PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) – It’s been 11 years since 54-year-old Kathryn Griffin was reported missing in Portsmouth. Police say the then 43-year-old was last seen on Victory Boulevard -possibly riding a bike.
This week, investigators renewed the call for information.
Linda Archie is getting older, and not a day goes by where she doesn’t think about her only daughter Kathryn – whom many called by her middle name, “Bene (pronounced Ben-nay).”
“It’s been a long agonizing 11 years,” Archie said. “I’m hoping that somebody, now, will come forward with more information. I’m getting older now and I would like to know where my child is.”
Jan. 7, 2012.
That day was the last time Archie saw her daughter.
She took Bene’s children, then ages 9 and 10, to visit their mom at the barber shop where she worked, Perry’s Cutz on Victory Boulevard.
Bene’s then-boyfriend owned the barber shop. Days went by without hearing from her daughter after that visit, so Archie went to see Bene’s boyfriend. He told her Bene was missing after she borrowed his bike and he was trying to find her.
“I just don’t believe my child is somewhere and just not coming home,” Archie said.
We asked Archie if her daughter ever rode bikes around for fun.
“No. No. Many times we visited that barber shop, I never saw a bike there at that barber shop,” Archie said. “Do I think he knows more than what he is saying? Yes. I do. But what, I don’t know.”
Archie just wants someone who knows what happened to Bene to come forward. She told us investigators told her Bene has many friends and someone has to know something.
Bene’s 55th birthday is next Friday, March 10. Archie hopes the renewed effort to locate her daughter will be successful.
“I can’t rightly say what happened because I don’t want to think negative that she may no longer be with us,” Archie said. “My prayer is, and has always been, if I never hear from my child again, I would hope her children will.”
