Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Friends plan vigil for missing social worker

By REBECCA CATALANELLO
Published January 20, 2006

TEMPLE TERRACE - Friends of Sandra Prince are holding a candlelight vigil Saturday night to help bring attention to the disappearance of the 59-year-old social worker.

Prince, co-founder of the Agency for Community Treatment Services Inc., was last seen Dec. 30, police say. Other than an unlocked door, her Temple Terrace house appeared intact, with no visible signs of struggle, police said. Her car, a white 1994 Buick Park Avenue, was parked in the garage, though police believe she may have driven it to North Florida and back over New Year's weekend.

Susan Horton, 53, a longtime friend organizing the vigil, said the past three weeks have been mystifying, but she's not given up hope.

"The first week I spent numb," said Horton. She hoped it was a big misunderstanding, that there would be some rational explanation. Now, she just doesn't want the world to forget that there are still no answers in Prince's disappearance.

"I'm still being hopeful. I'm still using the present tense," she said. "Somebody knows something."

The vigil will be at 5:30 p.m. in front of the Prince residence, 11507 Moffat Place, Temple Terrace.

Prince, who grew up an only child on a tobacco farm in Dobson, N.C., has lived in the Tampa Bay area for about three decades. She lives alone and has no children. But she was a top administrator at one of the area's first substance abuse treatment centers.

Friends and co-workers describe her as responsible, private, kind and professionally driven. Property records show Prince owns several rental properties in Tampa and in Lake Panasoffkee in Sumter County. Deputies searched one Lake Panasoffkee address, but said they turned up nothing.

Anyone with information is asked to call Detective Darrin Berberat at (813) 989-7118 or (813) 989-7110. Her family has offered a $50,000 reward for information into her whereabouts.

[Last modified January 20, 2006, 01:46:11]