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DEMING — Imagine saying goodbye to your child as they left for a bike ride and never hearing back from them again.

To any parent, this would be a living nightmare. Lynn Harris has lived that nightmare for the past 23 years.

“I don’t want people to forget my daughter,” an emotionally distraught Harris said during a telephone interview this past week. “She was a wonderful daughter. One any parent would be proud to call as theirs.”

Harris lives in Missoula, Montana with her husband and daughter, Carrie.

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Jennifer Lynn Pentilla was described by her mother as a 18 year-old adventurous young woman. Her mother said her daughter was a caring and devoted daughter.

Harris said her daughter had flown out with her bicycle from Montana to San Diego, California. She had stayed with friends in Calif., that she had met on a missionary trip to Mexico. Jennifer had left home for the trip on October 1, 1991. That would be the last time Harris would see her daughter.

From Oct. 1-17, Harris said she spoke to her daughter frequently. Jennifer called her mother on the 17th from a pay phone located at a then, Shell gas station on Pine St. in Deming.

Jennifer was en route to Mexico, according to her mother. The young woman was going to provide missionary work for children.

During the last conversation between the two, Harris said Jennifer had been convinced by her friends in San Diego that it was too dangerous to travel to Mexico.

Jennifer had told her mother she was going to continue to bike ride back to her home. Harris told her daughter it was too far and she was going to buy her a bus ticket the next day.

The two ended the conversation with Jennifer agreeing to call her mother to collect her bus ticket. The call never came.

“I knew something had happened when she didn’t call me by the 19th — that’s my birthday,” Harris said. “I knew something was terribly wrong. She would never forget my birthday.”

Jennifer was last seen riding her white Fuji bicycle carrying a back pack and camping gear. On Sept. 4, 1992 — nearly a year later — two hunters found Jennifer’s camping gear and a journal belonging to her under a tarp in a remote area between Hatch and Deming on State Road 26. Jennifer’s belongings were found approximately 46 miles northeast of Deming. Jennifer’s bicycle has never been found.

Harris said it has been difficult all these years waiting to find something out about her eldest daughter. She said her daughter would be 41 years old today. She is still looking for her 18-year-old daughter. Waiting to hear something — anything to give her and her family some form of peace.

Harris said she believes someone followed her daughter and took her. She said she thinks they left her belongings hidden and out of sight.

“We just need some answers,” Harris said. “There is still hope that she is out there. Until we are told she in not out there, I am not giving up.”

The disappearance of Jessica Lynn Pentilla is still under investigation with the New Mexico State Police Department. Anyone having information may call the New Mexico State Police Department at (575)525-4840 and ask for Agent Charles Boylston.

The family is hoping someone remembers seeing Jennifer or perhaps knows what happened to her. Anyone having information on the disappearance of Jennifer Lynn Pentilla, may call New Mexico State Police, Las Cruces Office, at (575)382-2500.