One year ago, on October 17, 2019, Anesha Duffy Murnane walked out of her home on Main Street and has not been heard from since. Homer Police and Alaska State Troopers, the FBI and scores of community members commenced a massive search but have never found any trace of Duffy.
Chief Mark Robl of the Homer Police Department says the case is still open but investigators are at a standstill unless they receive some new information.
Duffy's parents, Sara and Ed Berg, sat down with KBBI's Kathleen Gustafson this week to talk about the community walk and vigil planned for this Sunday, and to make a public statement on the anniversary of her disappearance.
To join the vigil, meet at WKFL Park at noon on Sunday, October 18th. For more information, go to the Bring Duffy Home Facebook page.
Transcription:
KBBI:
Ed Berg and Sara Berg. Will you be at the walk for Duffy on Sunday?
Sara:
We will be at the vigil for Duffy. We will both be speaking there. We will do our own private walk the day that she went missing, which was the day before.
KBBI:
You've recorded a plea that we're going to play at the end of this conversation. It reflects a change or a decision that you've made in the way that you're dealing with Duffy's disappearance, I think.
Sara:
You're referring to the fact that I'm thinking that she's dead? I've thought that from the beginning, I just didn't tell people because they're all too horrified. But I felt like she was dead. Well, for sure, after solstice, because I had a very vivid, vivid vision of her on solstice, after that, I felt quite content. I would much rather think of her happy and dead. That's hard for many people to think about, but I think many mothers can relate to that.
KBBI:
And, Ed, I want to check in with you. There's nothing to ask other than how are you? And do you need anything?
Ed:
You know, our life is stabilized. We, you know, had some medical emergencies earlier in the year that we got through and busy doing a lot of field work, geological work, writing a book on the geology of the area here.
KBBI:
How about you, Sara?
Sara:
I don't go anyplace because I have stage four cancer and I don't feel safe outside the house. But I've got plenty to do. I'm a seamstress, and I'm a cook. And there's lots to do here. So a huge part of our winter in our recovery was we both had major heart surgeries. Ed on the first of February and me in April, because our hearts were broken.
KBBI:
I'm so glad you're on the other side of that.
Sara:
We are too, yeah. The community has been amazing - things just left on the front porch, people coming by. And that food was filled with love. There would be little flowers, would be little notes, little cards, little hugs that came in the door. Sometimes people would sit and eat with us. It was just fabulous. And that's what this town did for us. And they did so much more.
KBBI:
Sara and Ed, thank you so much for talking to me. And Sara, would you like to go ahead and read what you've written?
Sara:
A year ago this month, my 38 year old daughter Duffy Murnane left her apartment at midday to go to a doctor's appointment in Homer, Alaska. It was a one mile walk through downtown's houses and businesses. She never made it. What happened to her? Where is she? Many want to dismiss this as her own doing, saying that she took off by her own choice. Indeed, if not for relatives and friends fighting for her, Duffy's disappearance would have been treated as such.
We know better. She took nothing from her apartment used neither of her airline tickets, followed up on none of her five job applications and has used neither her phone or her credit card.
Duffy did not leave of her own freewill. She was taken. No clues have been found and the culprit moves freely about. We hope he is not planning an encore. This town in this family have endured enough.
We don't know what horrors my daughter endured. Do we want to see this happen again? Duffy was a sweet, shy, loving Montessori teacher, adored and so missed by her family and the many families that she touched through the care of their children. So many children in this town and others referred to me as Duffy's mom.
We are realists and are thankfully very sure she is peacefully dead. We cannot and do not want to imagine what her she would be enduring, if not. No parent could bear it. We need the body back with us to complete the cycle, so we can fully grieve for her. I want to run my fingers through her ashes. I want to be sure.
Where is Duffy? Somebody knows something. She did not evaporate. Please keep your eyes open in your ears. Don't dismiss those questionable comments. If you think you saw something or heard something or know something, no matter how small, please call the Homer police at 907-235-3150. Please, please help us find her.
