areas.
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NOPD detectives have spoken with the jogger who they were seeking to interview Friday after learning the jogger had been near the last place missing teacher Terrilyn Monette was seen, at about the same time. On Friday, police appealed to citizens to help them find a person who was running along Marconi Drive around the time Monette is believed to have driven her car near City Park. The jogger is not a suspect in the case, police said.

Within hours of releasing the information, police received 17 tips about the jogger, said officer Hilal Williams, a Police Department spokesperson. Detectives spoke to thart jogger, as well as several other people who were running in City Park at the time, Williams said.

Police did not release information about what the jogger told them.

Monette, 26, was last seen around 5:15 a.m. on March 2 after leaving Parlay's Bar in the 800 block of Harrison Avenue in Lakeview.

The second-grade teacher, who moved to New Orleans in 2011, told friends at the bar that she planned to sleep in her car before driving home because she had been drinking.

At 3:30 a.m., the California native left the bar with an unidentified male friend. The man told police he left Monette asleep in the driver's seat of her car at about 4:15 a.m. An hour later, she was seen on a surveillance camera pulling out of the parking lot.

A few minutes after Monette drove away from the intersection of Harrison and Marconi, the jogger was running down Marconi Drive.

Last week, Equusearch suspended a weeklong search for Monette in City Park lagoons and Bayou St. John. Police have said they assigned eight detectives to the case, working around the clock. They have not ruled out foul play.

"There are any number of places she could have gone off of Marconi," 3rd District Lt. Chris Kalka said, "and some of those places are just not covered by cameras."

Monette is described as 5 feet, 8 inches tall, and weighs 180 pounds. She has a light brown complexion with long brown hair. She was last seen wearing a pink and yellow sweater with blue jeans. She has a tattoo on her left leg.
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NEW ORLEANS-- The high-profile disappearance of Jefferson Parish school teacher Terrilynn Monette sent shock waves across the community.
Yet, despite hundreds of people searching across City Park and multiple searches through its lagoons by Texas Equusearch, there is still no trace of her nor her 2012 black Honda Accord, one month after they vanished.
"You hate to think of the possibilities. You just keep the spirit and keep working on the positive," said Terry Brown, who is helping to organize a charity golf tournament and auction, set for this weekend at the Belle Terre Country Club in LaPlace.
The fundraiser is trying to help increase the reward in the case, which now stands at $5,500, thanks in part to fellow teachers who have donated to the fund.
"I mean, this is a missing school teacher. She was teaching our kids and she was going up for teacher of the year," Brown said. "She was doing a heck of a job. I have to support that family through this, I have to. I have no choice."
On Tuesday, New Orleans Police said they had no new information to release in the case, but did say their investigation continues. So far, they have received more than 120 tips, many of them through Crimestoppers.
"This is extremely high for the volume of tips, but also the public interest," said Darlene Cusanza of Crimestoppers. "I mean, we're getting people who call all the time, just wanting to know, not passing on information."
As Monette's disappearance marks one month, though, those tips have started to taper off.
"They're slowing down a little bit right now," Cusanza said. "And we're getting a lot of information now from people who think they're psychic, giving stories of visions, so not as accurate or concrete information that we would like to see."
The "Bring Terrilynn Home Golf Tournament" is set to take place at the Belle Terre County Club in LaPlace, on April 7, starting at 8 a.m. It will also include a silent auction. For more information call the Belle Terre Country Club at (985) 652-5000 or Terry Brown at (504) 289-5955. Anyone with information on this case is asked to call Crimestoppers at (504) 822-1111.
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With each passing day, the anger and frustration grows for family and friends of missing Jefferson Parish school teacher Terrilynn Monette.

It's been just over a month now since Monette disappeared after leaving a bar in Lakeview in the early morning hours of a Saturday.

It's still an active investigation but New Orleans Police insist there is no evidence of an abduction. Terrilynn's mother, Toni Enclade, thinks otherwise.

''I think someone followed her and someone took her, that's what I believe happened,'' believes Enclade.

Enclade wants to believe that Terrilynn is still alive and she could be almost anywhere.

''I think someone, someone has her,'' she said, adding, ''There's just no way individuals just disappear off the face of the earth.''

In order to raise more reward money, a golf tournament will be held at Belle Terre Country Club in LaPlace Sunday morning starting at 8:00 a.m.
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NEW ORLEANS, LA — The reward for information regarding the whereabouts of a missing school teacher has been increased to $19,600, according to Crime Stoppers.

Crime Stoppers, along with the New Orleans Police Department, held a press conference on Monday, April 8 to make the announcement. So far detectives have little information to go on in the case.

What we do know Terrilynn Monette, 26, was last seen leaving Parlay’s Bar in New Orleans at roughly 5:15 a.m. on Saturday, March 2. She was captured by surveillance video leaving in her car and turning left onto Marconi Drive.

That was the last time she was seen.

Detectives have interviewed several people, but have not disclosed whether or not that information has provided any useful tips. So far they say they have no suspect or persons of interest.

If you know anything regarding this investigation, call Crime Stoppers at (504) 822-1111.
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It has been five-and-a-half-weeks since local schoolteacher Terrilynn Monette vanished without a trace. Today, a new effort to find any sign of her begins on land and underwater.

At the request of New Orleans Rep. Austin Badon, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries is bringing in some of its high-tech equipment to the search.

"We're going to be using our side-scan sonar technology," said Adam Einck with LDWF. Einck said they'll search the lagoons New Orleans City Park, Bayou St. John and even the outfall canal.

"What this allows us to do is to search in the water, with vivid pictures and try to locate either her or the missing vehicle," Einck explained.

Einck said there will also be a new search on foot.

"Law enforcement agencies are going to be searching all the wooded areas, " he said. "As the days go by, I think the search just keeps getting larger and larger."
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A small crew of agents from Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries spent several hours on the lake with a sonar-equipped boat, scanning the lake's shore for Terrilynn Monette and her car.

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NEW ORLEANS -- State Rep. Austin Badon is now reaching out to the FBI to help in the search for missing Jefferson Parish teacher Terrilynn Monette.
Monette has been missing since Mar. 2 after leaving the Lakeview bar, Parlay's Dream Lounge.
Badon also says St. Charles and St. Bernard sheriff's offices are helping in the search for Monette.
On Wednesday, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries joined in the search for Monette Parish teacher after a request from Badon.

Wildlife agents searched the lagoons in City Park and Bayou St. John and looked in the 17th Street Canal for Monette and her black Honda Accord.
Monette was last spotted on a traffic camera turning left from Harrison Avenue and Marconi Drive.
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NEW ORLEANS -- The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries has completed its search in City Park for Terrilynn Monette without finding any trace of the missing Jefferson Parish teacher.
Monette disappeared last month after leaving Parlay's in Lakeview.
According to state Rep. Austin Badon, D-New Orleans, all of the waterways in the park have been searched at least once, and there’s still no sign of her or her car.
What we do know is that Monette was last spotted on a traffic camera in her car near Marconi Drive and Harrison Avenue.
Badon said the lagoon along Marconi has been searched three times, and crews also ran sonar along the Lake Pontchartrain seawall from West End to the Seabrook Bridge.
On Monday dive teams from New Orleans and St. Charles Parish will search 25 targets along Bayou St. John.
We are told 22 of those targets are sunken vehicles.
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NEW ORLEANS, LA (WAFB) -
Crews continue to search for a missing Louisiana teacher.
They are looking for Terrilynn Monette, a Jefferson Parish teacher who disappeared in March.

Wildlife agents were in Bayou St. John on Monday. They focused their efforts near the Seabrook Bridge and on what appear to be cars in the water.

Monette vanished after leaving a bar in Lakeview. She was last seen on red light cameras driving into New Orleans City Park.

If you have any information in this case, call Crime Stoppers at 344-7867.
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Amazing that she is still missing. And, so darned sad!

The search for missing school teacher Terrilynn Monette will intensify next week, as a private salvage company has volunteered to start removing over 20 vehicles from the bottom of Bayou St. John.

State Rep. Austin Badon, who has been at the forefront of the search for Monette was surprised to find out what was down there.

''Initially I had heard the number of maybe 8 or 9, then when we did the further searches we found 25 to 26 targets and those targets have been identified as
vehicles,'' said Badon.

Listen to Austin Badon:


Badon said even if they don't find any connection to the missing teacher Monette, it's possible that other crimes might be solved in this operation.

''Police will be there because there could potentially be other crime scenes,'' he said.

The salvage crew is set to start the major operation on Monday. Monette was last seen on a traffic camera driving in the area March second.
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NEW ORLEANS-- The search for missing Harvey school teacher Terrilyn Monette continued on Sunday after authorities were forced off Bayou St. John on Friday and Saturday due to thunderstorms, reported Nola.com.
While the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries has drudged up 17 cars from the waterway, none of them are the black Honda Accord that belonged to Monette, said the website.

Also according to the site, Louisiana state representative Austin Badon, who has been leading the search, called for a nationwide effort to commence, stating that he thought the chance of Monette remaining in New Orleans was slim.

Badon told Nola.com, "We have looked in the greater metropolitan area for her person and car and have found neither. What that says, through a process of elimination, is that there is a greater likelihood that she is not in the New Orleans area."

The site reported that while the FBI has been helping with the search, the New Orleans Police Department has been the primary authority leading the investigation. Because there is no clear indication that Monette was abducted, the FBI has not yet taken charge.

As of last Friday, Monette has been missing for ten weeks, reported Nola.com. She was last seen at around 5 a.m. as she was leaving a bar called Parlay's Dream Lounge on March 2. In order to get home she would have had to cross the bayou.

Badon told the website that he has been in touch with Monette's mother who lives in Los Angeles.

"She is extremely distraught," Badon said. "I had to let her know we are going to be looking for her daughter in remote locations, underneath bodies of water. The worst part is that she has no answers. She doesn't know whether her daughter is alive or deceased."

Police are focusing their search in the City Park area of New Orleans, where Monette was last seen. They are also searching nearby bodies of water, reported Nola.com.
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NEW ORLEANS - Family members of missing teacher Terrilynn Monette are hoping the FBI will take over the search for her.
Sunday marked 11 weeks since Monette went missing.
She was last seen at Parlay's bar on Harrison Avenue in Lakeview. A picture of her was taken in her car by a traffic camera at Marconi and Harrison.
Monette's family and friends prayed for her at Franklin Avenue Baptist Church and City of Love Full Gospel Church on Sunday.
They're asking for the FBI to take over the investigation into her disappearance.
"I would like to see my baby's face splashed on every TV screen in this United States. It needs to be brought to everyone's attention. Not just here in Louisiana, but in other states," said Toni Enclade, the missing teacher's mother.
Police said they have no leads and calls to Crimestoppers have slowed. They are hoping anyone with information will come forward to help them break the case.
"We're at a brick wall. We really don't know where to go next," said Rep. Austin Badon (D) New Orleans East.
Sunday's services capped a full weekend of events to keep Monette in the public eye.
Enclade headed back to California but vowed to continue coming back until her daughter is found.
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May 18, 2013
NEW ORLEANS (CNN) – The mother of a missing teacher from Long Beach, CA has returned to the New Orleans area to search for her. Terrilynn Monette has been missing since the morning of March 2nd.

But as Monica Hernandez reports, her family isn’t giving up hope of finding her.
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The Police Association of New Orleans says the only NOPD detective with the skills necessary to investigate crucial evidence in the Terrilynn Monette case has been reassigned. Vanessa Bolano has the story.

Three months ago Terrilynn Monnette vanished. Authorities have search tirelessly, but their efforts have not led to Terrilynn.

Tonight Captain Michael Glasser with PANO says one crucial piece of evidence remains: her computer. Glasser says the one detective in the NOPD with the forensic training necessary to uncover clues inside of it has been pulled off the case.

“This is the one piece of evidence that remains untouched for the most part, and this might be the one piece of evidence that leads us to a clue as to what happened to her,” says Glasser.

Tonight detective Dan Plustache has been reassigned to the night watch out of the 4th District station in Algiers. Glasser says it’s because Plustache filed a complaint saying he was unable to focus on Monnette’s computer because the department continued to assign him to irrelevant tasks.

“They have him fixing Xerox machines. They have him directing traffic. They have him doing everything but digital forensics,” says Glasser.

NOPD Chief Ronal Serpas sent us this statement. Serpas says, “It’s reprehensible that Officer Plustache would intentionally try to make Ms. Monnette’s family believe that this department has underperformed for them.” Serpas goes on to say Plustache is under multiple disciplinary investigations for failing to perform.

Glasser tells WGNO Plustache is a 14-year veteran with a pristine record who scored a 4.5 out of 5 in his last evaluation.

“All of these investigations have come up since he brought up the point that he was being mismanaged,” says Glasser.

When asked about Monnette’s computer Glasser says, “I imagine they’re going to have to give it to an outside agency to do because we certainly can’t so it in house.”
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One of the few NOPD detectives qualified to make forensic examinations of computers was not allowed time to work on the case of missing teacher Terrilyn Monette because his supervisors assigned him to non-investigative tasks, according to the officer's attorney.

Instead, officer Dan Plustache was told to focus on preparing his unit's weekly Comstat report, fixing departmental equipment, handling special-event coverage and patrolling other districts as part of Superintendent Ronal Serpas' Mission Two deployments, according to a letter that Police Association of New Orleans attorney Eric Hessler sent Tuesday to Serpas.

Serpas denied the assertions Wednesday.

Hessler wrote that Plustache repeatedly emailed his supervisors that such routine assignments were interfering with more urgent detective work.

"His numerous emails informing his chain of command of his inability to perform this (Monette) investigation fell on deaf ears," Hessler wrote. "Despite numerous requests and pleas, Plustache was never relieved of any of these extraneous duties to focus on this case."

Hessler wrote that top NOPD officials retaliated against Plustache when they reassigned him on May 31 after a 45-minute interrogation regarding an alleged leak to the news media about the detective's not having time to work on the Monette case because of other assignments.

During the interrogation, Plustache was denied access to his attorney, but he "emphatically" denied leaking any information to the media, Hessler said. Afterward, Hessler said, Plustache was ordered to surrender his work BlackBerry and his keys to his office and a patrol car, and was escorted out of headquarters.

"This situation reeks of retaliation and negligence in its simplest form," Hessler wrote.

Serpas blasted the officer's allegations.

"I am very disappointed and believe it's grossly unfair that an officer who is under multiple disciplinary investigations for his apparent failure to perform his duties would suggest that this department, which continues to work the Terrilyn Monette case, has done an insufficient job," Serpas said in a statement.

"Our officers have worked tirelessly on this case," he continued. "Furthermore, it is reprehensible that Officer Plustache would intentionally try to make Ms. Monette's family believe that this department has underperformed for them."

Plustache has been assigned since its inception to the NOPD's Digital Forensics Unit, which was created three years ago with a grant from the Patrick Taylor Foundation. The money is administered through the Greater New Orleans Foundation.

The $364,000 grant stipulates that the unit must employ three officers and a supervisor, said Richard Martinez, a program officer at the Greater New Orleans Foundation who reviews the unit's work throughout the year. The money also pays for training and equipment.

"The grant is pretty much being implemented as prescribed," Martinez said in an interview. "So far, so good." However, Hessler said the unit has had only two officers for the past several months.

Martinez said his reviews do not evaluate the success of the unit in terms of the number of cases it works on or other measures of productivity or effectiveness. He said he visits the unit at NOPD headquarters from time to time, but he is not in charge of auditing its work. The Police Department makes an annual presentation to the Taylor and Greater New Orleans foundations about the unit's work and success stories, he said.

In the emails to his supervisors, Plustache repeatedly raised concerns that the unit was not meeting the terms of its grant due to mismanagement, Hessler said. The officer was reportedly concerned about a backlog of cases and the fact that search warrants for computers, cell phones and videos were expiring before a detective in the unit had a chance to sift through them. Such warrants expire after 10 days.

On May 28, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune filed a public records request for those emails. The city has not yet released the email messages.

Those emails are what Hessler believes spurred two internal-affairs investigations initiated by Plustache's supervisors. The investigations "seem to have bubbled up corresponding to the amount of emails he sends regarding his inability to address his primary duties," Hessler said.

Serpas said both internal investigations -- one beginning on March 28 and the other on April 10 - concerned Plustache's allegedly violating instructions from an authoritative source.

One of the investigations was spurred by a dispute over a training seminar Plustache attended out of town, Hessler said. The NOPD paid Plustache's travel expenses, but it was later alleged that the trip was not properly authorized, Hessler said.

The other investigation grew out of Plustache's absence from a weekly meeting, which his supervisors had told him he didn't have to attend so he could catch up on his workload, Hessler said.

"I'm more than confident he's gonna be cleared in all those cases," Hessler said.

In his statement, Serpas said, "Most recently, Officer Plustache's forensic examination of video evidence in the Mother's Day shooting (of 19 people during a second-line parade) has failed to produce any usable evidence. It was the help of a citizen volunteer that enabled the department to release graphic video to the public that assisted in solving the case."

Hessler blasted the chief's insinuation that the officer has underperformed. "His last performance evaluation in February 2013 gives him a 4.5 out of 5 in regards to work ethic, competency and professionalism. And now all of a sudden he's incompetent?" Hessler said. "That's nothing more than smear tactics, and it's really, really disappointing."

In his letter, Hessler called for an investigation by an independent outside agency regarding the allegations of retaliation against Plustache and the department's neglect of the Monette case.

NOTE: This story has been updated to include new information.
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The family of Terrilynn Monette is getting frustrated with the NOPD’s effort to find the missing teacher.

Friday evening, they gathered with supporters for a vigil at Harrison Avenue and Marconi. That’s the intersection where, three months ago, Monette’s car was recorded by a nearby traffic camera. It was the last trace of the teacher who’d been at a Lakeview bar earlier in the evening.

During previous vigils, Monette’s family spoke about keeping her case in the public’s eye. But Friday, they talked more about recent reports that the NOPD had yet to check Monette’s laptop computer to see who may have been emailing or chatting with her.

“The community should be outraged definitely hearing that a person is trying to do something about the computer and he’s been taken off of it. I’m very upset about that,” Monette’s father told the crowd using a microphone and speaker to deliver

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NEW ORLEANS – A diver has a found a vehicle believed to be that of missing schoolteacher Terrilynn Monette in a bayou near Wisner and Harrison Avenues around noon Saturday.

The coroner's office, a wrecker and the family of Monette have come to the scene.

Monette had been missing since March 2, when she was last seen driving away from a bar on Harrison Avenue following a night out with friends.

A massive search and several vigils had been held to find the popular teacher from Jefferson Parish, who had recently received a teaching award.

The search included several state and local organizations and groups had spent weeks pulling dozens of cars

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New Orleans, La.- A vehicle has been discovered near Harrison Avenue and Wisner Boulevard that is believed to be that of missing Harvey teacher Terrilynn Monette.

Rep. Austin Badon tells Fox 8 they are 99.9% sure that it is the vehicle and body of Monette.
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The car of missing teacher Terrilyn Monette has been found in Bayou St. John, near the corner of Harrison Avenue and Wisner Boulevard, state Rep. Austin Badon confirmed Saturday. A Slidell Police Department officer who volunteered to dive in the water and search for the car located it before about noon Saturday.

Badon said there is a body in the car, and they believe the vehicle is the teacher's. Monette's mother, Toni Enclade, is on the scene, and she was seen crying after speaking with Badon.

Monette was last seen leaving Parlay's Dream Lounge in the 800 block of Harrison Avenue about 5 a.m. on March 2. The teacher at Woodland West Elementary School in Harvey would have had to cross the bayou to return to her home.

Badon has been leading search efforts for Monette.

A tow truck arrived at the scene about 1:55 p.m. The Orleans Parish Coroner's

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A tow truck pulls a car, identified as belonging to missing teacher, Terrilynn Monette, from Bayou St. John near the Harrison Avenue bridge in New Orleans, Louisiana, on Saturday, June 8, 2013. Monnette has been missing since she disappeared on March 2.

(CNN) -- A car with a body inside believed to be that of missing teacher Terrilynn Monette was found Saturday in a bayou in New Orleans, authorities said.
The car and body were found in Bayou St. John by a diver with the Slidell Police Department, who volunteered to dive the waterways in the search for Monette, Detective Daniel Seuzeneau of the Slidell Police Department, said.
The body is believed to be that of Monette, he said in an e-mail statement to CNN.
Monette, 26, was last seen March 2 leaving Parlay's Dream Lounge in New Orleans, where she had been celebrating with friends her nomination for a "Teacher of the Year" award.
Monette's mother, Toni Enclade, told CNN that investigators have notified her the car has been found, but not whether the body is her daughter.
"To know that she could have possibly been there for three months," she said, overcome with emotion.
Enclade said she does not know when she will be given a definitive answer by authorities.
"I can't even begin to go there right now," she said. "I'm in shock. I can't believe this. I just can't believe this."
Authorities have focused a large part of their search efforts on the waterways because Monette would have had to have driven across the bayou to get from the bar to her home.
In mid-March, an independent search and rescue team from Texas volunteer to comb the lagoons and waterways.
It discovered a car in the bayou, but it was later confirmed not to belong to Monette.
Family and friends of Monette put up a billboard in New Orleans and created a Facebook page, "We Love You Terrilynn Monette," to help generate tips in the search for Monette.
The diver who found the car and body, Slidell Police Officer Mark Michaud, has been "working closely with the Monette family" because of his expertise in diving recoveries, Seuzeneau said.
When Monette, of Long Beach, California, learned of the "teachNOLA" program, which sends educators to New Orleans to teach in impoverished areas, she packed her bags and headed to Louisiana.
"I always wanted to be a teacher, and what better place to teach than New Orleans, where passionate teachers are needed most?" she said in a 2011 video obtained by CNN affiliate WDSU.
In her first year of teaching second grade at Woodland West Elementary School, Monette turned one of the lowest-performing classes into one of the highest achieving.
It earned her a "Teacher of the Year" nomination in her school district.
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wwltv.com
Posted on June 8, 2013 at 1:54 PM
Updated today at 8:30 PM

NEW ORLEANS – The car of missing Jefferson Parish schoolteacher Terrilynn Monette was pulled from a bayou near Harrison and Wisner Avenues Saturday around noon.

A body was found inside of the car in the driver's seat and Representative Austin Badon, who has been championing the search for Monette, said they are "100 percent sure" that the body inside is Monette, but that an autopsy by the coroner would be needed to confirm the fact.

"We're very upset right now," said Monette's father Terry.

"Unbelievable," said Demetria Isidore, a family friend. "We were out here and they searched these waters the first week. The guys from Texas searched the waters. We never thought it would end this way."

The body was found by a diver using sonar equipment. The car was found and the license plate was found to match that of Monette's missing car. Wreckers, the coroner's office and members of Monette's family raced to the scene.

Slidell Police spokesman Daniel Seuzeneau said the diver who found the car is Officer Mark Michaud, who has been volunteering his time to the Monette family as a diving recovery expert.

"I’m happy (to have helped)." said Michaud. "It’s not something everyone wants to do, but you know what, she has her baby, she knows where she is, she can start the process of … not know where she is."

Members of Monette's family, including her mother, who was in town for a recent vigil, were emotional and clung to each other as the car was removed.

The coroner's office is conducting an autopsy to determine the cause of death and to positively identify Monette's body. The NOPD has characterized the case as an "ongoing investigation." They will continue to try to determine if foul play was involved.

Eyewitness News investigator Mike Perlstein said the NOPD will look back at the search to see if anything was missed and to try to determine why Monette's vehicle went into the water. .

Monette had been missing since March 2, when she was last seen driving away from a bar on Harrison Avenue following a night out with friends.

A massive search and several vigils had been held to find the popular teacher from Jefferson Parish, who had recently received a teaching award.

The search included several state and local organizations and groups had spent weeks pulling dozens of cars from Bayou St. John without success.

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Sounds like Texas Equusearch is who they are talking about when she says 'the guys from Texas'. Amazing that it had been searched twice before...this is SO SAD@

New Orleans, LA — Missing teacher Terrilynn Monette’s 2012 Honda Accord was pulled out of Bayou St. John on Saturday with a decomposing body inside of it. Although the autopsy won’t be performed until Monday, investigators believe that the body is likely that of the 26-year-old teacher who has been sought for over three months.

We’re still awaiting toxicology results. However, judging from the location of the submerged vehicle near the Harrison Avenue and Wisner Boulevard bridge, many people now assume that Terrilynn Monette ran off the road in the early morning hours of March 2 to drown in the murky waters of Bayou St. John.
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That's what I think, too. SAD! She came out of a bar..drinking may have led to her death. Don't drink and DRIVE!

Drowning was the cause of death for Terrilynn Monette, the missing West Bank teacher whose body was discovered in Bayou St. John on Saturday, according to the Orleans Parish Coroner's Office. There were no signs of trauma to her body, said John Gagliano, the coroner's chief investigator.

LSU forensic dentists confirmed Monette's identity through dental records, Gagliano said. Toxicology results are pending and the results will be ready in about two weeks, he said. NOPD's fatality unit will try to reconstruct the accident to determine what caused Monette's car to end up in the bayou, said NOPD spokeswoman Remi Braden. Meanwhile, officers in NOPD's 3rd District are working to enhance all the video evidence in the case.

"On behalf of this police department, I want to express my sincerest condolences to Ms. Monette's family, and assure them that our detectives will do everything they can to find the answers as to how this tragedy happened," Police Superintendent Ronal Serpas said in a statement.

Monette's car was discovered near the corner of Harrison Avenue and Wisner Boulevard shortly before noon on Saturday. Slidell police officer Mark Michaud, who had volunteered to dive and search for the car, located it shortly before noon. The car -- matching the license plate, make, model and color of Monette's -- was pulled from the water around 3:25 p.m.

The discovery came more than three months after Monette disappeared after leaving a Lakeview bar early on March 2. For weeks, large groups of volunteers turned out to search for the 26-year-old woman, whose disappearance was covered in national media. New Orleans police led the search efforts and reviewed hundreds of hours of surveillance tapes to try to determine what happened to her. Numerous other cars were also pulled from nearby water bodies as the search proceeded.

The night she went missing, Monette had been drinking, and she told friends who were at the bar with her that she planned to sleep in her car for a while before driving to her apartment complex in the area of Robert E. Lee Boulevard and Paris Avenue.

Monette, a second-grade teacher at Woodland West Elementary School in Harvey, exited a bank parking lot next door to Parlay's at about 5 a.m. and headed toward Marconi Drive.

Police had thought that Monette turned left, or northbound, at Marconi, on the edge of City Park, based on red-light camera footage investigators reviewed. But her car was found farther east, in waters just past the corner of Harrison and Wisner, suggesting she likely kept going straight instead, driving through City Park before -- for reasons still unknown -- she ended up in in Bayou St. John.

"Now that Ms. Monette's car has been found, we begin the second phase of this investigation," Serpas said. "Both homicide detectives and our fatality unit were on the scene today, so that they can pick up where (other) officers have left off and start finding out exactly how and why the car ended up where it did."
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The Orleans Parish Coroner has positively identified remains found in a submerged vehicle as belonging to missing teacher Terrilynn Monette.

Using dental records, officials say they were able to make the positive identification using dental records. The coroner listed the cause of death as drowning.

Monette went missing in the early morning hours of March 2 after leaving a Lakeview bar.

A volunteer diver found her car in Bayou St. John on Saturday.
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