Nadia Kira Kersh

• Missing Since 11/03/2008
• Missing From Homewood, Alabama
• Classification Endangered Missing
• Sex Female
• Race White
• Age 23 years old
• Height and Weight 5'3, 110 pounds
• Clothing/Jewelry Description A green t-shirt with the "Tria Market" logo on the front, an oversized light-colored jacket, blue jeans and clogs.
• Associated Vehicle(s) Red Chrysler Sebring convertible with the license plate number 2D5202F (accounted for)
• Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Brown hair, blue eyes. Kersh wears eyeglasses with rectangular brown frames, and her ears are pierced. She was born in Russia. Kersha's hair was waist-length at the time of her disappearance and she has natural blonde highlights in her hair around her face; she may dye her hair a solid brown color.

Details of Disappearance

Kersh was last seen in Homewood, Alabama on November 3, 2008. She left her cashier job at the Tria Market at 1:00 p.m. to pick up her one-year-old son at his day care, but never arrived and has never been heard from again.

The day after her disappearance, Kersh's red Chrysler Sebring convertible with the license plate number 2D5202F was found abandoned in an alley in west Birmingham, Alabama. Three days after that, her purse was found under an overpass on some railroad tracks, near Montevallo Road and east of Barber Court, about 100 yards from where her car had been.

In May 2010, a year and a half after Kersh's disappearance, Joacquas Megauil Haywood was charged with capital murder in her case. A photo of Haywood is posted with this case summary. He had dated Kersh, and authorities stated he'd been a person of interest from the onset of the investigation. They believe he killed her during a botched burglary.

A witness testified that she saw a driver in a black SUV pull up in front of Kersh's apartment and go inside. Kersh arrived soon after, and the witness heard a cry and a crash. Haywood drove a black SUV.

In the summer of 2011, the case against Haywood was dropped because a judge ruled the prosecution hadn't given him his constitutional right to a speedy trial and because two pieces of evidence hadn't been tested for DNA. By then, Haywood had spent 15 months in custody. Authorities stated they would refile the murder charges against him if more evidence resurfaced.

Kersh was born in Russia and spent the first years of her life in an orphanage. She is described as an independent and reliable but very trusting young woman and a devoted mother. Foul play is suspected in her case due to the circumstances involved.