Tera Smith was 16 and a classmate of Sherri Papini when she vanished while jogging in 1998.
Could the abduction of jogger Sherri Papini be linked to another area abduction case with eerily similarities?
Eighteen years ago, a teen named Tera Smith went out for a jog just two miles from where Papini was abducted in Northern California and has not been seen since.
The parallels are striking -- both women are blonde and the two knew each other from childhood. They also went to Central Valley High School in Redding, California, together.
Sherri's husband, Keith, even turned to Smith's parents, Marilyn and Terry, for advice while Papini was missing.
"Pretty blonde girls running in their neighborhoods, it didn’t seem like déjà vu," Marilyn told Inside Edition.
Keith added: "He knew what we had gone through. He wanted some comfort, some advice on how to deal with that emotionally."
When Sherri Papini was released by her captors on Thanksgiving morning — three weeks after she vanished — no one was more surprised than the Smiths.
Read: 'Supermom' Jogger Was Branded, Starved by Her Kidnappers in 3-Week Ordeal
"We were overjoyed and to be honest, shocked, she had been gone so long, three weeks with nothing. It was just a miracle," Marilyn told Inside Edition.
Cops have yet to make an arrest in the 1998 abduction of Tera Smith. But her parents believe they know who was responsible.
In a diary the 16-year-old left behind, Tera wrote that she had been having an affair with a married martial arts instructor. He reportedly told cops he was with Tera the night she went missing but says he dropped her off at a busy intersection near her home.
Marilyn told Inside Edition: "He took her life that first night he was with her and they were seen driving together and his phone records show that he was in some remote areas and I think the body is out there."
The man denied any involvement in Tera’s disappearance and has never been charged. There is no evidence linking him to Sherri's kidnapping.
