It's a case that has kept Fort Lauderdale detectives guessing for decades: Teresa "Bunny" Fittin was last seen on Aug. 1, 1975. At the time of her disappearance, she was 18 years old.
Today, she'd be 63, two decades younger than her mother Jocelia Travisano, who is still alive, on oxygen, and desperate to know what happened to her daughter.
"It's been a long time," Travisano told NBC 6. "I'd like to know what happened to my child."
"When I think of her, I wonder if she is somewhere and she's happy, and she's had a family. Maybe she has a dog and a cat. Maybe she's a normal person," she continued.
Police say Teresa got into an argument with her boyfriend after returning from a bar. She drove off in her 1966 Nash Rambler and was never seen again.
"When she left that night she just went out with what she was wearing, got into her car and I guess drove off," said Fort Lauderdale Police Detective Sgt. Steve Novak. "These are the cases that detectives will wake up in the middle of the night and think, is there something I missed? Is there something new I can do? Is there another technology out there that's come along that's going to help us?"
Novak noted that Teresa didn't take any clothes or personal belongings with her. Investigators looked into every possibility, from serial killers to the car being submerged in one of South Florida's waterways.
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"At that time, it was not an unusual car, but we never recovered it," Novak said.
Teresa's mother says that while some days she has hope, other days she sees the situation very grim.
"I'd like a happy ending to this, but if there is no happy ending, I'd still like to know," she said.
There has been no sighting or sign of Teresa since 1975, but Travisano hopes someone will come forward with information and help her live her final years in peace.
If you have any information that may help detectives with the case, call Fort Lauderdale Police at (954) 828-5534.
