Mom of missing Taylor Casey who vanished on yoga retreat hid daughter's trans identity over bias fears

In a harrowing update in the case of Taylor Casey, the American woman who went missing in the Bahamas while on a yoga retreat last month, her mother revealed that she hid her daughter's trans identity from the authorities, fearing that it could hinder the search for her.

Casey was last seen alive on June 19, and her mother and some close friends have reportedly been working nonstop to find her, but they haven't yet had much success. The group created a GoFundMe page for legal representation, has crafted lengthy news releases related to the Chicago woman's disappearance and has created several social media accounts dedicated to helping find Casey.

A post on Tuesday marked the first time anyone referenced Casey's trans identity. The family wrote on the @findtaylorcasey Instagram page, "Family and friends of Taylor Casey, a fixture of Chicago’s transgender community and a beloved youth advocate, are begging for community support in bringing her home after she vanished from a yoga retreat in the Bahamas."

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The message continues with information about the 41-year-old woman's disappearance, noting that she was last seen on the evening of June 19 at the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Retreat, located on Paradise Island in the Bahamas. She was reported missing the day after when she failed to appear for her yoga certification courses.

Promptly after her daughter was reported missing, Casey's mother, Colette Seymore, ventured to Paradise Island to help with the search. But the press release states, "A search of the area and conversations with the Bahamian authorities left Ms. Colette Seymore with more questions than answers."

According to the release, which was dated July 9, Seymore said, "My child has been missing for almost 3 weeks. My family, friends, and I are distraught! I am pleading with everyone to call your elected officials and demand the FBI lead this investigation and bring her home safe and sound."

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The mother later told NBC News the reason she decided against disclosing her daughter's gender identity to the public was that she believed "the focus was going to be taken off of finding" her daughter. "They were going to put the focus on, 'Oh, Taylor's transgender,' which should not be the focus at all," the mother said of the media. "It should be the focus is finding Taylor, an American, human being citizen that's missing in the Bahamas."

The 69-year-old added that she didn't feel that sharing her daughter's gender identity was necessary as her friends and family said, according to NBC News, that sharing it could have hindered the search for Casey. In fact, they said that if Casey had been white and cisgender, she would have been found by now.

Seymore added, "Without a doubt. Without a doubt. There would have been way more efforts. The investigation would have been done properly, the way it should have been done." The mother and a close friend, Emily Williams, said the Bahamian authorities have been aware of Casey's gender identity, but NBC News reported that the authorities have not discovered any evidence of foul play in the missing persons case.

Both said they were essentially stonewalled when they ventured down to the Caribbean island country, told little information about the search for Casey as the police told them her phone had been found in the ocean near the resort but that her passport had not been found.

The ashram where the retreat was held is located adjacent to the Atlantis resort, and it has been featured in The New York Times, The Huffington Post and Gwyneth Paltrow's Goop as a top travel destination. It had attracted Casey because of the caliber of its yoga instructor program, with Casey having been an avid yogi for 15 years before the trip, her friends and family told NBC News.

The friends and family accused the authorities and the resort of giving them information that contradicts what officials had previously told the media as they said the police didn't even put up missing persons posters near the ashram despite posting them online.

The Paradise Island police and the country's Marine Support Services team were both "immediately" mobilized to aid in the search on land and sea, however, the organizations said.

Then, Seymore and Casey's friends discovered that the Royal Bahamas Police Force had placed its chief superintendent, Michael Johnson, on what they call "garden leave," or administrative leave that bars him from working but keeps him on the payroll while an investigation into his conduct occurs.

He was reportedly put on garden leave after it was discovered that he had taken bribes from several individuals and subsequently dropped criminal investigations. Williams, Casey's friend, said, "It makes so much more sense now to know that that person is now suspended because of corruption and taking bribes. That certainly lines up with our impression of how things were not right when we were there."

In a press release, however, the RBPF wrote, "This is a matter of priority for the Royal Bahamas Police Force, and we will continue to work arduously, doing all we can to locate Taylor and ensure her safe return to her family. Additionally, the police will diligently seek to determine what happened to Taylor, and in the process, all relevant stakeholders will be updated in a timely manner."

Casey's family and friends also told NBC News the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Retreat Bahamas staff was giving them conflicting accounts of when Casey was last seen alive and that they deterred them from asking questions of the other guests. Williams said, "They struggled to keep a cohesive, linear narrative about the details of what happened."

A spokesperson for the retreat, Jonathan Goldbloom, said in a statement, however, that the ashram appreciates "the stress that the family is feeling" but pushed back against the accusation that the retreat's staff was giving conflicting information.

"We determined Taylor was missing on June 20th and advised the police that evening. The night before was the last time she was seen," Goldbloom wrote. "We advised staff and guests on the 20th as well and have continued to keep them informed. We have also urged people to come forward if they have information. We are collaborating with police and sharing all we know." He added that the police allegedly told resort staff and the family that it appeared as though Casey left the resort willingly.

Seymore said she had spoken to her daughter regularly while she was at the resort, calling her frequently since Casey arrived on June 3. The day the woman was last seen, however, she said Casey sounded a little off, telling NBC News, "Taylor told me, 'Ma, this is hard.' And when Taylor told me that, I just felt something, because Taylor is not a quitter, and Taylor loves yoga and really wanted to do that. I just had this eerie feeling."

After speaking with other resort guests, both Seymore and Williams said they were told that Casey had been "isolated" and "not integrated well into the program." She was the only Black person and the only trans individual of four participants, Williams told NBC News. "Our best guess is that if things were difficult that those dynamics contributed heavily to the difficulty that Taylor expressed."

Seymore told the publication that she's been in contact with the U.S. Embassy in the Bahamas and staffers from the offices of Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth of Illinois as she works to implore them to involve the FBI or other American authorities to help search for her daughter. But she hasn't been successful in that endeavor yet.

A press conference was planned in Chicago on Thursday morning in honor of what would have been Casey's 42nd birthday. The press release added, "Taylor’s disappearance has sent shockwaves through Chicago’s LGBTQ+ community. Taylor’s family and friends are pleading for elected officials, LGBTQ+ leaders and media to elevate her story and pressure elected officials to leverage the federal resources needed to investigate her disappearance."

Taylor's close friend, Jackie Boyd, said, according to the Tuesday release, "Too often our Black trans and gender-expansive siblings go missing with little to no attention in the media or investigation by the authorities. We are extremely concerned for Taylor’s safety and need your support in keeping the pressure on American and Bahamian authorities."

The release concluded, "As violence against transgender people spikes globally, it is imperative that Chicago Mayor Johnson, Governor Pritzker, Lt. Governor Stratton, Senator Durbin, Senator Duckworth, and the FBI mobilize to find her. Transgender people of color are particularly vulnerable to violence in the U.S. and abroad. This year alone, the Human Rights Campaign has reported that 73 percent of transgender homicides victims are people of color. Taylor has worked her whole life to interrupt these cycles of violence facing queer youth. Now, we seek to do the same for her."

According to Transgender Europe, an LGBTQ+ advocacy organization, there were 321 murders involving trans or gender-nonconforming individuals between Oct. 1, 2022, and Sept. 30, 2023. Around 74% occurred in Latin America and the Caribbean, it was revealed, with 91% of the murder victims being women or female-presenting like Casey. The majority were also people of color.

In the Bahamas, consensual same-sex sexual activity is partially banned, according to Human Dignity Trust. And now, Casey's family is worried for her as they desperately seek answers and hope to get to the bottom of what happened to her — which hopefully means finding her alive and well and bringing her home.