QUENTIN ROUX / Staff

A tribute to Terri Sue Metts honors the football-loving woman at the entrance to her former place of work at Publix in Marco Island's Town Center.

QUENTIN ROUX / Staff

A close-up of Terri Sue Metts.

STORY TOOLS

• E-mail story
• iPod friendly
• Printer friendly

Tell us about it

• What would you add to this story? Tell us what we missed.
• Do you have photos from this event? Documents we need to see? Share with us.
• Upload photos & videos
• More ways to get your stuff online and in the paper.

RELATED STORIES

• Marco police identify body found in Factory Bay

More Local News

• Island business reaches agreement with school board over development of Tract K
• Quotes from Marco City Council's review of City Manager
• POLL: Marco Island to keep City Manager Steve Thompson

Share and Enjoy [?]

Marco resident Martha Mulvey was shocked when she finally put a face to the name of Terri Sue Metts, the 53-year-old Marco woman found dead July 13 in the waters of Factory Bay.

Metts had worked for Publix at the Marco Town Center, and had recently moved to Anglers Cove on the island from a trailer park on Port Au Prince Road off Collier Boulevard.

“Everybody was talking about her,” Mulvey said, “but you don’t really know these people by name. So, I went into the store where I saw her picture, and then I recognized her.

“She was at the desk most of the time, and was a very pleasant lady,” Mulvey said.

Red Stier has been a friend of the Metts family since the 1960s, including Terri Sue and her dad Ronnie.

Metts, he said, had baby-sat his son Steve when she was in her mid teens.

“She was a sweet and pleasant gal,” Stier said.

She had had some ups and downs in her life, he said, but felt it would be inappropriate to elaborate at this time.

“Our families used to go out to Alligator Alley to fish,” Stier said. “This was when the kids were small. We would cook the fish right out there on a Coleman stove.”

Stier said Metts had been delighted to move to Marco just a short time before her death.

“She was thrilled because she didn’t have to drive so far any more,” Stier said.

Stier said news of Metts’s death was obviously a shock for the Stier family.

“I called Ronnie afterwards,” Stier said.

On July 13, authorities responded to a report of a body in the water near Angler’s Cove Condominiums just after 9 a.m.

According to employees at the Angler’s Cove Tiki Bar and Cafe, the body was found by a boater who came into the Tiki Bar on Sunday morning to call 911.

Autopsy details have not yet been released.

Editor’s note: Publix corporate policy does not permit interviews with associates.