My Daughter Kate

It has now been three months since my daughter, Kate Waring, disappeared on Friday, June 12, 2009 from downtown Charleston, South Carolina. She disappeared just as the lazy, carefree days of summer were beginning and now the season is changing to fall, and Kate is still missing.

Try to imagine what it would feel like if you couldn't find your daughter for days on end. You kept repeatedly dialing her number to no avail, you waited for the sound of her unlocking the front door, her familiar footstep in the hall and her voice calling "Mom!" What if you contacted the police and the hospitals, called her friends, checked her Facebook page and still no clue? What if days melted into weeks and weeks folded into months and you still had no word from her?

She left without her clothes, her makeup, her cherished journals and her daily medicine. She left without a chance to give a "goodbye" kiss to us or to her beloved puppy, "Sweet Pea."

I want to tell you about my daughter, Kate, but first I must thank the hundreds of friends and people, some of whom, we had never met before, who have stopped to say a kind word, written a note, or have made the effort to put a “missing” sign up on a store window. My husband, Kate’s two brothers and I will always be so thankful for your kindness. We also want to thank the hard working men and women at the Charleston Police Department, whose devotion to duty and professionalism is truly extraordinary.

Kate was born on May 5, 1981 on Cinco de Mayo, the Mexican holiday. She loves having that birth date because it is as if everyone is celebrating with her and having a fiesta. She loves that her name is Katherine because she enjoyed having it pronounced "Katya" in Russian and "Katerina" in Spanish. She studied Spanish and became quite fluent. She was a very good interpreter whenever we traveled to Latin countries. She is in fact multi-lingual – she has studied Greek and went as a volunteer on an archaeological trip to Greece with a group from the University of North Carolina. Most recently, she has been taking Russian language classes at the College of Charleston and traveled to Russia last March to visit a close friend. Her photos from that trip reflect how ecstatic she was to be there. With a twinkle in her eye, she told me Vladimir Putin himself spoke to her, offering an apology after his limousine driver splashed her with water while passing her on a rain-soaked street near the Kremlin.

Like many people, Kate has fought a personal battle with substance abuse—and I have always been awestruck by how courageously she met this challenge head-on, with the love and support of her family. She is a truly gifted writer and poet. While she was a student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, she wrote an epic poem that was breathtaking in its scope and brilliance. She was in the process of writing a series of children's stories featuring her beloved American bull dog "Sweet Pea." She keeps a journal that she writes entries in every day. She is a creative, deep thinker, and an avid reader. Her favorites were The Iliad and The Odyssey. . Her favorite movies are "The Godfather" and "Walk the Line," with Joaquin Phoenix.

She has such a delicious sense of humor and wit. She could describe a person or situation in such a colorful and amusing way. Long car rides always sped by when she entertained us with her stories. She was our very own 'book on tape' – so fascinating she was in telling an original story. I wish she had written some of these down.

She is also very athletic. While a student at Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford, Connecticut, she was co-captain of the girls' Junior Varsity hockey team. She played lacrosse there, as well. When she returned to Charleston to recuperate from a case of mononucleosis she found and joined an all-male hockey team in North Charleston on which she was the only female player. She is fearless, gutsy, and a risk-taker.

She is tall – 5'10'', and slender, but incredibly toned and fit. Lately, she had been taking boxing lessons. She is incredibly strong, resilient, and determined. Kate has long, curly auburn hair and lovely flawless alabaster skin with beautiful blue eyes under arched eyebrows. She has a strict skincare regimen and always knows the latest products to thicken eyelashes or moisturize skin. She has her own unique fashion sense and possesses very good taste. I admire her style. Her weakness is for jewelry, and, of course, shoes. She has the ability to make one's heart stop a beat whenever she walks into a room.

Kate’s love of animals has always been important to her. We always had our very own zoo made up of fish, rabbits, ferrets, hamsters, cats, and dogs, thanks to Kate. She always was the one who provided each animal with a distinctive name and also its own unique "voice." She would carry on "conversations" with a number of animals, switching voices seamlessly. Her most thrilling adventure was when she traveled to the Arctic Circle with her father a year ago last August. Her fervent wish was to go see the polar bears. She had a chance to kayak near the glaciers and see all of the wildlife in that region. I am so happy she was able to find joy and peace at the top of the world.

But now that peace has been shattered. I lie awake at night; worried sick about Kate, praying that whoever knows where she is will step forward and let her family reclaim our loving daughter and sister. To be honest, in dark moments, her Father and I think something awful may have happened to Kate and worry that she may not be alive. But we push those thoughts away by thinking of her poetry and our trips together. If something has happened to her, perhaps it was an accident, and the people who know something could simply explain this to the proper authorities. I don’t know what to say about any of that, other than to ask that you to try to imagine how you would feel if we were talking about your daughter being missing. Wouldn’t you want to know what happened to her? All we want is to bring our Katie home.

You can call CrimeStoppers anonymously and tell them what you know. There is a $25,000 reward. CrimeStoppers number is (843) 554-1111 and their website is www.5541111.com . Thank all of you for keeping Kate in your thoughts and prayers.

God Bless You,
Janice D. Waring
September 11, 2009