CMPD won’t search landfill for missing Belmont man; family not giving up

BELMONT, N.C. — The mother of missing Belmont man Andy Tench said she won’t stop pushing to find him even after the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department announced on Monday it won’t search a landfill where family members believe his body may be.

A suspect told police that Tench died, and he put the body in a dumpster in Charlotte.

Tracie Blanton has accepted that her son who has been missing since March is probably not alive.

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However, that hasn’t impacted her will to find him.

“Ten years from now, if Andy’s not been recovered, I will still be pushing this same issue,” Blanton said. “We’re not going to stop.”

She said that despite a crushing update from CMPD.

Police officials said they won’t be searching where she thinks her son’s body is located and added the case is still active.

“They don’t care and to me, it’s saying, ‘Oh, that will cost money, and we don’t know for sure that he’s there,’” Blanton said.

Tench was last seen leaving his Belmont home on March 24 and going to celebrate his birthday in Charlotte.

“I very much believe that somebody gave Andy some drugs, put it in his drink or something, and it killed him, and I believe he was thrown in that dumpster,” his mother said.

D’Shaun Robinson, 31, was charged in connection with Tench’s disappearance. He was charged with concealment of a death and identity theft.

Blanton said she won’t stop her search.

“Got in touch with the truck that picked it up and narrowed it down to one area in the landfill of where that truck dumped,” she told Channel 9′s Jonathan Lowe.

Earlier, Lowe was in Chopper 9 over the landfill near Polkton.

“CMPD said detectives consulted with experts familiar with the landfill’s operations and size before determining there wasn’t enough evidence to justify excavating the landfill,” Lowe reported from Chopper 9.

Blanton said she isn’t asking for a search of the entire landfill.

“The manager said he’s in a 150-foot-by-200-foot area, and he’s about 20 feet down and he can be recovered,” she told Lowe.

Meanwhile, CMPD said Tench is still an open missing person case.

“I don’t care about that,” his mother said. “I want my son home.”

VIDEO: ‘Bring him home’: Family unable to rest until Belmont man’s body returns home

‘Bring him home’: Family unable to rest until Belmont man’s body returns home

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