❤️My Mother; Diane Theresa Francis❤️

{In this document; I try my best to relive and walk you through my mother's life as I saw it and how other loved ones of hers have seen it throughout the years. They have helped me fill in the huge gaps, but there are many missing pieces that I still don't know. Remember, I was only 4 years old when the issues with Child Protective Services in Florida started and only 9 years old the last time I physically laid eyes on my mother.

My mothers legal name is Diane Theresa Francis. She was born July 7, 1968 in SomersviIle New Jersey. From what I've gathered she was like any other ordinary child but things became difficult for her growing up when her parents separated and divorced when she was only about 12 years old. There is some speculation that she may or may not have experienced some physical/sexual abuse as a child, but nothing has ever been confirmed to date. 

Diane grew up with both of her parents up until about the age of 12 when they decided to divorce; Rosalie Lamonto is her mother and her father is David Leslie Francis Sr. Diane was always a Daddy's girl growing up and decided to live with her father in Florida when her parents separated. Diane also has two younger Brothers David Leslie Francis Jr, and Michael J.Francis. They chose to move to Florida with their father as well. My mother was believed to be a mostly well behaved child up until about the age of 12 or so when her brothers (David and Michael) told their mother that Diane had been “sneaking boys in and out of the house in the middle of the night.” Nothing has been confirmed about this accusation either. 

My mother went on to graduate from 8th grade and continued on normally for the next year. When my mother reached high school she became a drop dead gorgeous young woman, boys were constantly pursuing her.  At this point she began to drift far far away from the once normal and well behaved child she once was. Her father recalls her “getting in with the wrong crowd” One of these boys she chose to hang out with even got her pregnant at 16 years old ( possibly Kenny Feckowitz). My mother would later give birth to this baby prematurely in the hospital bathroom. This baby was my sister “ Stephanie Francis”. She was born and died on April 11,1985. She had a proper burial and was laid to rest in Denville, NJ at the Denville Cemetery. Different encounters from Stephanie's birth time period tell numerous different stories, some say my mother was devastated and that she never came back from this, others say she showed no remorse or connection to the child whatsoever. 

In the year 1990,( just five years after the passing of my sister Stephanie).  My mother would meet my biological father Charles Edward Snider, (the night of my fathers birthday 1990, at a bar in long branch NJ.) My father also says my mother was in a relationship already at that time but her boyfriend (Kenny) was away so they got together secretly. Just one year after my mother and father met my sister Jessica Marie Snider was born September 22nd,1991 in Morristown New Jersey. My Birthday would follow not too far behind hers. I was born in Long Branch New Jersey on June 15th, 1993. Somewhere in between the birth of my sister and my mother's pregnancy with me she would take a turn for the worse. My father claims while my mother was pregnant with me she started doing drugs and partying as well as cheating and not coming home some nights. This came as a shock to me as in the 28 years I’ve been alive I have yet to hear that I was a “drug baby” (but I’d believe pretty much anything at this point.)  My mother and father would continue to live in New Jersey moving here to there in order to make ends meet, staying with family whenever possible. Eventually they would end up in the state of Florida in the year 1994. My mother said she had it with New Jersey and claimed she wanted to be near her father again. (just 1 year after I was born) My father claims they moved the family here in order to be closer to my grandfather Dave and step-Grandmother Rita Cook (per my mother's request). Little did they know this might be the move that set my mother's fate. Just one year after their move to the state of Florida, they end up in a trailer park where my mother would meet a man by the name of John Schmitt. She told my father “I'm going to marry John and he's going to be the girl's father now”. In a sense she was telling my father she didn't want to see him anymore. My dad then moved back to New Jersey to be back home with his family. We never saw him again. 

My mother met John Schmitt in 1995. My father Charles Snider claims my mother started seeing John while she was still dating him. The relationship between John Scmitt and my mother was a happy one at times but like every place we would soon end up, my mother let the drugs get the best of her and for the most part….us too because she had lost us again. 

When my mother met John Taylor Boggs it was 1997 just two years later and he had just served a four year sentence in prison, and he was fresh out the day that they met. My mother was actually dating one of his former friends at that time. Daniel Irwin, the man my mother was dating at the time, was also the manager of some apartments that John Boggs' family owned (Hired by John himself). John was returning from prison to pick back up managing the property for his family. John claims he swooped in like a hawk and stole my mother from his buddy. (Daniel Irwin) This was now the beginning of another shaky and mysterious relationship. We would soon return to my mother's care and begin a life with her and John Boggs. 

In the year 1999 My mother was still living with John Taylor Boggs. John was an abusive man and also a man who fell madly in love with my mother. I recall him throwing her across the house on one occasion which also included him punching his fists through the door to get to her, my sister and I jumping on him kicking and screaming to try and help my mother. Drugs were always present with the two of them together.

 My mother always denied the abuse to police in order to continue on as if nothing had happened and keep her place to live for us kids.There were good times as well, i don't neglect the facts here but the situation as a whole was a nightmare to say the least. My mother was tired and the police were called this same year in response to her trying to commit suicide because she had lost us girls again…... John Boggs and my mother had a history and I don't quite know everything that entails but he gave her his tattooed initials as a gift and they were always inseparable when things were good.

(We’ll definitely get back to John Boggs but he goes silent on this case until the year 2015!!)

Roger Allen Foreman Sr was driving down the road one day in or around the year 2000 just one year later. He was in his work van (he ran a landscape business) and he spotted my mother on the side of the road walking, he stopped her so he could speak to her. She said she had just gotten into a huge fight with her crazy boyfriend at the time (John Boggs) and she explained she did not want to go back home to him... That was the beginning of their relationship right then and there. We soon were allowed to visit with my mother once again. John would often show up at our house looking for my mother and in turn this would cause physical fights with Roger Sr.  Roger Foreman Sr. had a son of his own and things were seeming to be looking up for the most part. We spent a lot of time with Roger Sr, his son and my mother (mostly on Arranged supervised visits) this continued until we were allowed to go home to my mom”permanently“.   My mom was happy again and always joking, almost back to her normal “Di-Di” self in a sense. (Apparently Roger had lost his son in the past and offered his caseworkers contact information to my mother in order for my mother to work on getting my sister and I back into her care as well). I felt like it had been no time and we were back with my mom again and trying to never look back from it, but it was surely not the end….

In late 2003 Jessica and I were removed from my mother's care for the last and final time. We lived in the IndianRiver Cottages.(they were these awful bright pink, one room, 1 bed shacks). Jessica and I spent the majority of our time while living here in the trailer park down the road with friends or in the neighborhood that surrounded our loop of run down hotel rooms. I remember smoking cigarettes with the kid next door all the time or just basically doing whatever we wanted. Going inside our house was a rare occasion. 

In 2003 our caseworker pulled up to the cottage where we lived.  We were so traumatized by this point that when our case worker showed up to remove us this time…... we ran for our lives, because this time we knew. We took one look at each other swung open the back door of our shack and off into the woods we both went tripping over one another screaming as if it would help in some way. We knew what was happening. All in the same moment so many thoughts crossed my 10 year old mind. “Three strikes you're out mom” “this is it” “don't look back” I remember jessica telling me we should go to our friends house and i'll never forget turning around and seeing my mom being put into a police car and knowing that was the last time i may ever see her again. When we reached our destination…. Our friend's mother ended up having to call DCF in order to protect herself (understandable). We were only about 9 & 11 years old. Jessica and I now had to re-enter the Florida foster care system. We lived in multiple homes, some really good and some bad. I won't go into full detail as I don't remember it all but my sister and I experienced a wide variety of homes from shelters to facilities, overnight arrangements, relative care, adoptive placements, respite care.  On the flip side there were Amazing homes in south Florida that I will never ever forget. Part of why I’m a somewhat structured and steady headed human being is from my Foster mom’s Joanne, Alice, Denise, Dedra, Sheila, Maryellen,Joanie, Allison and Ms. Liz. These women are forever a part of me. I just won’t deny the bad side of it all either.  We once slept on the dcf office floor because there were no homes available at the time that would accept two pre-teen girls.( we weren't exactly top of the line product for foster parents) I remember being lost in the Florida foster care system at one point and looking back it means so much more now than it ever did to me then. I was just a number on a bed. We all were. The Florida foster care system failed my sister and I in a major way. Years ago they had my entire family convinced (including my father) that we were going to be happily adopted and that they should basically stay away from us. This has never been nor was this ever the case. At this time Jessica and I were at an all girls ranch in Cocoa Beach Florida and had not been checked on by any caseworker in weeks. We experienced several “Adoptive Placements'' but none of them ever worked out. Jessica and I went on like this until about 2008, where we found ourselves in an all girls shelter with some pretty strict rules on not contacting biological families. One night, I finally took a stand and stole a phone book from the office in the shelter we had just been dropped off in. I searched all night and finally found one name “Rita may Cook.” I didn't know why i recognized this name or what it meant but I knew I had to try it.  I shakely picked up the phone trying to be as quiet as I could (what I was doing was illegal) I dialed that number twenty times and twenty times over I erased it, racking my brain for any memory of this woman and how I might have known her. Finally it hit me, “Rita may cook, Rita may not” something my mother always joked about. This was the woman I called grandma my whole life. I remember my hand hitting the call button without a moment to second guess my decision and the phone was ringing…..ringing…..ringing…& then...I heard her.”h-hello…..w-who is this?” a raspy startled voice answers…( it was late)…. I say hesitantly…. “Its sherri”….. “Sherri who?” she replies…. “ Sherri Lynn Snider” I say. Before she says anything else I can hear tons of rustling and then she yells “DAAAVVEEEEE” calling out to my Grandfather (David Francis) from across the house. After years of being seperated i had found them. This was it. This was my fight ending…..this was my worry leaving… this was everything I had ever hoped for. This was my FAMILY!…...my mommy.  

   We were holding a yard sale at the shelter so I invited my grandfather and the next day he showed up. The hilarity of it all was that we found out they lived 1 street over and had lived there since I was a little girl. After 9 years of being separated we were randomly placed from 3 hrs away,…1 block from my mother’s fathers home....But again, this was not the end of my journey to find my mother. 

Later it would be discovered that my family had no idea of my mothers current whereabouts. They had not even the slightest bit of answers for us and so……we were completely shattered all over again. 

Before we knew it we were in relative care with my Aunt Joanne Francis in 2008-09. We both aged out of the Florida foster care system at 18 years old. This didn't happen for me until the year 2009-2010. This is when all of my “Real” searching began….

A few Years ago I discovered some odd information but, it was too little too late. This usually happened with my mother’s situation. I found an alias, a traffic citation, numerous police reports, I obtained my mothers last mugshot, court records, arrest records, and I also ran lengthy internet paid and free searches. None of which led me to any current information regarding my mothers current or even most recent whereabouts. I found my mother’s best friend whom we all lived with around the time we last saw my mother but by the time I found her, she had already passed away a year prior to finding her. I found her best friends daughters also who were just little babies (4 years old) when all of this happened and had been taken away as well at the same time we were taken. Everything that has ever existed regarding my mother Diane Theresa Francis or her alias, existed during or before the year 2005 possibly 2006. I hate to admit the facts here but it's been almost 20 long long years of me hoping, praying, wishing my mother would just commit a crime or call/show up… Mess up…something…...anything. But she Doesn’t. 

I contacted each and every one of my mother’s former boyfriends and got different recollections from each one. One boyfriend was long gone and out of the picture by the time she disappeared. Her last known boyfriend claims to have left her at some type of boarding house right near the house we last saw her in around 2004-2005. Another One of her boyfriends claims he has no idea. 

I guess My first “ real “ & official attempt at locating my mother would have had to have been in 2009-2010. This was the year we reunited with our “entire” family and had asked them where she was. The answers we received were vague and scattered. “We had Cop friends of ours look for her and the trail ended in Palm Bay, Florida” & “We did everything we could for her,she didn’t want help” and my most favorite “You need to let it go.” 

From then on, I made it my mission and mine alone to do whatever it takes to find her. I contacted the Florida department of children and families’ services and also my prior caseworker (Beatrice Borsiquot) in order to obtain my foster care case file. They still will not release the entire thing to me stating that I would  have to go there in person to obtain it in its entirety and  I’ve been told it will be destroyed soon as well. 

I made numerous calls to the Melbourne, Palm Bay and Jacksonville Florida police departments and sheriff's offices as well as jails (with efforts in mind of filing a missing persons report). I was laughed at…. multiple times. I was told that my mother is a full well grown adult and can make her own decisions. If she is not under a certain age,  In immediate danger, a danger to others, taken against her own will, suicidal and a few other things then she can choose to disappear and there’s nothing I or anyone else can do. 

They advised me she hadn’t been in the area in years anyways. They asked me on my birthday 2019 “is something wrong ma’am why do you seem so upset about your mother?” I hung up the phone. My mouth couldn’t even express the amount of emotion that was going through my heart at that moment and it all just came out as sobs…. “I’m so upset” because my mother, the woman who gave me breath and life to breathe has not been seen in almost two decades and no one can seem to see the immediate issue with that but me. 

At this point I’m offended; I start posting to Facebook more and more. I start adding anyone and everyone with my last name or my mother’s last name. I find an awesome cousin of mine who happens to be a crime junkie living in the same state as my bio father (Maggie Snider) . She came to visit me and we went to the crime junkie showduring her visit here in Arizona. We met Sarah turney and Erin Reed after the show for drinks. I then feature on “Sipping on Some Crime Podcast”. This would be the first of many episode interviews to follow. I started contacting the provided emails from police websites for public records requests. I entered requests with Brevard county and Jacksonville duval county. I found an alias just by searching her jail number alone with no other info included (on inmate websites). I obtained a copy of the FDLE records request. During all of the record requests and paying for online reports from radaris and people searches. 

The trail always ends in the same exact location. 5624 Cagle Rd in 

Jacksonville, Florida. The location was previously a Ramada Inn and is now an Econolodge. My sister and I sent a good friend from our old church and his friend who is a licensed PI to these locations in Melbourne and in Jacksonville. I have the conclusion from those findings and they were what I’ve already sent you. Not to mention the PI was given everything that I also gave you prior to making this venture to search for my mom. 

All in all his findings were that I need to personally go to Jacksonville where my mother frequented and walk the streets of US1 to find her. He looked every which way up down left right backwards and sideways in the systems he has access to and found the same things I did. Less even.

Today the case is ice cold and I’m left with bits and pieces of half ass answers. no one remembers anything and better yet they want nothing to do with the repercussions and or history they’d have to face in order to be even slightly involved. Every single day that passes is such a heartbreak to me and those who knows what a beautiful person my mother truly is because I know this life is so so short. I can only hope that my life will just be long enough to discover what truly happened to my beautiful mother Diane Theresa Francis. 

Side note: 

In the year 2015, (16 years after dating and beating my mother.) John Taylor Boggs calls the Jacksonville Sheriff's office and asks if he can report someone missing. He proceeds to tell the sheriffs office that Diane is his former friend and he hasn't seen her in “12” years, and he is “worried” about her. He claims he is the step father of my sister and I and he hopes my mother is okay. He also proceeds to tell the sheriff's office defining facts about my mother, including her drug habits, tattoos, hair color  etc. mind you this call was made one day apart from the day his neighbor and friend George Contos goes missing and is also reported missing. I’ve since found another missing individual associated with my mother’s ex boyfriend. ❤️