CHICAGO – The family of Kierra Coles, a missing Chicago postal worker who vanished while pregnant in 2018, is marking another painful milestone as Wednesday would have been her 33rd birthday.
What we know:
Coles was last seen on Oct. 2, 2018, in the South Side Chatham neighborhood.
In the morning, she is seen on surveillance video in her postal worker uniform despite a sick call into work that day.
That night, video showed her leaving home with a person of interest before stopping at a nearby ATM and making two cash withdrawals.
After that, she was never seen again, but the person of interest was. Authorities said video shows him returning in a vehicle to Coles’ home the next morning, going into the building and leaving with unknown items. He then drives away in his personal car that was parked on the block overnight.
Despite years of investigation by Chicago police and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, no suspects have been named and no arrests have been made.
“They said they didn’t have a motive,” Karen Phillips, Coles’ mother, previously said.
Coles’ family describes her as someone who loved makeup, taking pictures, dancing, and her job at the Postal Service. She had been looking forward to becoming a mother.
“As the years go on, it gets harder and harder,” Phillips previously said.
Dig deeper:
“When I woke up that morning and still hadn’t gotten a call from her, I knew something was wrong,” Philips said in 2019.
Coles was 26 years old and three months pregnant when she went missing. Six months later, her due date came and went.
Hard questions remained unanswered.
“Calling out sick and leaving for work that day in uniform is quite out of the ordinary. Was she the one who made that phone call? We think there’s more to the story,” Mack Julion of the National Association of Letter Carriers previously said.
What’s next:
Coles’ family will hold a press conference Wednesday afternoon, continuing to call for anyone with information to come forward.
A $68,000 reward is still being offered for tips leading to an arrest and conviction.
The Source: The information in this story came from the family of Kierra Coles, Chicago police, and previous FOX 32 reporting.
