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Family of Taylor Casey, Chicago woman missing in the Bahamas, calls for FBI help on her 42nd birthday
CHICAGO (CBS) — Family and friends of Taylor Casey, the Chicago woman missing in the Bahamas for more than three weeks, are asking for help from the FBI on Thursday, her 42nd birthday.
Casey’s family has asked the FBI to take over the search, saying they “are not satisfied with how this investigation has been handled thus far.” The family is hosting a media conference followed by a birthday party at the South Shore Cultural Center.
Casey’s family is worried her case will go unnoticed, citing other cases involving Black transgender people. They say that the case has been hampered by prejudice among Bahamas investigators.
“Too often our Black trans and gender-expansive siblings go missing with little to no attention in the media or investigation by the authorities,” friend Jackie Boyd said. “We are extremely concerned for Taylor’s safety and need your support in keeping the pressure on American and Bahamian authorities.”
The group Find Taylor Casey, citing the Human Rights Campaign, said that nearly three-quarters of transgender victims of homicide are People of Color.
“Taylor has worked her whole life to interrupt these cycles of violence facing queer youth,” the group said in a press release. “Now, we seek to do the same for her.”
Taylor Casey was last seen in the Bahamas on June 19. Her family says Casey, who has been practicing yoga for 15 years, was attending a yoga retreat “to fulfill a long-term goal of deepening her practice.”
Police in the Bahamas were first alerted to Casey’s disappearance by the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Retreat, which asked them to investigate after Casey failed to attend morning classes.
Phone recovered from the water
This week, authorities in the Bahamas said they recovered an iPhone they believe belongs to Taylor, though officials admitted Monday they have not as of yet been able to open it to access its contents.
Police Commissioner Clayton Fernander said that, during a June 22 search, a dog picked up a scent from a tent and tracked it to the water, but the scent ended there. They subsequently located a phone under roughly 56 feet of water.
Investigators in the Bahamas asked American authorities for help unlocking the phone, but they also had no luck, Fernander said Monday. Authorities also reviewed surveillance footage from around the island, but there is “no information to connect at this time,” the police commissioner added.
Officials added that underwater drones were used in the search for Casey on July 3, but they didn’t come up with anything. Meanwhile, surveillance footage from the hotel has also yielded no results.
Missing woman’s mother seeks answers, increased urgency
Casey’s mother Colette Seymore reported her missing, but she says when she first arrived in the Bahamas to speak to investigators, she says she did not see a single missing persons flyer for her daughter.
“They were just really nonchalant and just not acting like it was their child missing,” she said. “I had to return home without her. This is every mother’s worst nightmare.”
Seymore said her visit only left her with more questions than answers.
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These days, you’ll find Peggy Noonan in many places: in front of commencement crowds, at political round tables, and for the past quarter-century, in the opinion section of the Wall Street Journal. But when she was just starting out in Washington, D.C., you could find Noonan at the Off the Record Bar, near her job at the White House. “I would sit over there by myself, I would order a beer or a glass of wine, and I’d just quietly sit and read,” she said.
In 1984, Noonan joined President Ronald Reagan’s staff, after working at CBS in New York. At first, she felt like an outsider in the buttoned-up West Wing, but soon became an acclaimed speechwriter. Early on, she wrote Reagan’s moving speech for D-Day’s 40th anniversary.
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Then, when the Challenger shuttle tragically exploded, Noonan was given a tough assignment: write Reagan’s address to a distraught nation. “I had a feeling of, that didn’t work, nothing worked, because nothing was worthy of that moment; nothing was worthy of that day,” she said. “But then Frank Sinatra called – he called that night to the White House to say, ‘Mr. President, you just said what needed to be said.’ And Frank didn’t call after every speech!”
By the late eighties, Noonan had cemented a reputation as a wordsmith, and Reagan turned to her for his farewell address:
“We made the city stronger, we made the city freer. All in all, not bad, not bad at all.”
George H.W. Bush turned to Noonan, too, as he rallied Republicans on his way to the White House. “You know, part of life is luck,” she said. “It was not lucky to follow dazzling Ronald Reagan and be plainer, seeming sturdy George H.W. Bush. But I believe history was not – certainly in his time – sufficiently fair to him.”
That opinion is one of many found in the pages of her new book, “A Certain Idea of America,” a collection of her recent work (to be published Tuesday by Portfolio).
Portfolio
Asked what her idea of America is today, Noonan replied, “Big, raucous, troubled, frayed.”
Noonan’s columns often delve into questions of character and leadership. “What I do not perceive now is many politicians who are actually saying, Guys, this is not good for the country. We’ve been given this beautiful thing called America. Shine it up! Keep it going!”
Costa said, “You have a lot of fun in this book, doing what you call taking the stick to certain people from time to time.”
“I don’t mind the stick at all,” said Noonan. “When I see something that I think is just awful, I love to get mad at it. I got mad at John Fetterman.”
“You don’t like that he’s wearing shorts?”
“It’s okay with me that he wears shorts,” she replied, “but he is not allowed to change the rules of the U.S. Senate to accommodate him in his little shorts and hoodie because he enjoys dressing like a child.”
Noonan, now 74, grew up in the Democratic strongholds of New York and New Jersey. “And I was very happy with that, because Democrats were cooler than Republicans,” she said. “Democrats were little Bobby Kennedy, and Republicans were, like, Dick Thornburgh!”
But in Reagan, she saw something fresh. “You looked at him, you saw his confidence, and it made you feel optimistic,” she said.
The Gipper, of course, no longer dominates the Republican Party, and President-elect Trump’s victory could transform the GOP even more in the coming years. “In terms of policy, the Republican Party has changed by becoming, not a standard, usual conservative party, but a populist party,” Noonan said. “Its issues have changed very much. But also, the edge of anger and resentment and, I’m afraid, a little paranoia that is in the Republican Party now would be something that Reagan did not recognize.”
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At the Off the Record Bar, the faces on the wall – caricatures of politicians of the past – and at the tables still catch her eye. For Noonan, it’s all part of the story – America’s, and her own.
Costa said, “In a way, you’re still the writer in the corner watching everybody at the bar in Washington.”
“Yeah, I like to watch them, she said. “They’re human, and you bring a little warmth to it, a little humor, and always bring your stick and smack them when you need to! It’s kind of nice.”
READ AN EXCERPT: “A Certain Idea of America” by Peggy Noonan
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Story produced by David Rothman. Editor: Joseph Frandino.
