It has been more than a month since much-loved teacher Sharon Edwards graced the halls of Coutts Crossing Public School.
While her students hold onto the hope the mother-of-three will turn up to school again one day, the police focus has shifted to treating the teacher's disappearance as a homicide.
Investigators, including forensic officers and the dog squad, returned to her home in Grafton on the NSW north coast on Monday with a crime scene warrant.
Police also went back to the nearby suburb of Lawrence, where Ms Edwards and her husband, John, still own their family home on Neill St.
It is understood Mr Edwards often stayed at their Lawrence property with police initially referring to him as an estranged husband.
At least two friends AAP spoke to say they were unaware of a relationship breakdown.
"She has always been very open and she never mentioned that to anyone," one friend said.
Ms Edwards was last seen on March 14, after she caught up with friends at the local Good Intent Hotel.
Detectives say she was last seen alive at her Grafton home that night and have traced her last known whereabouts to the Lawrence area in the early hours of March 15.
Son Eli Edwards said his father saw Ms Edwards early on Saturday night at their Grafton home.
He then went back to Lawrence and said he didn't see Ms Edwards there, Eli said.
When his father went to see her at the Grafton house on the Sunday morning, her car was there, but her phone and bag were gone.
The unexplained disappearance has rocked the tight-knit family who have likened the situation to "something out of a movie".
"That is the worst part - we don't know. We have no answers," Eli said.
Eli last heard from his mother on March 14 when he sent her photographs of his baby daughter, who Ms Edwards adored.
Mr Edwards appeared in Grafton Local Court on Monday on unrelated unregistered firearm possession charges.
Ms Edwards had taken on a new literacy and numeracy job this year at Coutts Crossing Public School and was working on Pinocchio the musical, friend Tracy Hunt told AAP.
"She is just great with all the kids and all the different ages, she is one of those teachers that always have time for them," Ms Hunt said.
"She was very well-loved ... she is very well-loved."
Ms Hunt said some students had been asking where Ms Edwards was.
"The worst part is there is nothing you can say, because no one knows anything," she said.
"You just have to hope she is going to turn up safe and sound."
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