The television’s on, but she’s not watching it. There are books she could read, but what’s the point? After a couple pages, she can’t keep up.
Nancy Perris is looking for something to take her away from the only thing she can think about: her daughter, Colleen, who has been missing for two weeks.
Friends, co-workers and neighbors posted fliers and created a Web site. Police sort through hundreds of leads. And Nancy and her husband, Nick, try to help each other through days of cruel uncertainty.
“I’m sitting here, waiting for the phone to ring,” the mother said. “It’s ringing a lot. We’ve heard from people who went to school with her, people who haven’t seen her in years.”
Nancy Perris will go back to work at Kemper National Services soon — she can’t take sitting around the house any more. Nick, familiar to many residents as a leader in the Plantation Acres Homeowners Association, spends his days at the printing shop he owns, Central Park Postage, on Broward Boulevard.
He takes orders, and turns out reams of fliers — thousands so far — with his daughter’s photo, and a number to call if she’s seen.
“I have do something, and it keeps me active,” Nick Perris said. “It keeps my sanity. Otherwise I’d lose my mind.”
Colleen Perris, 18, is believed to have been driving to Coral Springs on Sept. 30 when she disappeared. She didn’t show up to meet her parents for a Florida Marlins game later that night, even though she bought the tickets.
They thought Colleen, who works as a hostess at Hops Restaurant Bar & Brewery, was with her boyfriend. The boyfriend, Mick Baker, 23, thought she was with them. Last week, Colleen Perris’ white 1994 Mazda MX6 was found parked in a small strip shopping center in Tamarac, locked, with no visible signs of damage, police said.
Complicating the search is Colleen’s age. It is not uncommon for teens to run away, or simply leave without telling anyone, a possibility Plantation police have not discounted.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in Palm Beach County can’t participate in searches for people age 18 or older, by federal mandate. Teens can be gone for weeks and then come back, said Nancy McBride, a director at the center.
“There are so many dynamics parents might not be plugged into,” McBride said.
Plantation police usually don’t run 18-year-olds through state and national missing persons databases, said Detective Steve Geller, until there is reason to suspect foul play, or unusual circumstances. Colleen Perris’ disappearance was strange enough that police entered her name, he said.
“We’ve had several possible sightings, but they’ve been look-alikes,” Geller said. “We’re treating it as a high-priority case, and we’re asking anybody who may know anything about what happened to contact us.”
Friends and family saw no signs that Colleen, who was taking night classes at Plantation High School, was about to go anywhere on her own. A few days before she disappeared, she and her boyfriend had bought plane tickets for a trip to Colorado later this year, Baker said.
She was supposed to get her high school diploma last week, said Aly Lopez, one of her close friends. Colleen kept within a close circle of friends, Lopez said, who said they were both usually happy playing pool or throwing darts with their boyfriends rather than going out.
“I just really want her to come home,” said Lopez, 18. “I think she might be out there trying to get home, but she can’t.”
Anyone with information is asked to call Plantation police at 954-797-2118, or Crime Stoppers at 954-493-8477.
Sean Cavanagh can be reached at or 954-572-2009.
