A black transwoman disappeared in Bahamas last year. Her loved ones in Chicago still have ‘no answers’

Colette Slowe described himself as a happy person.

Now she is ‘miserable’, wait every day for news about her daughter, Taylor Casey, a black transwoman who disappeared during a yoga retreat in the Bahamas last June.

Without updates in six months, Slowe now fears that her daughter was killed in a hate crime.

“I don’t believe she just passed, you know, passing is something you do in your sleep,” Slowwe said the Chicago Sun-Times. “I believe it was danger, somewhat misconduct.”

Casey was last seen at Sivananda Ashram Yoga Retreat on Paradise Island, Nassau. Although there are no reports of cheating, identity should not be ignored in the case, said her “chosen family” member Jacqueline Boyd.

“In the absence of factual facts, I think context matters,” Boyd said.

Casey was the only black or transgender person at the yoga retreat, and Slowe said Casey felt isolated before she was missing. The day before she disappeared, Slowe remembered that she described her experience as ‘hard’.

“I didn’t accept it as if it was the yoga that was difficult,” said Slowe. “It was something else to deal with those people, that was difficult.”

Casey loved home music and dancing and was deeply involved in queer activism. She argued for homeless LGBTQ+ young people and planned most of her family reunions and holidays. But above all, Casey accepted and loved everyone, Boyd said.

“After she was missing, so many people from communities, so many of the young people she had helped, everyone said,” I could be myself at Taylor, “said Boyd.” She just made this space by Who you were was great and you should be exactly who you are. ‘

In the past year, her family and friends were left with questions about Casey’s Disparance. But police officers have had no answers, said Slowwe and Boyd.

“It’s as if you have all this mystery and no answers, literally no answers,” Boyd said. “There is no direction.”

Slowweer called the Royal Bahamas Police Force “casual” and “non-knowledge” about the case of Casey.

The police of Royal Bahamas, the FBI and the American embassy in the Bahamas have not responded to requests for comments and a status update about the case.

Casey’s phone was found in the Atlantic Ocean a few weeks after her disappearance. Slowe said that the police promised to bring it back to her in November, but she still doesn’t have it.

Slowwe and another friend of Casey’s visited the Bahamas shortly after her disappearance, and Casey’s family and friends continue to look for her from Chicago.

Casey’s family launched a website to draw attention to her disappearance and has collected more than $ 50,000 in donations to continue the search. They have already paid for lawyers and private researchers to accept the case, Boyd said.

“This is very unique, it is not cut and dry,” Boyd said. “And sufficient resources are appreciated in this way.”