Courtesy: Casey Family/Facebook.com
The family of Taylor Casey, a 41-year-old Chicago woman who has been missing in the Bahamas for the past two weeks, is urgently pleading with the U.S. government for more help.
Casey was last seen attending a yoga retreat at the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Retreat on Paradise Island on June 19.
“A young woman called me and said, ‘Have you heard from Taylor?’ I was shocked because she was supposed to be at a yoga retreat. The woman who called said Taylor didn’t show up to her yoga class,” Casey’s mother, Collette Seymour, told ABC News.
Seymour visited the retreat last week and described her visit as “very unsettling.” She said she had to beg to speak to students at the retreat and felt “instructed on what to say and what not to say.”
Authorities claim they have spoken to “numerous people” and deployed drones, divers and dog units, but Seymour said she hadn’t seen any missing person posters.
“I feel the police did the bare minimum. Without the assistance of the U.S. government, we may never know what happened to Taylor,” Seymour said.
Police found Casey’s cell phone in the water last week, but his family says authorities are refusing to hand it over.
Her family has set up a “Find Taylor Casey” Facebook page to share information and gather support in the search for Casey. “We love Taylor and she needs to come home to her family,” Seymour said. The family insists Casey would never “run off” without letting them know.
Police have asked yoga retreat participants for statements but have not said whether they have been questioned or how many statements have been collected.
Ram Soskin, lead manager of the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Retreat, reported that an unidentified man carrying a walkie-talkie was seen on the platform where Casey’s tent was located on the Monday before she disappeared.
Retreat attendees told the Taylor Casey Search Team that on the day Casey was last seen, she was sitting alone on the beach when she was approached by a stranger. According to a website created to help with the Taylor Casey search, the man “was wearing all black, a Celtics baseball cap, said he was from Chicago and wanted to attend a yoga class, then followed her onto the property.”
