Missing Tallahassee woman hasn’t been seen since September

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) - 58-year-old Avis Anderson has not been heard from since late September. Police asked WCTV to re-circulate her photo on Tuesday hoping someone will come forward with answers.

Her family is also extremely concerned; they describe her as a loving, faithful person who has her challenges, but say her disappearance is not normal behavior.

Anderson’s cousin, Zarsa Shakespeare, pleads, “We need your help,” and says that the family is worried sick.

“We just don’t want it to be another young black woman that is missing,” Shakespeare said.

Police say Anderson has not been heard from since September, last seen by neighbors outside her Tallahassee home on Wesley Drive.

Her house is now plastered with several public notices and unopened packages collecting in her nearly three-month-long absence. The door has been left eerily ajar, with light seen coming from the inside, but no one is home.

Shakespeare says, “Everyone has their own demons and their own challenges. That does not make her any less of someone we love.”

Anderson’s family says she was a member of Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church and the Order of the Eastern Star, graduated from FAMU and retired from the Florida Department of Revenue before substantial struggles with substance abuse impacted her life.

Family members say her bank account hasn’t been touched,; court records show she’s missed scheduled payments and the City recently declared her home vacant.

Anderson’s family is now just hoping to find her and bring her home. Shakespeare added, “We still love her. We still want her, and Avis, if you hear me, my phone number has not changed. It is the same. Please call. We just want to know where you are, if you’re alright and if you need anything.”

The family is working with crime stoppers to create a reward for information.

If anyone has information on the last time they saw Anderson, where she might be or she was last with, please call the Tallahassee Police Department at 850-891-4200.

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