9.Thomas Pearce — Direct/Cross/Redirect

THOMAS PEARCE: Well, you know, in this field, you see -- and I have worked with other interns and some of them do have the drive, the passion, the want and knowing that -- Being a photographer, a lot of people think it's very easy. It's a lot of hours. It's a lot of dedicated work.

And she had that and I haven't seen that in many people in a lot of years. And I was impressed with that. She knew the responsibility, the sacrifices it took. And she was eager to learn. She was consistently asking questions and from -- doing different projects and so on. So I was very impressed with her and that's why I asked her to stay on.

THOMAS PEARCE: Yes. The university -- I also went to school, but not here in Green Bay. They teach you the book. And how should I say, you should know the rules before you know how to break them. And that's part of out in the field.

And that's why I think the internship program is a good program. Because it has -- In many different fields, people come out and see what it's really like in everyday life and not so much how the book says it. But you have got to know the book, but you have to break the rules when you are out there.

THOMAS PEARCE: As far as working for me, or I should say really with me, she was a go-getter, like I said, she had that passion. And I looked and as a -- when you are a staff photographer for someone, you have got to abide by their ways of doing things, their policies, because you are working for them, so you have to do stuff their way.

Well, I didn't want to hold her back because she was incredibly involved and had that passion for this. So, on the other hand, I didn't want to not lose her, but have her go out and go, hit and miss, hit and miss, which a lot of young photographers do.

I had a full studio, plenty of room for both of us. So we sat down and we talked and we did something that no one has done before. She started her own business, not be in competition, but complimenting each other.

So she worked out of my studio; she used all the facilities of the studio, but she ran her own business through that -- through my studio. Meanwhile, we cooperated in doing advertising together, promotions, learning, helping one another. I would book weddings for her, she would book for me. There was never any competition between us. And it was something unusual, but it worked out very well for both of us.

THOMAS PEARCE: Many times, yes. And it was, basically, not only the technical end of it, the photography end of it, but on how to run a business, what is needed behind the scenes. And that's where in this business a lot of the people that get into the photography business, they know photography but they don't know the business end of it.

So, yes, I did mentor her in a lot of different areas. Thirty-eight years of experience, and I wanted to share that with her, because I could see that she was, basically, like me when I came out of college -- school. I was eager. I had the passion. We had a lot of similarities. I graduated from -- with a degree in photography.

I was the -- also worked the photo school newspaper and she did. And I worked at many different studios before I moved up here in the Green Bay market. So we had that same background. And I think it's a duty for any of us to share what we have learned, our experiences with someone up and coming.

THOMAS PEARCE: I don't think she asked my advice, but I think I may have suggested something to her. Her photography business was picking up for studio wise a lot. And it seemed like when she -- It seemed when she first started with Auto Trader was just on Mondays. Mondays we're typically closed in the industry, because we worked a lot of Saturdays.

So, it seemed all of a sudden that she not only had to do Auto Trader on Monday, but possibly Wednesdays and some Saturdays. She was constantly telling me that she was running doing Auto Trader. And I could see that she was starting to burn the candle at both ends.

And at one time, I sat her down and I said, gee, you know, you are running here, you are running here, you're running and I didn't want her to get to a burn out point. So I just asked her, how is Auto Trader, is it a good client, blah, blah, blah.

We never talked on how much she was making, or whatever. That -- that was never discussed. I mean, that was where we drew the line in our business end of it, but I was more concerned about her well being of running, of the constant running. She was constantly running and that's what she enjoyed. So that was the only time I really had any discussion with her about Auto Trader.

THOMAS PEARCE: Just one time and I think it was the spring, late spring or early summer, Teresa had mentioned to me, she said kind of matter-of-factly, you will never guess whose cars I was taking pictures of. And she told me the name and it didn't ring a bell.

She actually had to remind me or say, oh, that was the guy that was wrongfully convicted and so on and so forth. And we had a little discussion and then I remembered the case and so on and so. We talked about -- a little bit about her being out and about, running around all over the county, by herself, and her safety and so on and so forth. And that was basically it. That was the only time she ever mentioned it to me.

THOMAS PEARCE: No, like I said earlier, Mondays we were closed. Actually, the last time I saw Teresa was Saturday, before the 31st. When Tuesday came, she had her own hours because she had her own business. Since I'm there like 60 hours a week; she may have been there one week 20 hours. All depended on her schedule and so on. But she always kept me informed of was she going to be gone for a day; did she have appointments; was she going to take off for a weekend; etc. She was very responsible in that sense, extremely responsible for a young person.

Well, Tuesday came and by noon she wasn't there. I didn't think too much, oh, okay, I know she was there Saturday working, did Auto Trader. So I'm going through my mind, well, what -- I knew Wednesday, because every Wednesday morning, she actually was one of the founders of a BMG Group, BMG marketing group, Business Marketing Group that meets once a week. Business leaders, they go over leads and what's going on in Green Bay and so on.

She was one of the founders and very active in it. She usually would come in, oh, about, sometimes 11:00, 11:30 on that Wednesday, religiously. Because she would be in town for that meeting. So Wednesday around noon, she didn't show up. I thought, okay, this is a little strange. I tried calling her and I got her cell phone, but her phone book and it was full, where I couldn't even leave a message.

THOMAS PEARCE: I tried to call her again, same thing, with the phone. Now, some of her work was coming in, being shipped in to be processed. And I knew that she knew, she kept track of that. So, if she was out of town or sick, I think she would have called me by this time. And I started getting really, really worried.

I didn't know who to call, her friends, etcetera, so I think was around 1:00, somewhere in that time period. I called Karen, Teresa's mother, seeing if she knew. That was the only phone number I had, other than Teresa's. I didn't have any of her friend's. And talked to Karen about it. And she was going to call some of her friends, or she already had. And the next thing I know it was 10:00, on the news, I heard it was, officially, that Teresa was missing.

THOMAS PEARCE: If you are referring to the same thing, I think, she was standing almost right next to me, in a day, and she got this phone call. And she looked at it and went, said, oh, not them again, or not him again, and just kind of forgot about it.

She looked a little upset, so I questioned her a little bit about this and she told me, just forget about it. Somebody keeps calling her all different hours, a nuisance call. And that was about two or three weeks and she had mentioned that she had been getting them for awhile and I had said, well, why don't you give me the number and I will call and find out instead of her dealing with it and she said, no, don't worry about it. But that's, I think, what you're talking about.