Tosha Herron

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Bring Tosha Home - The Story
Tosha Herron is a loving mother of 3 handsome boys, 2 younger boys (under 10) and one grown (22). Her oldest is in the Army and she is so proud and scared to death of this accomplishment all at the same time. If you know Tosha, then you know her boys are her life!  
On October 7, 2016 Tosha dropped her boys off with their father around 6:15-6:30PM and was headed to Blue Ridge, GA to visit a friend named Travis Hughes. We became concerned when she didn’t call her boys to tell them goodnight Friday night. We really knew something was wrong when we hadn’t heard from her by Sunday afternoon (10/9). At this point we contacted Travis and according to him, Tosha never made it to his house on Friday night and his last contact with her was at 8:12PM that night. We were then in panic mode and that’s when my dad and I decided to file a missing person’s report with Gwinnett County.  
Late that evening we received an ‘emergency ping’ record that her phone had pinged a tower in Lavonia, GA on Friday night around 11:30PM. After talking with Travis we learned that Tosha had gotten lost on her way to his house and ended up in the Toccoa area and he helped her get rerouted to Blue Ridge, GA and spoke to her around 7:30-7:45PM. We were very confused why she would have spent hours in the Lavonia/Toccoa area so we spent days searching for her in this area, passing out flyers and talking to everyone we could, thinking that she could have had an accident in the area. Our family used different GPS devices and found out there were about 5 different ways to get from Lavonia, GA to Blue Ridge, GA. We split the routes up and drove each one in the hopes to see her car on the side of the road or stop at a store with a flyer and find someone that had seen her. But no such luck. The Georgia State Patrol office actually did a helicopter search from Lavonia to Blue Ridge and no luck either. This wasn’t too surprising because the foliage is so dense right now it’s hard to see anything from the ground, let alone the air.  
After several days of trying we got the City of Lavonia to request Tosha’s detailed phone records. The City of Lavonia Police Department received the detailed records late on October 11th. On October 12 after speaking with the City of Lavonia we found out that the records are in a different time zone so the 11:30PM ping was actually at 7:30PM EST in Lavonia, GA and that she actually had two other pings after that in the Demorest, GA area around 8:50PM.
This made more sense to us so off we went to Demorest, GA to pass out flyers and drive the roads. We stopped at a Kangaroo gas station not far from the cell phone towers she pinged off of and ran into a few Habersham County police officers and explained our story and what we were doing. They sat with us for over an hour or so helping us determine the route she would have taken to Blue Ridge from there based on the two cell phone tower pings in the area. They recommended to us that we try to search for her car at night, using a spot light off the side of the road to try and reflect off of the taillights or headlights.  
We did just that! My dad and I took to the route they suggested and a spot light. We drove Hwy 17 to GA 115 to Hwy 129N and anywhere on the road side that we saw a drop off with no guard rail or trees to stop her car we searched. We would pull over and shine our light down off the road and into the drop off. We did this for several miles until around 10:30PM (on 10/12) we came to a place on 129N just after Boggs Creek area where my dad noticed a small broken tree about the size of your thumb. We got out and took a closer look and we noticed the dirt scuffed up a little, we looked down the drop off and noticed a 3-foot pine tree laid over. We couldn’t really see much with our spot light so my dad decided to climb down a little bit because he felt like something had gone off the road in that area recently. (See pictures and video on this page.) Once he climbed down in the ravine he still couldn’t see much but as he got closer he saw a car that was upside down. I immediately called 911 and luckily two wonderful men pulled over to help us, one man’s name is Dustin Hitts and I don’t know the other guys name. (Thank you both for stopping that night!)  Once my dad climbed down even further he could tell that it was Tosha’s car by the front grill, she had a Nissan Altima with a Mercedes grill in the front of it. The panic really set in at this point and he climbed as fast as he could to the driver side window to get into the car to see Tosha but she wasn’t in there. He couldn’t find her anywhere in the car so he started searching around the car in the dark. Once the responders showed up they repelled down the mountain and started a search for her with no luck. They called in 2 dogs to aid in the search and after about a 5-hour search they determined that she wasn’t in the immediate area and they wanted to come back in the daylight hours to conduct another search.  
While we are on the side of the mountain waiting on the search team to conduct their search I received a phone call about 3:30AM off of our flyers from a guy who said he saw Tosha at a hotel in Gainesville, GA on Monday (10/10) about mid-day. He also told us some information that he shouldn’t have known that told us he knew what he was talking about. To us this means that Tosha survived the accident and could be alive! Off we got to Gainesville, GA at 4:00AM!  
After spending many hours at the hotel in Gainesville, GA with no Tosha we finally decide to pass out flyers and talk to people in the area and post as many flyers as we can at the surrounding businesses. While talking to several people we found more and more people that had seen Tosha in the last few days in the area. This was good news to us, she was alive, now we just have to find her. We don’t know if she’s hurt, has amnesia, a head injury, anything is possible.  
Since that time, we have had several more sightings of her in the Gainesville area off around the Jesse Jewell Pkwy and Queen City Blvd area. But we have yet to get a photograph or video proof of any sightings.  
Since her vehicle was found in Lumpkin County they took over the investigation because she is now missing from their jurisdiction. Late in the day on October 14th Lumpkin County did a search of the mountain with the help of some other agencies like Gwinnett County. They went back for a longer search on October 15th and found no signs of Tosha in the woods.
On October 23rd Dustin’s (guy who stopped to help us the night we found her car) mom and friend were riding on horseback in the area of her crash site and found some of her personal items. They immediately called Lumpkin County and they came out to the area and conducted another search that afternoon and again the next day, this time going further out from the crash site where the personal items were found. They found several personal items of Tosha’s all in the same area, but no signs of Tosha.  
On October 29th, we (family and friends) decided to do a search of the mountain ourselves to see if we could find Tosha. Again, no luck with Tosha but we did find some more of her personal items.  
During this time, we have had several more sightings of her in the Gainesville area off around the Jesse Jewell Pkwy and Queen City Pkwy area. But we have yet to get a photograph or video proof of any sightings.  
We continue to pray and be hopeful that she’s still out there alive and waiting on us to find her! Please keep sharing her story and keeping your eyes open! Thank you so much for taking the time to learn more about Tosha’s story. If you would like to follow the day to day activities, pictures, leads and news please scroll down to see this information.    
Quick Reference Timeline: (Facts Only, no unconfirmed leads are listed)
10/7/16: Tosha went missing. · 10/9/16: Filed a missing person report with Gwinnett County.
10/9/16: Received ‘emergency ping’ phone record on 10/7 @ 11:30PM (which turned out to actually be 7:30PM)
10/11/16: Received detailed phone records with pings located in Demorest, GA (Habersham County).
10/12/16: Around 10:30 PM my dad and I found Tosha’s car off of a cliff on Hwy 129N close to Hester’s Gap (between Cleveland & Blairsville).
10/14/16 & 10/15/16: Lumpkin County along with several other agencies did a thorough search of the mountain at the crash site and are very confident that she survived the accident. Lumpkin County took over the investigation.
10/23/16: Personal items found in the woods by horseback riders.
10/23/16 & 10/24/16: Lumpkin County did another search around the area where her personal items were found and located more personal items.  
10/29/16: Family and friends did a search of the mountain and located some personal items.
11/5/16: DNR and SAR’s team are doing a large search further out from the crash site.  
What can you do to help???
Keep sharing her facebook page and spreading the word! If you spot her, DO NOT approach her (this is for your safety and nothing else). Simply take a picture and call 911, City of Gainesville  at 770-534-5251 or Lumpkin County Police at 706-864-0415.
Please make note of any details you can like location, date, time, license plate #, make & model of the car along with the color, description of who she's with and what they are wearing. The more information the better! Call the Police or call us  Stacie Nelson @ 678-517-6533 (Sister)  Keith Reed @ 678-449-6435 (Dad)
Please call if you have ANY information.  Even if you think you might have a lead or tip, please call. We would rather follow all leads and tips than to miss an opportunity to find Tosha!