Family shares new concerns about search efforts for Taylor Casey, Chicago woman missing in Bahamas

The family of a Chicago woman missing in the Bahamas is pleading for more support from the American government.

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Taylor Casey, 41, was last seen June 19 at a yoga retreat on Paradise Island.

"A young lady called me and said, have you heard from Taylor? And I'm like, I'm looking at the phone because I know this. She was from the yoga retreat," Taylor's mother Colette Seymore said. "Then she said Taylor hasn't showed up for yoga classes."

Casey's mother traveled to the retreat last week, but said her visit was "deeply unsettling."

She had to beg to talk to students at the retreat, and said it felt like the students "were told what to say and what not to say."

Her mother said she did not see any missing-person posters.

Despite authorities saying they've spoken to "a number of people," and deployed drones, divers, and a canine unit, the mother said it feels like the bare minimum.

"Without U.S. government support, we may never find out what happened to my Taylor."

Police found Casey's cellphone in the ocean last week, but the family said authorities refuse to turn over the phone.

READ ALSO | Chicago woman's cellphone found 1 week after she went missing on Paradise Island in Bahamas

"We love Taylor and Taylor needs to be back home with Taylor's family," her mother said.

The family said Taylor would never just "take off" without telling them.

The police requested people at the yoga retreat for statements regarding Taylor but would not specify whether any were interrogated.

The police reportedly refused to inform the family's team how many statements they had collected and the names of those participants.

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

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One of the retreat's participants who the Find Taylor Casey team spoke to said that Casey was approached while sitting alone at the beach by a stranger the same day she was last seen.

The man was wearing a Celtics baseball cap and dressed in all black. He claimed he was from Chicago and was interested in taking a yoga class. He proceeded to follow her onto the property, according to the website created to help find Taylor Casey.