10 years later, Raleigh detectives still puzzled by woman's disappearance

RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- Taveta and Phil Hobbs looked like the picture of the perfect marriage. They were together for 17 years and living their life in Raleigh with no sign of trouble.

Then, Taveta vanished.

"Something terrible happened to Taveta Hobbs here in Raleigh and she took her last breath on Nov. 24, 2008," said Raleigh police detective Eric Gibney.

Gibney is piecing together a perplexing puzzle. He says Taveta did not pick up her last paycheck, left her car behind, did not leave using any form of public transportation and there is no sign Taveta ever spent any money.

She was a veteran of the U.S. Navy and, at the time of her disappearance, she was working for a company in Cary and working toward a career as a court reporter.

"This case is always in my mind, just because there's something not right with it and we haven't found it yet and it's disheartening," said Gibney.

Raleigh detectives began working to untangle Taveta's baffling disappearance by talking to Phil Hobbs. He says he came home one day and Taveta was gone. She had decided to leave.

Gibney discovered, what he believes, was an unusual response.

"I would have expected to see a report filed by the husband, I would have expected to see some cell phone activity between the two phones, I would expect to see attempts to locate her," he said.

But Phil Hobbs tells ABC11, Taveta's disappearance did not seem unusual. He said Taveta routinely took off, sometimes for a couple of weeks, sometimes for a couple of months. He said in 2008, she left with a couple of suitcases and her purse.

Raleigh police searched for clues at the home where Taveta and Phil lived on Edgebury Road, even using ground penetrating radar looking for human remains, but the search turned up nothing.

In March, Gibney presented the facts to a group of retired and current detectives at cold case roundtable in Charlotte.

"The consensus was 'you guys have done everything that can possibly be done and Taveta Hobbs is not alive' and our goal is to find her," said Gibney.

Detective Gibney is convinced someone in Raleigh knows something.

"Bring me Taveta's remains," said Gibney. "Somebody out there has to know where her remains are and if we can find those, we can blow this wide open."

Taveta's brother, Clinton Crier, is puzzled too.

"Ten years into this I can't believe it, but I'm trying to deal with it," said Crier.

He is in constant contact with Raleigh police, in order to make good on a promise he made to his mother.

"She calls me at night in a panic and she calls me asking where she's at, she calls me and goes 'have you talked to your sister, have you talked to the police, has anybody called you?'"

Anyone with information is asked to call Detective Eric Gibney 919-996-1015.