Tara Daniels has known her cousin, Valerie Elder Smiley, since the day she was born. “She was just, like, my first child, and I’ve loved her from day one,” Tara said. “She’s a joy to be around.”
But Tara hasn’t seen her cousin since the 41-year-old disappeared from Chattanooga on Friday, June 28, 2024. “It seems as if she’s just vanished off the face of the earth,” Tara said.
Tara told Dateline that the days leading up to Valerie’s disappearance were typical. “She was acting normal, you know, the whole week,” she said. But, she added that the family had been concerned for Valerie’s health. “She was having blood pressure problems, and then it went to memory loss problems, and then we found out it was from some medication that she had been taking.”
According to Tara, the family, including Valerie’s husband and four sons, were doing their best to make sure Valerie was doing all right. “We were monitoring that,” Tara said. She thinks Valerie got confused and lost on the day she disappeared…