Kersh was last seen in Homewood, Alabama on November 3, 2008. She left her cashier job at the Tria Market at 1:00 p.m. to pick up her one-year-old son at his day care, but never arrived and has never been heard from again. The day after her disappearance, Kersh’s vehicle was found abandoned in an alley in Birmingham, Alabama. Three days later, her purse was found under an overpass on railroad tracks, about 100 yards from where her car had been. In May 2010, Joacquas Haywood was charged with capital murder in her case. He had dated Kersh, and authorities stated he'd been a person of interest from the onset of the investigation. Investigators and prosecutors alleged he was attempting to burglarize Kersh’s home when she interrupted him. In 2011, the case against Haywood was dropped because a judge ruled the prosecution hadn't given him his constitutional right to a speedy trial and two pieces of evidence hadn't been tested for DNA. By then, Haywood had spent 15 months in custody. Authorities stated they would refile the murder charges against him if more evidence resurfaced.