EXCLUSIVE: How kidnapped supermom Sherri Papini's lookalike high school pal ALSO vanished while out for a jog but - unlike Sherri - was never seen again

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In the days after she vanished Sherri Papini's frantic husband Keith went to see the parents of a teenage girl who vanished 18 years ago in strikingly similar circumstances, DailyMail.com can reveal.

Missing Tera Smith - a high school friend of Sherri - disappeared without trace on August 22, 1998 after leaving her rural home in Redding, California for an early evening jog.

She was heading for the same trail where Sherri, 34, vanished while out jogging on November 2.

Tera Smith (left)  was a high school friend of Sherri Papini (right). She disappeared without trace on August 22, 1998 after leaving her rural home in Redding, California for what she told her parents was an early evening jog

Tera was last seen wearing a sports top, shorts and tennis shoes and may have been seen with a white male companion who may have been her karate instructor

Keith hoped that speaking with Tera's parents Terry and Marilyn Smith a few days after his wife vanished might in some way help and wanted to ask their advice on how best to handle the overwhelming situation.

Freshman homecoming princess Tera – who at 16, pretty and blonde, looked remarkably similar to Sherri - was dressed in running gear like her friend was when she was abducted.

The two girls attended Central Valley High School together and Sherri was in the same class as Tera's sister Kyra who was a year younger.

But unlike mom-of-two Sherri's miraculous return on Thanksgiving day, Tera is still missing - no body or any trace of her was ever found.

Tera's father Terry told DailyMail.com: 'Keith came over for a while on the second or third day after Sherri went missing.

'He also called later to ask whether I thought the FBI should get involved.

'We didn't know him at all until this happened, but we knew Sherri through her friendship with our daughters.

'Keith came to ask our advice and tap in to our experience, find out what we'd do differently, if we were happy with the way law enforcement had handled our case.'

Terry, 57, admitted to Keith - who by then was becoming increasingly desperate over his wife's disappearance - that he had placed far too much faith in law enforcement back in 1998.

'We were very idle when Tera went missing,' he said. 'We just expected them to do everything, they were the professionals and we weren't, but I do think they made some mistakes and hopefully learned from their mistakes.'

Tera's parents, Terry and Marilyn Smith, believe their daughter's disappearance case was not random

A couple of days after Sherri went missing, her husband Keith (pictured together) sought out Tera's parents, Marilyn and Terry Smith, to ask their advice on how best to handle his wife's disappearance

Terry reveals that during the conversation he was worried Keith was being far too optimistic about Sherri's return.

He said: 'I thought from a self-preservation perspective, I felt bad because Keith had so much hope and so much confidence that she'd be found, I kind of thought that he might need to accept the possibility that she wouldn't be coming back and in my mind a very real possibility.

'I didn't have a lot of comfort to offer him. How do you tell somebody a few days after their wife's gone missing that she's probably gone for good?'

Speaking alongside her husband at the Oasis Fun Center, a miniature golf and go-cart business the family owns off Interstate 5, Tera's mom Marilyn, 56, said: 'Because of our experience we just thought Sherri was gone. When she wasn't back in 48 hours, we didn't have very much hope.

'Since our situation turned out so badly, I didn't think she would be back.

'So we were really surprised and grateful that she was found.'

Terry added: 'Yes we are thrilled and so happy for the Papini family, we don't want to detract from that at all.

'The fact that after the initial emotion and elation and happiness for her being found, we admit, we had those feelings of "too bad ours didn't turn out that way", but we're so grateful that Sherri's back.'

Despite the similarities in the two cases Terry says there is one major difference. 

'In many ways Tera's case and Sherri Papini's case are very similar, they are two, good looking blond girls, they were supposedly randomly picked up on the side of the road jogging,' he explained.

But the Smiths believe that their daughter was not randomly taken from the side of the road and their suspicions linger to this day.

There was a person in Tera's case who admitted that he picked her up and they arranged to meet.

Tera (pictured as a young girl) and Sherri attended Central Valley High School together in the 1990s and early 2000s

But unlike mom-of-two Sherri's miraculous return on Thanksgiving day,  no body or any trace of Tera was ever found

Police questioned Tera's martial arts instructor, Troy Zink but to no avail - he was never named as a suspect, arrested or charged 

Troy Zink was Tera's martial arts instructor.

From Tera's journal entries and letters found in her room after she disappeared, Smith has said he believed daughter asked Zink to meet her so she could end an affair with him.

Zink, a convicted rapist who later served a four-year prison sentence for possession of firearms, was never named a suspect by the Shasta County Sheriff's Office and was never arrested or charged in Tera's disappearance because of a lack of sufficient evidence.

He refused to be questioned by investigators after his initial interview with sheriff's deputies,

But media speculation in the years since Tera vanished has raised many questions about that night.

What Tera hadn't told her parents when she left home that Saturday night at 6pm was that she had called Zink, and asked him to meet her.

Friends later revealed the then-29-year-old married dad-of-two was romantically involved with 16-year-old Tera.

A search of the teen's bedroom uncovered letters and journal entries which corroborated this.

Final journal entries, it's claimed, detailed Tera's plans to end her relationship with Zink.

Tera's mom and dad turned all of the information over to the Shasta County Sheriff's Department and Zink was brought in for questioning – the only time investigators would ever get to interview him about the disappearance.

He denied any involvement and maintained that there was no inappropriate relationship between the two.

Zink, who is now 47, reportedly told authorities that Tera had called him that night at work and asked him to meet near her home.

He told sheriff's deputies that she asked him for a $2,000 loan without giving a reason what it was for.

When he refused, the teen became upset and asked for a ride to a nearby intersection. 

Sherri Graeff (now Papini) at right during her junior Year at Central Valley High School, in Shasta Lake in 2000

Sherri (third from right in white), pictured her junior year of high school, was in the same class as Tera's sister Kyra who was a year younger

Zink then claims he dropped her off before driving alone to Hang Glider Hill, a secluded area west of Shasta Dam, to pray for five hours.

He claimed he returned to his Redding home about 11.30pm.

Dad Terry doesn't believe that story.

'We know what happened,' he said, stating he believes Tera wanted to meet with Zink so she could end the affair with him.

So convinced of his involvement, the Smiths displayed a huge banner outside their business at the time which read: 'Zink Knows'. 

''If he's smart enough to keep his mouth shut for the rest of his life he may never do any time .'

'But we do believe in eternal justice and we know he'll get his own at some point.'  

DailyMail.com has discovered Zink has since changed his first name from Troy to Charles Zink, the same as his father and still lives locally.

He helps run the family gold and silver trading business in Redding called Chuck's Coins and lives with his wife in a smart $640,000 four-bedroom house in the town.

DailyMail.com left messages for Zink at his home and business but was unable to reach him for comment.

'It is heartbreaking and very frustrating,' said Terry. 'The guy still lives in Redding. Almost 20 years have passed and he has gotten more comfortable, changed his name and thinks that people have forgotten. We haven't forgotten.

'My wife's moved so far beyond it that she feels sorry for him. I'm not there.'

In the 18 years since their daughter disappeared, Terry and Marilyn's other three children, Trevor, Sierra and Kyra, have married and started families of their own.

And the happy memories of Tera still run deep.

Marilyn decribes her daughter as a 'free spirit', 'gifted athlete' and a 'special girl'.

Sherri (left, in 2000) and her husband, Keith (right, in 2000), both attended Central Valley High School. Kieth was a class year younger than Sherri

'Tera was like a throw back hippy, she loved all things hippy, tie-dye, candles, incense. She loved the earth, recycling and not wasting resources, animals and nature,' she said.

'In her freshman year she was homecoming princess and arm wrestling champion, she was just a great girl. We have happy memories.'

Marilyn admits the years have been tough, but slowly the family has come to accept she's gone.

'We're quietly going ahead with our lives,' she said. 'When it happened, even though we felt like she was gone, it was really hard not to have hope that she might come back.

'But after a few years we really accepted it. We are faithful people and we do believe God has a plan.

'Our faith sustained us and we had other kids to raise, we have accepted it and come to terms with it.'

Marilyn added that she hopes the Papinis can also get through their ordeal.

Sherri, Keith and their kids  have left their home in Redding, California and moved to an undisclosed location in the wake of her abduction

'Some things are worse than death and as happy as we are Sherri is reunited with her husband and her children, she's got a lot to overcome, a lot to deal with, a lot of healing to do and she will carry the scars of what happened. It's really kind of bitter sweet, but we're glad she's home,' she said. 

The Tera Smith case still haunts investigators at Shasta County Sheriff's Department.

Detectives still keep a smiling picture of the teen hanging on the wall of their office.

But while they might not have forgotten Tera, Sheriff Tom Bosenko tells DailyMail.com it is still a cold case, 'she has not been found.'

Sherri Papini and her family have left their home in Redding, California and moved to an undisclosed location in the wake of her abduction.

In an interview with ABC News Sherri Papini's husband revealed that it was too difficult for his wife to be at the home given what happened to her in the 22 days that she was held captive, and that he was not sure that they would ever return to the house. 

A friend of Keith's was spotted at the Papini's house on Saturday by the New York Post and said he was there to walk the family's two dogs while they were away.

'I don’t think they’re ever coming back here again,' said one neighbor.

Another neighbor meanwhile said that the couple and their two children were 'way up north' with 'wealthy relatives.'