Cellphone of missing Chicago woman found in Bahamas as her mother asks U.S. for help

July 2 (UPI) -- The cellphone of Taylor Casey has been located in the Bahamas, authorities said Tuesday as the mother of the missing 41-year-old Chicago woman calls on the United States to take over the investigation.

Casey was on the Caribbean island to attend a yoga certification program and was reported missing the night of June 20 by the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Retreat after she failed to show up for class. She was last seen at the Paradise Island yoga school the night before.

The Royal Bahamas Police Force has launched a search for the missing woman, and on Tuesday said her cellphone was retrieved from waters nearby.

Her journal has also be discovered as well as other personal effects, the police agency said, adding her U.S. passport was still missing.

"This is a matter of priority for the Royal Bahamas Police Force, and we will continue to work arduously, doing all we can to located Taylor and ensure her safe return to her family," the Royal Bahamas Police Force said in a statement .

"The police will diligently seek to determine what happened to Taylor, and in the process."

Casey's mother, Collette Seymore, has recently returned to the United States following three days in the Bahamas, and she is calling on the U.S. government for assistance.

She and her team released a statement Monday criticizing the Bahamas authorities over their handling of the investigation as well as the yoga retreat, which Seymore described as "cultish" and uncooperative.

She said Casey's phone was located in the ocean with assistance from her niece who alerted authorities to the location where it last pinged. They now claim the police are refusing to give her the phone.

"I believe that phone may have information we need on there," she said.

UPI has contacted the Royal Bahamas Police Force for comment.

She added that there were no missing person posters of Casey at the retreat or the surrounding areas. It was even absent from the police station's bulletin board, she said, with her team providing images of it adorned with a half dozen other missing person's posters in confirmation.

Her team also accused the police of having a security company review CCTV footage instead of investigators and of having ashram guests submit written statements concerning Casey, instead of undergoing interviews.

"I feel uneasy about the investigation," Seymore said. "I'm not satisfied with it. I feel like the police did the bare minimum, and I need them to act like it's their child missing!"

They are now calling on the U.S. State Department to send the FBI to take over the investigation.

"I had to return home without her. This is every mother's worst nightmare," she said in a statement . "I felt an urgent need to return because without U.S. government support, we may never find out what happened to my Taylor."