CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — The families of Kierra Coles and other local missing persons gathered Saturday at Federal Plaza, where they demanded more transparency on this National Missing Persons Day.
“I don’t know what else to do,” said LaShann Walker. “Eight, going on nine years that they’ve been missing, and I don’t have any clue.”
For those who gathered in the Loop on Saturday, the negative emotions have been compounded by a lack of transparency and communication from investigators. Walker is the mother of Diamond Bynum and grandmother of King Walker. Her daughter was 21 — and King was just 2 — at the time of their 2015 disappearance in Gary, Ind.
“I can’t get in contact with any of the Gary Police Department,” Walker said. “I don’t understand why they don’t help the way they should.”
For years, Walker has come to Chicago to piggyback on the exposure of high-profile disappearances, like that of Coles, a local U.S. Postal Service mail carrier who was pregnant when she went missing in 2018.
In each of the five years since her disappearance, Coles’ family has gathered downtown on Saturday for National Missing Persons Day, and each September, they’ve celebrated another passing birthday.
This National Missing Persons Day, families of the missing in Chicago demanded the creation of a new city office for Missing Persons and Unsolved Murders. The idea: that this office could serve as a conduit between the public, law enforcement, and government officials.
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