Vicki Acquisto is pictured this week inside her North Harmony home at the spot where her daughter, Corrie Anderson, had sat at family gatherings. The family is hoping the discovery of two sets of human remains in the town of Portland will bring some closure after Anderson went missing in 2008. P-J photo by Eric Tichy

For a while — months, and maybe even a couple of years — the spot at the dinner table sat empty.

It had been Corrie Anderson’s seat at the town of North Harmony home when the family got together for their semi-regular meals. After she went missing, in the fall of 2008, it just didn’t seem right for anyone to take the spot.

“Getting together, that’s big in our family,” said Anderson’s mother, Vicki Acquisto. “All of my family always have these dinners, and her chair at the table sat empty for a long time — for birthdays, holidays. Now her son sits there.”

Going on 13 years, the family remains hopeful they will one day receive closure regarding Anderson’s disappearance. The discovery of human remains this week in the town of Portland has brought renewed hopes of that.

“Being the mom that’s always hard,” Acquisto told The Post-Journal in a recent interview regarding Anderson, then a 36-year-old mother of three last seen the afternoon of Oct. 28, 2008. “She’s one of your babies, no matter how old she is, she is always one of your babies.”

Several police agencies are pictured in June 2009 on Lawson Road in the town of Busti. Several searches occurred in the months and years after Corrie Anderson went missing. P-J file photo by Robert Rizzuto

She added, “I think about her all the time.”

Anderson’s sister, Autumn Boardman, feels the same way.

“When she went missing I had two kids,” she said. “Now I have four. That kills me — it bothers me very much that my little girls didn’t get to know their aunt Corrie. There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about her, and there are days that I sit in my vehicle and talk to her. She was my best friend.”

Joe Smith, a senior investigator with the New York State Police based at the Jamestown barracks, has been involved with the missing person case from the beginning. He noted several searches that occurred both near Anderson’s home on Wellman Road in the town of Busti and in neighboring Pennsylvania.

Agencies involved in those searches included state police in New York and Pennsylvania, the Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Office, Cattaraugus County Sheriff’s Office, Lakewood-Busti Police Department, Ellicott Police Department, Jamestown Police Department, FBI, state Forest Rangers and Department of Environmental Conservation.

Corrie Anderson

“It stands out since I’ve been involved from the beginning,” Smith said of the Anderson case. “It’s become very personal. With the other cases, I’ve either assisted or helped look for information.”

A SEARCH BEGINS

Despite several unknowns in the case, Smith said the timeline from that day was established quickly.

Anderson, who worked a part-time job at the Jamestown Community College library, was last seen around 1 p.m. at the former Lake County Dodge car dealership on Washington Street in Jamestown after visiting her boyfriend. Police know she made it home after leaving the dealership because certain items were located inside her residence.

Her family contacted police after she failed to pick up her son from school and meet with his teacher to go over plans for a Halloween party.

Two days later, on Oct. 30, 2008, Anderson’s van was found on a trail past a gas well off Kortwright Road in Busti, not far from her home. The vehicle was later transported to Batavia for collection of evidence.

Timothy Talley, then a captain with the state police, told The Post-Journal in November 2008, “I know that everyone involved with the investigation and the search understand how important it is to find Corrie as soon as possible for the sake of her family and the community. We will leave no stone unturned.”

Just days after she disappeared, a candlelight vigil for Anderson was held at the Lakewood Baptist Church described as being standing-room only. “I don’t know a lot of the people here tonight, but I know you’re here because you care,” Pastor Dan Cook said that evening.

James Quattrone, currently Chautauqua County’s sheriff but in November 2008 a lieutenant with the department, said at the vigil, “The New York State Police, along with every law enforcement agency in the county, are doing everything they can to bring Corrie home safely.”

Ken Anderson, Corrie’s estranged husband with whom she had a child, was questioned and his home searched after the van was discovered. Corrie’s family acknowledged the two were technically still married, but were separated by an order of protection Corrie placed on Ken.

In November 2016, Ken Anderson was arrested in a Kentucky hotel room on charges of kidnapping, rape and unlawful imprisonment of a woman. That woman, according to multiple media reports, had been held against her will.

“The arrest has nothing to do with the Corrie Anderson investigation from 2008,” trooper James O’Callaghan, public information officer, told the newspaper shortly after his arrest. “Ken Anderson is not a suspect or a person-of-interest in this case at this time.”

SEEKING CLOSURE

For Acquisto, not knowing what happened to her daughter has been the biggest source of frustration the last 13 years.

“I guess my biggest thing is closure — I would like to know that,” Acquisto said. “I’m to the point I just want there to be closure for all of us. I know whether she’s still here some place or not, she’s with the lord. I have a very strong faith and that’s helped me.”

Acquisto appreciates the support the family has received, even among strangers.

“Even to this day I run into people who ask me about her, if there are any new leads and that maybe something will turn up,” she said. “I know the community hasn’t forgotten her.”

“It’s hard not knowing what has happened to her, it is, but we’ve learned to go on,” she added. “She hasn’t gone far from our thoughts. You just get to a point where you have to move on.”

Boardman said she misses the conversations she had with her sister and is also seeking closure for the family. “Being able to just share different things in my life,” she said, “the good times and the hard times — the person who will never judge you.”

Both Acquisto and Boardman praised law enforcement — especially Smith — for the decade-plus effort in the search for answers. “He’s always been there for me. Joe has been very helpful,” Acquisto said.

The senior investigator encourages anyone with information regarding Anderson to come forward. “We’re always looking for leads,” Smith said. “We follow up with them as soon as they come in.”

Anderson is described as having green eyes and chin-length blond hair. She is about 5 feet, 11 inches tall and weighs about 170 pounds. She was last seen wearing black corduroy pants, a black leather jacket and small, wired-rimmed glasses.

Anyone with information regarding the Anderson case is asked to contact the New York State Police at 665-3114.