The family of Taylor Casey, a 41-year-old Chicago woman missing in The Bahamas for the past two weeks, is urgently calling for more support from the U.S. government.
Casey was last seen on June 19 while attending the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Retreat yoga retreat on Paradise Island.
“A young lady called me and said, ‘Have you heard from Taylor?’ I was shocked because she was supposed to be at the yoga retreat. The caller then said Taylor hadn’t shown up for yoga classes,” Casey’s mother, Colette Seymore recounted according to ABC News.
Seymore traveled to the retreat last week, describing her visit as “deeply unsettling.” She said she had to beg to speak with students at the retreat and felt they “were told what to say and what not to say.”
Despite authorities claiming they have spoken to “a number of people” and deployed drones, divers, and a canine unit, Seymore said she saw no missing-person posters.
“I feel like the police did the bare minimum. Without U.S. Government support, we may never find out what happened to my Taylor,” Seymore said.
Police located Casey’s cellphone in the ocean last week, but the family says authorities refuse to turn it over.
Her family has started a Find Taylor Casey page on Facebook to share information and rally support in their efforts to find Casey. “We love Taylor, and Taylor needs to be back home with her family,” Seymore said. The family insists Casey would never just “take off” without informing them.
The police requested statements from people at the yoga retreat but have not disclosed whether any were interrogated or the number of statements collected.
Ram Soskin, the lead manager of the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Retreat, reported that an unidentified man with a walkie-talkie was seen on the platform where Casey’s tent was located the Monday before she disappeared.
A participant at the retreat told the Find Taylor Casey team that Casey was approached by a stranger while sitting alone at the beach the same day she was last seen. The man, “wearing a Celtics baseball cap and dressed in all black, claimed he was from Chicago and interested in taking a yoga class. He then followed her onto the property,” according to the website created to help find Taylor Casey.