BLISS, N.Y. — Every day since April 14, 2020, Shari Kay Shearing searches for peace on Pleasant Valley Road in Wyoming County by speaking with her daughter.
"Oh yes, yes I do," Shearing said. "I feel her presence here."
It's what Shearing must do when all she has left are the memories of Cori Shearing, who would be 22 this November.
"(Her) best friend ever (was her) dog Shiloh," Shearing said. "When she first was in the accident, he knew exactly where she landed."
When Cori Shearing was 20, she was a passenger in the car her friend was driving near Faun Lake.
The car was going 100 miles per hour before it crashed.
Cori Shearing was killed instantly, while the friend is now serving time in prison and has a parole hearing coming up next month.
Cori Shearing's family was forced to go through the stages of grief without a traditional funeral during COVID.
"It's just such a shock when you have somebody so healthy and loving and part of your life every day, every second, and she's gone kind of just like the cross that was here, and then it's gone," Shari Kay Shearing said.
Now Shari Kay Shearing is grieving once again.
"I got to know Cori in a spiritual way," she said. "I was bawling."
It's all because the one thing that helped her get through her daughter's death has suddenly disappeared.
"I got to recognize her talents from other people that left momentums here at the cross," Shari Kay Shearing said.
Just about everything went missing from Cori Shearing's memorial site on Memorial Day.
Faun Lake had previously reached out to Shari Kay Shearing about the possibility of removing the site and putting a plaque there instead.
She didn't want that, instead suggesting they put it in a parking spot.
Officials with Faun Lake released this statement saying the memorial site was on their property but say they didn't remove it:
"The Faun Lake Board of Directors did not authorize nor remove the memorial. We have no idea who did this. It was on Faun Lake property."
The Wyoming County Sheriff's Office says they don't have any suspects or leads.
"We're getting through it. But this is just another setback," Shari Kay Shearing said.
In the meantime, a mother will continue to look for peace at the site where her daughter took her last breaths.
"When the sun would reflect off the water and hit the top of the cross, I can feel her smiling," Shari Kay Shearing said.
And hope that someday, she will see that cross and feel that smile again.
RELATED: