ROANOKE RAPIDS — Dec. 14, 2006. Two things happen that day leaving law enforcement still trying to solve the mystery and family members looking for answers. Shonda Stansbury is reported missing around 10:15 a.m. by her mother and a woman driving near Information Grocery sees a woman matching her description fleeing from two men. The chased woman is naked and appears to be bleeding.

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Since Dec. 14, 2006, there have been only fleeting sightings of Stansbury, who was 24 at the time, the mother of three, a woman who was trying to shake a drug addiction and alcohol problem and devote more time to her family, says Capt. Andy Jackson of the Roanoke Rapids Police Department.

Those sightings sent detectives to Wilson County only to come up with nothing.

What has happened to her?

“What bothers us,” Jackson said, “is we have contacted agencies who can check on whether a Social Security number has been used across the United States, used for welfare or in search of lawful employment. Her number has not been used since she was missing. That raises a red flag.”

Another concern: “In high crime areas you are more likely to run into the police. A police officer would have made contact. She is in (missing person and other law enforcement data banks) as missing or endangered.”

The call came in at 10:10 a.m. Shonda’s mother called to tell police she hadn’t seen or heard from her daughter since Dec. 7, at 1 p.m., unusual because Shonda would always check-in no matter the situation.

The initial investigation showed Shonda was dropped off that day at Westside Grocery around 6 a.m.

Officers checked the places she was known to frequent: The 900 block of Vance Street, Zoo Road, Great Falls Circle.

The last known sighting of her was prior to Dec. 12, when she visited friends at Great Falls Trailer Park on W. 10th Street. On Dec. 9 she was asked to leave. She overstayed her welcome, Jackson said.

Then came a call around 11:27 the evening of Dec. 14, 2006. It was a call, Jackson said, that would change the scope of the investigation.

From a cell phone a woman called 911 saying she saw Shonda running behind Information Grocery. The woman knew her, knew what she looked liked. She said it appeared Shonda had blood on her face while chased by two black males. She was screaming for help, the woman told a 911 dispatcher she thought was located in Halifax County.

The caller said she did not intervene for fear of her own life. It ended up she was talking to a dispatcher in Warren County and when her call was transferred, supposedly to Halifax, it went to Brunswick County, Va., instead. Brunswick bounced the call to Halifax, crucial minutes lost when someone is being chased. “That is the nature of cell phones,” Jackson said. “There are places close to the river here where the call goes to Northampton. The signal bounces off the closest tower.”

Once Halifax was notified, a deputy was on the scene in 8 seconds. The deputy spoke with people at Information Grocery, which is located at the intersection of N.C. 903 and U.S. Highway 158. “They hadn’t seen anything,” Jackson said. “The deputy looked around the area.” There were no signs of a disturbance.

On Dec. 22 an extensive search of the area was done with no success. A follow-up search was done Jan. 5, 2007, and again on Feb. 2, 2008, with help of three cadaver dogs, some 80 acres to the Gaston Dam area was searched.

These dogs are trained to locate human scent, even on bones. A hit was made by a trash pile. The land was excavated and investigators sifted through the earth piece by piece and came up with nothing, Jackson said. “Something used to be there.”

As Christmas of 2006 came and went there were no signs of Shonda. “She used to be a waitress,” Jackson said. “She had an outgoing personality. She had three small children who were very important to her. What really alarmed the family was when the father dropped them at the house for Christmas ... and Shonda was a no-show. She didn’t come. She didn’t call.”

One of the men the caller saw chasing Shonda was approximately 5 feet, 8 inches tall with dark skin. He was wearing a ball cap and was possibly bald. He had big arms and a stocky build and was wearing jeans and a white T-shirt and believed to be between 28 to 32 years old.

The other man was described as standing approximately 5 feet, 6 inches tall with a medium build and light skin. He wore his hair in dreadlocks and may have been wearing Timberland boots, jeans with patches on them and an oversize button-down shirt, possibly brown or light brown.

Shonda is 5 feet, 5 inches tall, and weighs approximately 120 pounds. She has brown hair and blue eyes and was last seen wearing a gray blouse, blue jeans and a blue West Coast Choppers jacket. She has a tattoo of a rose on her chest and a heart tattoo on her ankle with her daughter's name.

Jackson doesn’t buy rumors Shonda just wanted to be left alone. “She hadn’t indicated anything to the family she didn’t want to see them anymore or she wanted to be left alone. The kids were an important part of her life. She visited friends and the visits stopped.”

Shonda’s case is one of three unsolved cases the police department is investigating, Jackson said. The others are the murders of businessman Shelby Salmon and Peanut Woodley. “We’d like to see them solved in 2009,” he said. “They need to be solved this year.”

Anyone with information on the cases is encouraged to call Detective Jeff Baggett at 533-2819 or Halifax County Crimestoppers at 583-4444. All callers will be kept confidential.