BOONEVILLE (KFSM) - Francis Buffington said she was was just eight years old when her father Timothy shot and killed her mother Rhonda Combs in 1998.
"This is my mother Rhonda and this is my father Timothy," Francis Buffington said while pointing at a photograph. "She was 23 and dad shot her. It made me smarter, tougher. You learn a lot more about the world. I wouldn't be who am I today without it."
Buffington escaped from prison in Pine Bluff 16 years later, on June 21, armed with a shotgun. Authorities said he was a trustee doing yard work, serving a 20-year sentence with four years left.
Combs was buried in Booneville. Her daughter said what makes Buffington’s escape so difficult to understand is that he was well on his way to finishing his sentence.
"Why else would you run away and lose everything that you've been working for for 16 years? To get to come home to your kids, because he told me himself on his visitations that all he cared about was coming home to his kids," Francis said.
Buffington said deputies have been patrolling her area but hasn't seen her father once.
5NEWS asked if Buffington thought her father is alive.
“Not having any sightings of him. Honestly no ever it's been a month," she said.
Buffington isn't giving up that she will again see the man who killed her mother soon.
"Just hoping they find him safely,” she said.
A representative with the Arkansas Department of Correction said the search for Buffington is ongoing.
Authorities are asking anyone who has seen him to call their local police department.