Bahamas - Taylor Casey, 41, Chicago, last seen in at yoga retreat, Paradise Island, Nassau, 19 Jun 2024

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Her passport being missing is interesting to me. You don't typically keep your passport on your person when you're out of the country, I leave mine safe in my hotel room.

Was Taylor in the habit of keeping her passport with her because of the communal living accommodations? Surely they offer some kind of valuable lock up option for visitors, I would also feel uncomfortable leaving something like that out in my tent.

When I’ve traveled out of the country, my passport always remained on me. I kept it under my shirt and in a passport pouch.

According to their site:

Valuables​

Please note that there are no safety deposit boxes available at the ashram—you are responsible for your personal belongings and valuables.
 

Wonder if there were any day/drop in guests around the time TC was last seen…

The Ashram is happily accepting day visitors!

Day Guests/Drop-In Rates​

If you live in the area or you’re just passing through, consider joining us for the day. We are happy to welcome people who would like to participate in the ashram’s educational activities and share a meal with us!
 
The only time I think I've seen tents pitched that close together in a low ceilinged space like that was a small group of rough sleepers who set up their poptents and tarps in a corner of a small multilevel carpark in my local area.

And even they had an area nearby with some camp chairs and a salvaged computer chair where they could sit and talk and get some fresh air.

MOO
Yes. Exactly. A homeless encampment.

It’s not even a dorm like the one at the “retreat” Caitlin Armstrong hung out in for a few dollars a day in Costa Rica. That one was spotless and had mattresses. And lockboxes.
 

Wonder if there were any day/drop in guests around the time TC was last seen…

The Ashram is happily accepting day visitors!

Day Guests/Drop-In Rates​

If you live in the area or you’re just passing through, consider joining us for the day. We are happy to welcome people who would like to participate in the ashram’s educational activities and share a meal with us!
The thing is, there was perhaps more opportunity to get close scrutiny from an overnight guest than a day-tripper.
 
She could have kept it on her person for a couple of reasons. Number one, for safety considering she was staying in a tent which probably didn't have a safe. You'd think the ashram would have had a safe somewhere on the property unless that's one of the things they tell their guests: you're here to immerse yourself in the yoga so don't bother bringing expensive jewelry or lots of cash. Number two, she may have been keeping it on her person because many people at the ashram had no idea she was transgender. Depending how old her passport was perhaps it didn't match with her current gender. AFAIK both the US and Canada allow an individual to list M, F or X for unspecified on their passports. It doesn't have to match citizenship or birth certificate.
That’s the problem with the tents IMO. No privacy from prying eyes, but with the appearance of privacy.
 
Since these tents are much higher quality and roomier than the photos where Taylor was staying..... Some reviews do say the advertised photos are nothing like on-site reality.
And this is a tropical island: there's no way these tents can be aired out, even if you had ALL the "windows" open. This is, like, suffocating. The contents of your tent would be open for everyone to see, and any time someone went to the bathroom in the night, you'd be woken up.
Imagine a fire....
the one "safety" aspect to this is that if anyone were to try to rob you or attack you, everyone would hear commotion or screams...I stayed in a strange rickety boarded set of rooms in central america once and I actually felt a bit safer that the walls were paper thin because my neighbors would be able to hear if anything were to happen, IMO (not saying this is ideal for comfort or fire safety but sort of safety in numbers for other risks)
 
As far as her passport goes.... I know the ashram says they don't have a safety deposit box for guests to use, but that doesn't mean they don't ask for guests passports for safe keeping. That "safe keeping" may be their own kind of secure box or safe, or an unlocked drawer, who knows? That's of course if this did indeed happen. I'm pretty sure I've been asked for my passport for safe keeping at a resort before. At a more mainstream hotel or resort, they may want to keep your passport to ensure you check out correctly and don't do a runner with a massive mini bar tab outstanding or the like. Given this place doesn't have completely private and secure lodgings, it would make sense that valuables you MUST bring (like passports if you're from overseas) could be secured by management for the length of your stay.

Has the ashram spoken out on the passport issue?
 
As far as her passport goes.... I know the ashram says they don't have a safety deposit box for guests to use, but that doesn't mean they don't ask for guests passports for safe keeping. That "safe keeping" may be their own kind of secure box or safe, or an unlocked drawer, who knows? That's of course if this did indeed happen. I'm pretty sure I've been asked for my passport for safe keeping at a resort before. At a more mainstream hotel or resort, they may want to keep your passport to ensure you check out correctly and don't do a runner with a massive mini bar tab outstanding or the like. Given this place doesn't have completely private and secure lodgings, it would make sense that valuables you MUST bring (like passports if you're from overseas) could be secured by management for the length of your stay.

Has the ashram spoken out on the passport issue?
Hasn’t LE said the passport is missing? This suggests to me there was no secure facility whatever in the retreat, otherwise they’d have it.

It’s very disappointing that LE doesn’t seem to have had a general search warrant for the retreat. There could be evidence (e.g. passport) just thrown into a trashcan by someone onsite.

I’m suspicious something nefarious was initiated in the tent city, Taylor was awoken (or targeted) and left for a walk on the beach. And, unfortunately, she was followed there.
 
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Reviews have said at least some tents were all in a row, cheek by jowl, on that big platform. I'd never even camp in the wild like that: you might as well be in someone else's bedroom.
I can't imagine going to a yoga retreat/training center where I’d sleep in a tent, have a fan to cool off, and share a bathroom with strangers.
 
Snipped...
...And, though Casey's cellphone was located in the ocean and recovered, police have declined to turn the phone over to family, the statement said.

“I believe that phone may have information we need on there,” Seymore said in the statement.

The statement also contends that the Atlantis security team, rather than the Bahamas Police Force, were the agency that reviewed any surveillance video found.

Mom of Chicago woman missing from Bahamas yoga retreat details 'disturbing' and 'deeply unsettling' visit to island amid investigation
Thanks for putting those snips together- appreciated! Definitely concerning.
Remind me of the old adage:
“We have investigated ourselves and determined we have done nothing wrong.”
 

According to their site:

Valuables​

Please note that there are no safety deposit boxes available at the ashram—you are responsible for your personal belongings and valuables.
Really?! In a tent? Wow, anyone who is hellbent on robbing someone just needs to access their website then walk around saying namaste to everyone until they see an empty tent. Also interested in whether robbery, assault, etc has happened on this site in the past and that's why they are staying mum. I would hope safety and security doesn't fall to the attendees since most people don't read the fine print on contractual agreements. If it does, I can see why this place doesn't appear to be cooperating with the searchers.
 
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As far as her passport goes.... I know the ashram says they don't have a safety deposit box for guests to use, but that doesn't mean they don't ask for guests passports for safe keeping. That "safe keeping" may be their own kind of secure box or safe, or an unlocked drawer, who knows? That's of course if this did indeed happen. I'm pretty sure I've been asked for my passport for safe keeping at a resort before. At a more mainstream hotel or resort, they may want to keep your passport to ensure you check out correctly and don't do a runner with a massive mini bar tab outstanding or the like. Given this place doesn't have completely private and secure lodgings, it would make sense that valuables you MUST bring (like passports if you're from overseas) could be secured by management for the length of your stay.

Has the ashram spoken out on the passport issue?
I don't surrender my passport to a resort or hotel. If they want to check my authentification they can have a copy. If they demand it, I'm going to hang around until they make a copy or write down the salient details. In Italy, where I was this past April, no one asked for our passports. The only place I've been recently where they photocopy your passport is Costa Rica and Panama. I have more than one passport.
 
I can't imagine going to a yoga retreat/training center where I’d sleep in a tent, have a fan to cool off, and share a bathroom with strangers.
Same! Exact same, I'd have been on a boat finding a new island so fast it would make your head spin. Those people at the Yoga retreat would be talking about me for years. But I feel like Taylor is independent and self assured enough (based on what I'm reading) where if she didn't feel comfortable she too would do that.
Any chance she said I'm out, and grabbed her passport and jumped on a boat with a cute guy, because that's 100% what I would do, MOO, still a wonder I'm not a thread on here.
 
Really?! In a tent? Wow, anyone who is hellbent on robbing someone just needs to access their website then walk around saying namaste to everyone until they see an empty tent. Also interested in whether robbery, assault, etc has happened on this site in the past and that's why they are staying mum. I would hope safety and security doesn't fall to the attendees since most people don't read the fine print on contractual agreements. If it does, I can see why this place doesn't appear to be cooperating with the searchers.
IMO there's stereotyping happening when folks are eliminating yogis from the pool of people on that island that might have wished harm to Taylor. I'm very taken with how quickly the retreat lashed fast its doors, as though no one within its walls could be responsible for a beach crime. We only have their PR for that: no evidence at all that yogis are less dangerous than anyone else. And since they barely acknowledge Taylor went missing, they're perpetuating an image of "yogis are different from everyone else". I don't buy it. (Seriously, now, murderess Caitlin Armstrong was a yogi at a "retreat").

So, here is my theory about an inside job..... Speculative, but pinned to reality.

See the tent Taylor was in? That style is not like the ones in the website photos of the retreat. I have many problems with Taylor's tent, apart from the sheer cheapness of it, or maybe because of that. Taylor seems to be in a particular protected class that may make her a crime victim. If you put a light on when you're in one of those tents, it will totally light you up. Every passersby could see everything. I mean, EVERYTHING. This could be extremely dangerous for someone like Taylor.

I'll give you an example where this became a tragedy. Remember a couple of years ago a man was shot in a campground near Malibu (or somewhere like that: city-ish)? He was with his 2 very young children. His wife was studying for medical exams of some type and stayed home. He was shot while in the tent in early morning hours. I speculate someone tried to break into his car, he heard a noise and sat up, and as soon as he did so, the perp shot. There was an arrest in that case.
Well, the tent that victim had was an REI tent with IIRC sand-colored walls. In order for him to be shot the way he was, he had to have been silhouetted when he sat up. IMO he was pretty much lit up.
This was a very nice tent, and it wasn't white, but it became dangerous.
Cheap retreat tent, sheer white walls with no fly for a second layer, bright light, while changing or getting ready for bed, especially when you can't stand up all the way, so you're forced to be in awkward positions....imagine the danger. For everyone. But if someone has bad intentions, the prey is easy to observe.
 
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JUL 5, 2024
[...]

Late last month, Bahamian cops found Casey’s cellphone in the ocean and located her journal and other personal effects near the yoga retreat. However, Casey’s family said the items were just sitting there when they arrived, showing little sign of any investigation.

[...]

Casey’s friends and family also said leaders at the yoga retreat had apparently either instructed other students to keep quiet about Casey’s disappearance or deliver a rehearsed story.

Casey’s allies said they eventually changed their flights home and left early because they “became concerned for their own safety.”

[...]
 
JUL 5, 2024
THE Sivananda Ashram Yoga Retreat American Taylor Casey visited before she disappeared said she was not abducted from the site and that evidence suggests she left the retreat voluntarily.

[...]

Peter Goudie, CEO of PGHR Consulting, said in a statement to The Tribune yesterday on behalf of the retreat company: “We are concerned that the story infers that Taylor Casey was abducted from the ashram. That is false and defamatory and not based on facts. The tent photo in the NBCU story taken by Ms Casey’s family shows no signs of struggle. Her toothbrush and personal care products were in the tent in the photo, indicating she was going to return. Her passport, items of clothing and purse were not in the tent photo indicating she took them with her, along with her phone.

[...]

The statement Ms Casey’s family and friends sent NBC claimed a retreat participant recalled that an unidentified man in a Celtics cap who claimed to be from Chicago approached Ms Casey and followed her on to the compound, expressing interest in yoga classes.

[...]

“The man is from Atlanta and was staying next door at the Atlantis Resort,” Mr Goudie said. “He was simply taking a stroll on the beach and was interested in knowing more about our yoga classes. We often have inquiries about the yoga retreat from the guests at Atlantis.

“The other individual described in your report was holding a walkie-talkie, and our best guess is that he is a security guard for one of our neighbours. He entered the ashram at about 2pm –– a time when our students were in class –– and stayed for a couple of minutes and left.”

[...]
 
People are getting too hung up on the supposed quality of the ‘retreat’. But this isn’t a resort, it’s not where you go on vacation per se, it’s an ashram for learning yoga. Something more like a hostel with bunk beds all in one room wouldn’t be unusual. I imagine tents afford a bit more privacy and mosquito protection. These 200 hr yoga teacher training courses can be expensive. $3000 for a 3-4 week course, so actually $80 a night makes it quite a bit more affordable and I can see why that would be really attractive, especially if someone doesn’t have the funds for a flight to India or Bali or Thailand.
 
Peter Goudie, CEO of PGHR Consulting, said in a statement to The Tribune yesterday on behalf of the retreat company: “We are concerned that the story infers that Taylor Casey was abducted from the ashram. That is false and defamatory and not based on facts.

The Ashram Yoga Retreat is reacting defensively instead of realizing that all possible outcomes have to be explored. While there may be no evidence Taylor Casey was abducted, there is no evidence to rule it out. Checking out individuals seen in the area is perfectly reasonable. If they are not involved in her disappearance - terrific. But something happened to Taylor, and it probably was something bad.
 
The Ashram Yoga Retreat is reacting defensively instead of realizing that all possible outcomes have to be explored. While there may be no evidence Taylor Casey was abducted, there is no evidence to rule it out. Checking out individuals seen in the area is perfectly reasonable. If they are not involved in her disappearance - terrific. But something happened to Taylor, and it probably was something bad.
Well said!
 

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