September 11 marked eight years since 3-month-old Arieanna Renee Day disappeared from her Roanoke home, leaving behind a case filled with conflicting accounts, an unsuccessful prosecution and one question that has never been answered: Where is Arieanna?
Arieanna was reported missing from a home in the 1100 block of Hanover Avenue NW on the night of September 11, 2018. Her mother, Jessica Day, told police she had put the infant down to sleep and later discovered that she was gone. According to WDBJ7, police found no signs of forced entry at the residence.
Within days, investigators said there was a “realistic possibility” that Arieanna was deceased. Andrew Christopher Terry, identified at the time as Arieanna’s father, was arrested the day after she disappeared and charged with illegally concealing a body. Terry was never charged with causing Arieanna’s death.
During questioning, Terry told investigators that Jessica had given Arieanna to him that night and that the baby appeared injured. According to his account, Arieanna stopped breathing as he drove toward Blacksburg. Terry said he did not seek medical help and instead buried her in a shallow grave near railroad tracks in the area of Jennelle and Cedar Run roads in Montgomery County.
He led investigators to the area, but searches failed to locate Arieanna or a gravesite. Terry later recanted the account before returning to it during subsequent questioning.
The search expanded throughout Montgomery County. Authorities searched areas around North Fork, Lusters Gate, Jennelle and Cedar Run roads using ground searches, interviews, informational checkpoints and other investigative methods.
Members of the public wanted to help. On October 9, 2018, advocates from Missing Pieces Network contacted both the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office and Roanoke Police Department about organizing volunteers to search for Arieanna.
According to contemporaneous notes from those conversations, authorities said several jurisdictions were actively working the case and discouraged citizens from conducting independent searches because of the possibility of contaminating evidence at a potential crime scene.
Officials said they would announce publicly if volunteer assistance was needed.
By November, Roanoke Police and the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office were publicly appealing for information. Terry was identified as a suspect and Jessica as a person of interest. Investigators also brought in a forensic expert and experimented with additional technology in an effort to locate Arieanna, but her remains were not found.
“Three-month-old Arieanna cannot speak for herself,” then-Roanoke Police Chief Tim Jones said during a November 2018 news conference. “Someone needs to speak for her.”
A trial, conflicting stories and a mistrial
Terry was eventually indicted on the body-concealment charge. He had been scheduled for a jury trial, but in May 2019 requested that the case instead be heard by a judge in a bench trial. He later changed course again, and the case ultimately proceeded before a jury in September 2019.
Complicating the prosecution’s case were the numerous conflicting accounts Jessica had provided investigators about what happened to her daughter. At various points, she said Arieanna had died after being smothered when they fell asleep together, had been given to a relative, had been taken by an adoption agency, or had been injured in a fall.
Before Terry’s trial, Jessica also contacted his defense attorney and claimed that Arieanna was still alive. She acknowledged providing false information to police and attributed some of her conflicting statements to memory lapses.
Without Arieanna’s remains, prosecutors faced an unusual evidentiary problem: they were attempting to prove that Terry had concealed the body of a child whose death itself could not conclusively be established. At one point, the judge characterized the case as a “hot mess” and questioned how the Commonwealth could establish that Arieanna was dead.
After hours of deliberation, jurors were unable to reach a unanimous verdict, and a mistrial was declared on September 26, 2019. Prosecutors initially planned to try Terry again.
Investigators subsequently sought another forensic examination of his cellphone, believing newer technology might reveal information about where Arieanna’s body had been placed.
The retrial never took place. In November 2020, Montgomery County Commonwealth’s Attorney Mary Pettitt dropped the remaining charge against Terry. Arieanna’s disappearance, however, remained an open investigation.
Keeping Arieanna’s name alive
While the criminal case ended without a conviction, efforts to find Arieanna and keep her name before the public continued.
Flyers bearing her photograph circulated throughout Southwest Virginia. Hunters, hikers and property owners in areas that had been searched were encouraged to remain alert for anything that could help locate her. Advocates continued sharing Arieanna’s photograph online and asking anyone with information to come forward.
Police continued making public appeals in subsequent years. In 2021, investigators said they had exhausted the leads and tips received to that point but had not given up on the case. The following year, family members and advocates again publicly called for answers.
Today, Arieanna remains classified as an endangered missing child. Police believe she is deceased, but her remains have never been recovered and the circumstances surrounding her disappearance remain unresolved.
A missing baby who struggled to be seen
Perhaps one of the most painful aspects of Arieanna’s case was how difficult it was to generate sustained public attention for a missing 3-month-old child.
Other missing-child cases have drawn enormous community responses and national media coverage. Arieanna’s disappearance never generated attention on that scale.
Instead, much of the conversation quickly became focused on the complicated circumstances surrounding the adults in her life and the contradictory stories they told.
Those advocating for Arieanna noticed the problem almost immediately.
Less than one month after she disappeared, an October 2018 post from the “Where is Arieanna Day” Facebook pleaded with people throughout Roanoke and Blacksburg to share her flyers, noting that people were talking about the circumstances of the case while comparatively few were sharing the baby’s face and story.
The graphic accompanying the post delivered a message written from Arieanna’s perspective:
“Please don’t stop talking about me.”
And then, perhaps most importantly:
“My story isn’t about my mother or father — it’s about me.”
Eight years later, that message remains just as relevant.
Whatever happened between the adults in Arieanna’s life, Arieanna was three months old. She had no control over the circumstances into which she was born, the decisions made by the people around her or the stories told after she disappeared.
She deserved then (and now) to be the focus of her own story.
Arieanna Renee Day is still missing.
[Feature images: Jessica Day/Kim Leigh Martin]
