A Day Later, Menifee Market Goes On -- With a Vote of Thanks

Other than a large memorial set up in front of the store, it was business as usual at Menifee Market on Thursday.

"Today is actually a normal day," said Dallal Harb, standing in front of Menifee Market late Thursday afternoon.

It might have seemed that way to Harb, whose husband Taiseer has owned the small neighborhood market at 26035 Scott Road for 17 years. Yet it's quite possible that Menifee Market will never really be the same.

Set well back from the street at the top of an incline, the market occupies a site local historians say was the "business hub" of the small farming community in the early days. The original market is gone, the "new" market run out of what used to be a private residence. A feed store is adjacent to the market parking lot in a rural neighborhood where one walks dirt roads and hears the bleating of goats.

A steady stream of customers pulls up for supplies, to fill propane tanks, or simply to say hello. The Harbs know most of them by name. At least they did until this week.

From early Monday morning until Wednesday afternoon, Menifee Market became the center of activity -- if not the heartbeat -- of Menifee (left). Given permission by the Harbs, a citizens volunteer group set up tables, brought in stacks of supplies, and soon filled the parking lot with people asking to join the search for missing 11-year-old Terry Smith Jr.

Dallal Harb doesn't say much about it, but an employee said the owners lost more than three-quarters of their business for three straight days while Menifee Market became the volunteer command center. A small volunteer effort grew into a massive, organized search, with residents mapping out search areas, registering volunteers, gathering food and supplies, even bringing in porta-potties. Even after a body presumed to be Terry's was discovered on Wednesday, about 1,500 people packed the parking lot for a prayer vigil.

All the while, Dallal and Taiseer Harb stood by, supporting the workers, lending a hand where needed and trying their best to keep the market running.

"Today, all the regular customers came back," Dallal Harb said, glancing out at a slow but steady stream of customers in a parking lot virtually empty except for an ever-growing shrine of flowers and candles set out in honor of Terry. "They said the only reason they didn't come the last few days is they couldn't pull up to the store. Delivery trucks had to park down the street and call us."

Even so, Harb was glad to make her business available in the search for a young boy who attended Herk Bouris Elementary School with her own son. Often, she would give Terry a ride home from school and watch as he walked around the corner to his home behind the store -- the place a body matching his description was found on Wednesday.

It was Dallal Harb who first made up fliers after she came back to the store from a neighbor's home Sunday night and learned of Terry's disappearance. She walked to the end of the driveway and handed them out to passing motorists. Later, a resident asked if a table could be set up in front of the store the next morning as a search party was organized.

"I said sure, but I didn't know what one table would turn into," she said with a smile.

As she spoke with a reporter on Thursday, people continued to come and pay their respects by dropping off flowers, stuffed animals and candles. Most also came inside the store -- either to buy something or simply to say thanks.

"He was the sweetest boy," Harb said. "I would bring him home from school and tell him he could go in and grab a bag of chips and a drink. He would always wait at the door until I told the cashier it was OK for him to leave with it."

Then Terry Smith would cut across the parking lot, past the feed store, and head around the corner -- a trip Dallal Harb will never again see him take.

"He didn't deserve any of this," she said.

Dallar Harb (left) and store employee Heather Blume attend to the memorial to Terry Smith Jr. set up by area residents.