Search for Missing Teacher Fruitless

Diana Furry seemed to be off on another weekend adventure last Saturday when she assured her neighbor that she would return Sunday night.

But Furry, an elementary school teacher in Santa Ana, vanished without a trace.

Relatives and friends said they are sick with worry, and police said they have combed the mountainous area of Idyllwild west of Palm Springs, where she was thought to be headed to meet her boyfriend, and found nothing.

Furry, 51, was last seen Sept. 13, when she told friends about her weekend plans.

When she didn’t show up at Monte Vista Elementary School, where she has worked for 14 years, worried colleagues contacted her boyfriend, Robert Brown of Claremont.

But Furry had not arrived Saturday in Idyllwild, Brown told The Times.

Although the couple had planned to attend the Whole Being Festival, Furry might have changed her mind at the last minute, he said Friday night. It would not have been unusual for the free-spirited schoolteacher to decide on a whim to take a trip to Mexico, said Brown, a computer programmer.

“We didn’t reach an agreement about whether she would meet me. She could have gone or not gone,” said Brown, 46. “It’s not unusual that she and I don’t talk every day. It is surprising for her not to call into school, and that was the first thing that looked out of place.”

Helen Matthews, principal of Monte Vista, said the school last heard from Furry on Sept. 12.

That morning, Matthews said, Furry left a tape-recorded message saying she could not report for work because she was ill. But the message--a routine phone call to arrange for a substitute--gave no indication that Furry would take more than one sick day.

Matthews said not hearing from Furry at all this week is distressing because the veteran teacher is normally responsible and punctual.

“When she didn’t phone in Monday, that has never happened before,” Matthews said. “She has always informed us if she was going to be out or if she was having some sort of difficulty.”

On Wednesday, Furry’s sister, Linda Bellstrom, called police in Laguna Beach, where Furry lives, and filed a missing-person’s report after having friends in law enforcement check the jail, hospitals and morgue in Tijuana.

“She is very fun-loving, trusting and very caring. She would help anybody anywhere,” said Bellstrom, who lives in San Diego. “But she has a pretty well-structured life.”

Police have entered Furry into a nationwide missing-person’s file along with information about her car, a red 1991 Honda CRX.

Riverside County sheriff’s deputies have searched Idyllwild for Furry or her car. At this point, police have no evidence suggesting a crime has been committed, but the circumstances are suspicious, Laguna Beach Police Det. Lou Guttierez said.

Furry is 5 feet 2 inches tall, 115 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes. She was last seen wearing blue shorts, a blue bikini top and a white hat.

“Everyone interviewed said she is a very likable person,” Guttierez said. “She has no enemies, and there was no reason to believe anyone would harm her.”

But Brown, who has been dating Furry for six years, said he was always concerned that she was too friendly with strangers. She is an adventurous woman who had lived in Granada, Spain, and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, for several years, relatives said.

Furry’s mother, Marianne Kingdon, said she also has been concerned at times that her eldest daughter, who majored in sociology and worked as a social worker before becoming a teacher, had too trusting a nature.

“She was too good for her own good,” said Kingdon, 80.

Furry’s desire to help people brought her into teaching, said her sister, Bellstrom. With her bilingual skills and love of Mexican culture, she gravitated to the Santa Ana Unified School District, Bellstrom said.

Furry teaches a combined class with 20 first- and second-grade students at the school on West Monta Vista Avenue in Santa Ana. Matthews said the students have not yet been told their teacher has been reported missing. Substitute teachers have covered in her absence.

Matthews said Furry is known as a dedicated, animated teacher who is fond of employing music and poetry in the classroom.

“She’s a very caring person, very loving toward the children and the staff,” Matthews said. “We just hope that she’s safe. It’s really a big concern and very out of character for her.”

Furry’s mother said she is devastated and perplexed by her daughter’s disappearance.

“We just want to hear her voice,” said Kingdon, who lives in Laguna Niguel with Furry’s 85-year-old father, Grover. “She just loves her father and us very much. She is very concerned about us all the time. I have just been so brokenhearted and worried.”

Investigators asked that anyone with information on Furry call (714) 497-0371.