Taylor Casey’s loved ones are keeping hope alive a month after the Chicago woman disappeared in the Bahamas
(CNN) — It’s been a month since anyone reported seeing Taylor Casey.
She was last spotted near Paradise Island in the Bahamas on June 19. Still, her loved ones are making sure she is being seen – by publicly campaigning for her safe return.
Chicagoan Casey is described by friends and family as someone who defies “boundaries and definitions,” and a person “everyone notices when she enters a room.”
When members of her community gathered July 11 to mark Casey’s 42nd birthday, plead with Bahamian police to keep searching for her and ask federal agencies to provide assistance, the event included balloons, snacks, games and bubbles.
One reason support for finding Casey has been so monumental is that she is an “amazing, amazing friend,” said Jacqueline Boyd, Casey’s close friend and “chosen family” member for 17 years.
“Anybody that has been in a room with her is really, really devastated right now, personally impacted and motivated to action,” Boyd told CNN.
“And it is fully a reflection of how Taylor shows up for us.”
Casey is an artist, a hairstylist, an Air Force veteran, a community worker and a woman of faith, Boyd said.
She was born in south suburban Harvey, Illinois, and most recently lived in Rogers Park in Chicago.
Casey had worked at the Chicago Freedom School as a program manager developing youth programs and had done some work with Howard Brown Health in HIV testing and prevention, her close friend Emily Williams told CNN.
“Taylor’s favorite things are flowers and gardens and just peace,” said her mother, Colette Seymore. “Taylor is a very gentle spirit. Taylor just loves people, loves to help people, cares about people, cares about justice (and) fairness.”
“Love is an action,” Seymore said. “It’s not just a word … and Taylor was good for that (and) showing you that she loved you.”
Seymore told CNN she and Casey have outings together to carnivals and restaurants and go on nature walks.
She recounts a time she didn’t know Casey had stopped by her house until Seymore got a call.
“She called me and said, ‘Mom, look outside your door.’ And I looked outside my door, and it was one little flower,” Seymore said. “Taylor had come and planted a flower on the side of my side door.”
Casey was getting a yoga instructor certification at Sivananda Ashram Yoga when she went missing. She was last seen at the ashram and was reported missing when she didn’t show up for morning classes on June 20.
Nature, especially the beach, was Casey’s “place of peace,” and why her circle was so excited to see her go to the ashram, said Williams. “Taylor had been looking forward to it for a long time, and it seemed really idyllic.”
Williams said she wishes “we could have been there to protect Taylor.”
Police found her phone in the water near a boating dock on June 24, but have been unable to access its contents, authorities said. Investigators in the Bahamas asked American authorities for help unlocking the phone, but they also had no luck, Police Commissioner Clayton Fernander said at a news conference.
It’s unclear where the Royal Bahamas Police Force investigation stands. CNN has reached out to the Bahamian police for comment and has received no response. According to Seymore and Williams, they have received minimal updates from authorities. However, they thanked the staff for US senators from Illinois for keeping in contact with them.
Casey’s family were told to expect an update last week from the Bahamian authorities but have not heard back, according to Williams and Seymore.
A July 14 statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on behalf of the Consul General of the Bahamas notes the Royal Bahamas Police Force is cooperating with the family and conducting a full and thorough investigation, which remains open.
“We want to receive these updates about the full investigation that they’re doing and the thorough work that (they’re) doing. We want to hear that. The fact of the matter is that we haven’t heard that from them. So, I think that that’s telling,” Williams told CNN.
“This, for us, is about finding Taylor. It’s not about anything else,” she continued. “Everything that we have talked about (and) everything that we have shared has been with the intention of finding Taylor.”
A complex identity
Casey is described as a “fixture of Chicago’s transgender community,” in a news release shared July 10 on a social media account dedicated to finding her.
“Taylor’s disappearance has sent shockwaves through Chicago’s LGBTQ+ community,” the release read.
The first week or so after Casey’s disappearance, Boyd said, was filled with “confusion and shock.” Yet, the first order of business was to make sure there was a thorough investigation.
Casey’s loved ones chose to wait until widely sharing Casey’s gender identity in connection with her case.
Amid the devastation and initial communication with authorities, Boyd said family and friends asked themselves: “How can we talk about the person we love so much whose gender is more complex than most people can understand – and do that lovingly?”
They decided that during “shock and grief (was) not the time,” Boyd said.
“I can’t even express to folks who are not part of the community how frequently we lose our women (and) how frequently our Black trans women are just gone, usually due to some form of violence or something really, really unfortunate happening,” Boyd told CNN.
“You’re really hoping against hope that there’s some other reason why this person’s gone. So, protecting her privacy (and) protecting her ability to speak for herself about her own gender – that she never wanted on a national stage – for me, that was top priority.”
Boyd said Casey’s gender is more to her than just that of a transgender woman, adding how others understand their own gender is “deeply personal.”
“While Taylor is a Black trans woman, there are worlds within that that are not a neat compartmentalization,” Boyd said, explaining that Casey’s views are more “gender expansive.”
Many close to Casey believe her gender identity has impacted the investigation.
For a missing young White woman, Williams says, there is much media coverage and resources. “Taylor is just as deserving (of that),” she told CNN.
Casey is ‘not a person that just gives up’
Apart from Casey’s return, Boyd hopes the ongoing investigation will lead to getting involvement and assistance from federal authorities. That way family and friends “can know every stone has been turned over,” she said.
The US State Department is aware of reports of a missing US citizen in the Bahamas, a spokesperson told CNN but declined to comment on Casey’s case specifically.
When a US citizen is missing, the department works with local authorities and communicates with families openly, the spokesperson said.
When asked for comment, the FBI referred CNN to the Royal Bahamas Police Force.
For Seymore, every day gets harder. “When somebody dies, the longer it is (and) as time goes by, it gets easier. Not really easier, but it gets easier,” she said. “But this is not getting easier for me … I wake up every morning just so sad.”
She does have hope and believes Casey is alive, added Seymore. It also puts “a smile on (her) face” when she thinks of all the community work her daughter has done.
“I hope that people take this opportunity to have a different conversation about how we see each other and understand each other’s identities,” Boyd said. “That’s my other hope; that Taylor is honored from a place of letting people be curious, nuanced and open to seeing people as a whole person, not just one identity.”
Williams takes solace in the fact that Casey is “strong” mentally and physically. “I believe that it’s those things that are keeping her alive and that would give us the best chance of finding her and bringing her home,” she said.
“Taylor doesn’t give up. Taylor is not a person that just gives up,” Seymore told CNN.
Seymore also hopes to get the financial resources to hire a lawyer and a private investigator since “the people over in the Bahamas are not doing all that they can to find my child, so we need help.”
“Taylor is somebody who we all keep looking for … this is not going to drop. Chicago is a city of workers and organizers, and we are ready to do absolutely everything we can to find her, and she deserves that. She deserves that from our country,” Boyd said.
CNN’s Sara Smart and Christina Zdanowicz contributed to this report.
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