Taylor Casey missing: Family appeals to FBI to help find Chicago woman missing in Bahamas

CHICAGO — Family of Chicago woman missing in Bahamas calls for more support from U.S. government

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It's been almost two weeks since anyone has seen or heard from 41-year-old Taylor Casey.

“If Taylor was okay, I would have gotten a call by now. I would have gotten a call from Taylor by now, and that's why I feel like Taylor's not okay,” Taylor's mother, Colette Seymore, said.

Casey was last seen on June 19 at a yoga retreat on Paradise Island.

“A young lady called me and said, ‘Have you heard from Taylor?’ I said, ‘I’m looking at the phone, because I know that. She was coming from the yoga retreat,’” Seymore said. “Then she told me Taylor didn’t show up for yoga class.”

Casey's mother visited the retreat last week but said her visit was “deeply disturbing.”

“I felt like they didn't care. They didn't care at all,” Seymore said.

Emily Williams, one of Casey's friends, traveled with Seymore to the yoga retreat on Paradise Island where Casey was last seen, hoping to get answers.

“It was a really tough moment. It was really maddening. We couldn’t accept that, we couldn’t accept that,” Williams said. “It’s not the kind of situation that anybody wants to be in and we came in knowing that we had to defend Taylor and find out what happened.”

Seymore said she had to beg to speak to students at the retreat and felt like “students were being told what to say and what not to say.”

His mother said she had not seen any missing person posters.

“They have a missing persons wall, why isn't Taylor on it?” Seymore asked.

Although authorities say they have spoken to “a number of people” and deployed drones, divers and a canine unit, the mother said it seemed like the bare minimum.

They are now calling on the FBI to intervene, saying that without their support they may never know what happened to him.

“Without the support of the U.S. government, we may never know what happened to my Taylor,” Seymore said. “As any mother knows, she’s your child. She’s my daughter. She’s my daughter and I love her, I want to see her again. I feel like this never should have happened.”

Police found Casey's cellphone in the ocean last week, but the family said authorities refused to release the phone.

ALSO READ | Chicago woman's cell phone found a week after she disappeared from Paradise Island in the Bahamas

“We love Taylor and Taylor needs to come home to her family,” her mother said.

The family said Taylor would never “leave” without telling them.

Police asked people at the yoga retreat to provide statements about Taylor, but would not say whether any of them had been questioned.

The police reportedly refused to inform the family team of the number of statements taken and the names of the participants.

According to Ram Soskin, the senior director of the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Retreat, on the Monday before Casey disappeared, an unidentified man with a walkie-talkie was seen walking on the same platform where Taylor's tent was located.

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One of the retreat attendees the Find Taylor Casey team spoke to said Casey was approached while sitting alone on the beach by a stranger the same day she was last seen.

The man was wearing a Celtics baseball cap and dressed all in black. He said he was from Chicago and wanted to take a yoga class. He then followed the woman to the property, according to the website set up to help find Taylor Casey. A donation page has been set up here.

Instagram account dedicated to the search for Casey: @findtaylorcasey

Facebook account dedicated to the search for Casey: Find Taylor Casey

ABC7 Chicago contributed to this report.