Taylor Casey update: Exclusive interview with missing woman's mom, friends (2024)

Colette Seymore recalls answering the phone around 1 p.m. on June 20.

It was a phone call that would change her life.

The person on the other end identified themselves as someone from the yoga retreat Seymore's daughter was attending.

She asked the mother if she had heard from her daughter, Taylor Casey.

"Excuse me, this is the yoga retreat where my child is, and you're calling me and asking me?" Seymore said in an interview with Newsweek. "And she said, 'yeah, well Taylor missed a few classes, and we haven't seen Taylor.' And I said, 'that's not like Taylor to miss a yoga class.'"

She said her heart started beating faster as the conversation went on.

"My reaction was being upset and start praying to God, Lord please don't let [anything] happen to my child," Seymore said.

Casey was last seen on June 19 in the Bahamas. She was attending Sivananda Ashram Yoga Retreat and studying to get her yoga teaching certification. The Chicago resident had been practicing yoga for over 15 years.

Emily Williams, a friend of Casey, explained why this training was so important to Casey.

"Attending the teacher training at the Ashram in the Bahamas combined two long time goals for Taylor," Williams said told Newsweek. "One, become a yoga instructor to bring those teachings back to her multiple communities here in Chicago and sharing the healing and wellness aspects of yoga. And then also, traveling. Taylor loves the beach, loves the outdoors."

Seymore said her daughter also sees yoga as a way to deepen her faith.

"Taylor wants to teach people because yoga is spiritual," Seymore said. "Taylor loves God and likes to draw near to God. And Taylor is very spiritual."

Vic Motherwood, another friend of Casey, highlighted how multi-faceted Casey's personality is.

"I've known Taylor for almost 20 years," Motherwood said to Newsweek. "She is, without question, one of the most brilliant, funny, kind, loving people I ever met. She's someone who has a ton of creative passions, but is also a super deep thinker and I would say, in some ways, a real intellectual."

In addition to practicing yoga, Casey was a stylist in several prominent hair studios and was an active member of the community.

"Outside of being an incredible community advocate and mentor and leader, she also has done all of those creative things, as well as being someone who's got incredible style, amazing taste in music, a great lover of arts," Motherwood said.

Seymore said she calls Casey her "flower child."

"She loves flowers, she loves people, she loves helping people and she just stands for what's right, for justice, people being treated fairly," Seymore said.

Williams spoke about one of her favorite memories of Casey. Williams was attending her cousin's wedding and she brought Casey as her guest.

"Taylor was absolutely the best plus one that I could have ever asked for," Williams said.

She explained how the trip cemented their friendship.

"That was when I realized that Taylor is not just my friend, Taylor is a family member," Williams said. "And that is one thing I think about a lot, especially now that Taylor has been missing, is that we spent those four days together."

'Spring Into Action'

Williams said she found out about Casey's disappearance when a mutual friend shared the missing persons flyer on social media.

"I was in complete shock and disbelief," Williams said.

She called Seymore, then started coming up with a plan to organize around finding Casey.

"I spring into action after that," Williams said. "It was like, what do we need to do? We have to get down there. We have to get information. We have to make sure that everything possible is happening to find Taylor. Those early house are so critical in missing persons cases, and I just felt like needed to do absolutely everything we could to get down there as soon as possible. And we did that."

Motherwood said he was also shocked when he found out the news from a member of a "very close knit chosen family" he and Casey are a part of. He quickly pivoted to looking into how to find Casey as well.

"I just felt a strong conviction of like, 'OK, what do we need to do now? How many different areas do we need to organize in to get our family member home?'" Motherwood said.

Seymore and Williams traveled to the Bahamas to speak to officials and yoga retreat staff and students directly. Williams explained some of the frustrations they had with their handling of the case.

"It was pretty apparent to us that things are not being handled the way that they would be handled if they were in the U.S.," Williams said. "And so that was a real concern for us, because we believe that every single resource possible needs to be devoted to finding Taylor."

'Simply Not True'

Motherwood claimed Bahamian police are also lying about what they have done to locate Casey.

"Unfortunately, the Royal Bahamian Police Force keeps publicizing that they have been doing a number of things to find Taylor but we know from the family members, having gone in-person, and from reports on the ground that that's just simply not true," Motherwood said.

Williams compared the case to the disappearance of Natalee Holloway, who disappeared in Aruba in 2005. The case went unsolved for many years until the main suspect in her disappearance confessed to killing her in 2023.

"We don't want this to become like another Natalee Holloway case, where we're waiting 20 years before we find out any answers," Williams said. "We have a lot of questions, and we want answers to those things."

She said that cases of missing Black girls and women receive less attention, but they are working to change that.

"Just like Gabby Petito who went missing [in 2021], just like when Natalie Holloway went missing, that was on every major news network every day, multiple times a day," Williams said. "Private investigators [came] out from all kinds of places to figure out what happened to particularly Gabby Petitio, and they found out what happened to her relatively quickly. And Taylor's case deserves the exact same kind of urgency and the exact same kind of resources.

Motherwood said they are calling on the FBI to take the lead on the investigation.

"There's a number of different pieces that we're learning as we go forward about what's working and what's next. And what we've learned is that, without question, we need the FBI to be leading this investigation," Motherwood said.

Williams also emphasized this effort.

"We believe that if we are going to find Taylor, the FBI actually needs to take over this investigation, and so that's what we're asking for because we need a full and thorough investigation," Williams said.

She explained that police have not been communicating with them frequently.

"We were promised an update on July 12, which we did not receive, and so we remain open and willing to communicate directly with the authorities in the Bahamas," Williams said. "And that's what we're requesting, that's what we have been requesting, that's what we will continue to request."

Williams said getting possession of Casey's phone, which is currently in Bahamian police's possession, is a critical next step in the case. She also disputed some popular narratives in the media.

"There are currently narratives in the media which suggest that Taylor left on her own," Williams said. "We don't believe that to be true, but even if it were, Taylor deserves to be found, so people should do everything possible to find Taylor. We also believe this needs to be investigated as though Taylor is still alive and as though Taylor could be found and Taylor will be found."

Seymore said the community has rallied around the cause and supported the family in any way they can.

"The LGBTQ community has really encamped around this family, loving on us, caring for us, helping to feed us and doing everything they can to find Taylor," Seymore said. "They are doing everything they can. I've never seen such a people, but they are really great."

'People love Taylor'

Williams explained how Taylor has built a massive community in Chicago.

"A lot of people love Taylor. A lot of people knew Taylor, and all of those people are coming out of support," Williams said. "They are coming out to events that we have in support of finding Taylor. They're helping to raise awareness about finding Taylor."

Motherwood spoke about what people can do to help.

"Anyone who has connections to anyone in the Bahamas, we have PDFs of the missing poster, of the reward poster. Print them out. Please put them up everywhere. If you see them taken down, please put them up again," Motherwood said.

He also encouraged people to visit the Find Taylor Casey website and use the Instagram frame to spread awareness on social media.

"We also would love to have any influencers out there, particularly those in LGBTQ+ communities and those involved in the sort of yoga and spirituality communities, to really help us put the word out there," Motherwood said.

Family and friends are encouraging people to donate to a fundraiser to help find Casey.

"This is a very complex case because Taylor went missing in the Bahamas. Taylor did not go missing in the U.S., so we are raising funds to cover everything from legal expenses here in the U.S. to legal expenses in the Bahamas," Williams said. "We also believe that it is important for us to continue to have a presence on the ground in the Bahamas, so that we can communicate directly with authorities [and] so that we can continue to spread awareness about the reward that we're offering for tips leading to finding Taylor."

An anonymous donor has contributed $10,000 for any information about Taylor's disappearance.

Anyone with information is being asked to contact the Royal Bahamas Police Force Criminal Investigations Department at 502-9991/2 or Crime Stoppers at 328-TIPS (8477).

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