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

[PommyMommy]

But the schedule says lights out at 10pm…someone was peeking.

Investigators are focusing on everything but the retreat. Magically, we now have reports of a house party… Isn’t the whole point that there are no houses?

Well, the ashram did share that the areas surrounding the retreat are private property. As to whether there are houses or not, I couldn't say. MOO

 

[RickshawFan]

Well, the ashram did share that the areas surrounding the retreat are private property. As to whether there are houses or not, I couldn't say. MOO

I thought the whole point was no interlopers on that end of the island except an occasional wanderer from the towering resort? And there’s no boat unless the retreat arranges it?

 

[acutename]

But the schedule says lights out at 10pm…someone was peeking.

Investigators are focusing on everything but the retreat. Magically, we now have reports of a house party… Isn’t the whole point that there are no houses?

If she needed to use the potty, she had to leave her tent

 

[RickshawFan]

If she needed to use the potty, she had to leave her tent

They prolly required headlamps or flashlights.

 

[PommyMommy]

I thought the whole point was no interlopers on that end of the island except an occasional wanderer from the towering resort? And there’s no boat unless the retreat arranges it?

There are the Beach House Villas and a number of other structures to the left of the Ashram. Are they houses? I honestly don't know. MOO

Paradise Island · The Bahamas

★★★★★ · Island

www.google.com

 

[ifindedout]

ACME Maps has detailed structural nomenclature of the ashram:

ACME Mapper 2.2

mapper.acme.com

 

[ifindedout]

Well, the ashram did share that the areas surrounding the retreat are private property. As to whether there are houses or not, I couldn't say. MOO

IMO most of them are homes or rentals, with a few exceptions such as a quonset hut on the harbor side.

 

[GoBuckeyes]

But she would hardly swim with her phone, seems like it was thrown in the ocean

There are many varieties of waterproof cases. She might have gone in the water with her phone. I know most don't though.

 

[GoBuckeyes]

Why is the information regarding Taylor being seen at 11pm and a possible nearby party only coming to light now AFAIK? Was she seen wearing clothing for bed? Shoes? Did she have a bag or purse with her?

I'd like to think that if a party occured nearby just before she went missing that law enforcement would be all over that and the attendees, but I fear not, at least in a timely manner. If for no other reason than to put pressure on attendees to see if anyone saw her, or cracks under pressure. If her best friend thinks it's feasible that she may have attended, then it's quite possible she did. Perhaps she was invited/lured by someone she met earlier? The fact that the ashram required silence (and I'm guessing bed time) from 10pm, and she was last seen at 11pm suggests to me she may have attended. If I were to sneak out, I'd probably wait an hour until everyone was asleep to do it. MOO only of course.

Someone mentioned in one of the articles that she might have attended a party, with it being Juneteenth. Would that island and its occupants celebrate Juneteenth?

 

[HoneyBunOne]

There are the Beach House Villas and a number of other structures to the left of the Ashram. Are they houses? I honestly don't know. MOO

Paradise Island · The Bahamas

★★★★★ · Island

www.google.com

According to that map, there appear to be many structures, and about 10 docks along the shorefront near the ashram. That does not sound secluded to me. It appears that it's the off season in the Bahamas, due to it being cyclone season, so perhaps some of the structures are empty at the moment? However, it's clearly not a secluded retreat, especially with that skyscraper that is the Atlantis a short distance away.

Someone mentioned in one of the articles that she might have attended a party, with it being Juneteenth. Would that island and its occupants celebrate Juneteenth?

This Aussie has never heard of Juneteenth and had to google it. Being that Paradise Island seems to be mainly a tourist location, any night could be party night, so I don't think Juneteenth has all that much relevance. However, most tourists to the area seem to be from the USA and Canada, so perhaps there was a celebration? I'd have to know a lot more about the celebration and how widespread it is to comment further.

 

[RickshawFan]

Someone mentioned in one of the articles that she might have attended a party, with it being Juneteenth. Would that island and its occupants celebrate Juneteenth?

IIRC this was in a statement from the retreat? They are every which way trying to distance themselves from this and throw it “out there”.

 

[PommyMommy]

IIRC this was in a statement from the retreat? They are every which way trying to distance themselves from this and throw it “out there”.

I don't remember this being in any statement. Maybe I missed it. ? This is where I first read about it:

TN Exclusive: Best Friend Of Missing Woman In The Bahamas Describes Her As 'Loving,' Urges Authorities To Do More To Find Her

"How can anyone want to harm her? I just don’t understand it," said the best friend of Taylor Casey, the woman missing in the Bahamas.

travelnoire.com

Investigators also noted the possibility of a nearby house party at the time.

“Knowing her and her telling me how intense this program was, I thought maybe since it was Juneteenth, she was probably going out for a little bit and went out to this party,” Savano says.

(Jessica Savano is a friend of Taylor's)

 

[nhmemorymaker]

According to that map, there appear to be many structures, and about 10 docks along the shorefront near the ashram. That does not sound secluded to me. It appears that it's the off season in the Bahamas, due to it being cyclone season, so perhaps some of the structures are empty at the moment? However, it's clearly not a secluded retreat, especially with that skyscraper that is the Atlantis a short distance away.


This Aussie has never heard of Juneteenth and had to google it. Being that Paradise Island seems to be mainly a tourist location, any night could be party night, so I don't think Juneteenth has all that much relevance. However, most tourists to the area seem to be from the USA and Canada, so perhaps there was a celebration? I'd have to know a lot more about the celebration and how widespread it is to comment further.

Juneteenth has become much more of a celebration in recent years, becoming an American holiday in 2021. It is definitely is celebrated in Jamaica.

Juneteenth past, present & beyond

lib.arizona.edu

A little Jamaican history, Juneteenth celebration

Where are you going on vacation this summer?

www.journal-spectator.com

 

[StillDiggin]

https://www.newsnationnow.com/missing/missing-taylor-casey-bahamas-police-official-placed-on-leave/

 

[Boots38]

I used baking soda in lieu of toothpaste when I was a thru hiker. A little goes a long way, and weighs less than a travel-size tube of paste. Cheap!

To you it looks like toothpaste not to everyone. I said all it would take is the wrong person assuming it was drugs and make her a target. Never accused her of having or doing drugs.

 

[PommyMommy]

JUL 10, 2024

Community urgently seeks help in finding beloved Black trans advocate missing since June 20 - Windy City Times

Family and friends of Taylor Casey, a fixture of Chicago’s transgender community and a beloved youth advocate, are begging for community support in bringing her home after she vanished from a yoga retreat in the Bahamas. Taylor Casey was last seen the evening of June 19 at the Sivananda Ashram...

windycitytimes.com

A press conference is planned in front of Chicago’s James R. Thompson Center (100 W. Randolph Street) on Thursday, July 11th at 8:30 am–to bring further awareness to Taylor’s disappearance in honor of her 42nd birthday. Ms. Seymore says, “My child has been missing for almost 3 weeks. My family, friends, and I are distraught! I am pleading with everyone to call your elected officials and demand the FBI lead this investigation and bring her home safe and sound.”

 

[mlhenn]

On the eve of her birthday, Taylor Casey’s mother pushes for answers

On the eve of Taylor Casey's 42nd birthday, family and friends remain steadfast in trying to bring their loved one home.

www.nbcchicago.com

On the eve of Taylor Casey's 42nd birthday, family and friends remain steadfast in trying to bring their loved one home.

….

Her mother, Colette Seymore, said something sounded "off" in her daughter's voice when the two spoke to each other just one day before she vanished.

Seymore said something sounded “off” in her daughter’s voice, when the two spoke just one day before she vanished.

“I got an eerie feeling after hanging up the phone with my child,” Seymore said. “And I sensed through the phone that something was wrong.”

 

[AppleTreeGreen]

The statement goes on to say that Casey's room and personal items -- which included a bible, a teacher training coursebook, yoga practice materials and clothing -- appeared to be "largely unprocessed by local authorities."

I am surprised that LE didn’t collect the tent and Casey’s belongings for evidence or at least cordone it off. Even if they think it has no value to them or is undisturbed, there may be valuable signs or information they could only discover if they looked diligently. For example, some officers could still look through her Bible, sketchpad and other books to see if she has written any quick notes, such as an address, phone number, date, password or name that may indicate her destination or whereabouts on the night she disappeared.

Forensics may also want to evaluate her belongings just to see if hopefully anything useful could be detected. For example, have the police interviewed the man that spoke to Taylor and followed her back to the camp? Do they want to and or need help identifying him? It is possible he could have left something as basic as fingerprints if for example he looked through Taylor’s books, touched her tent, rifled through one of her cards or wrote his name or number somewhere using her pen. Perhaps trace evidence might be found on some of her clothes if, for example, he hugged her goodbye, ate a snack and left spit, crumbs or disposed-of garbage in her tent or from talking in close proximity to her. Perhaps there is a chance he left a footprint if not outside her tent perhaps inside of it.

If he explored any of the ashram’s area perhaps there may be fingerprints, footprints, saliva from used and disposed of plastic water bottles or some type of trace evidence there as well.

at logging into her icloud.

I was wondering if that would be possible too? In particular if her phone is already linked with an iPad she has left back at home maybe they can bring down to Paradise and see if they can access her most recent activity that way? Perhaps maybe even trace the phone’s whereabouts, even while in water, before it shut or powered off?

If one of her family members by chance has access to her regular email or a computer or iPad she regularly uses they cam access her phone’s most recent backups data or maybe the iCloud that way or in addition to this method use a new or unused available iPhone and try to use and upload it get her backed up data from Apple? Though it may seem convoluted, and it is, I had to do something similar for myself in terms of my iPhone, iPad and those of my older and younger family members.

 

[PommyMommy]

JUL 10, 2024

Mother of American missing in Bahamas shielded daughter's trans identity

Taylor Casey’s mother said that detail wasn’t initially publicized because she feared it would hurt the search for her daughter, who was on a yoga retreat when she was last seen June 19.

www.nbcnews.com

The mother of an American woman who went missing in the Bahamas last month while on a monthlong yoga retreat revealed that her daughter is transgender, a detail she said she had withheld out of fear it might negatively affect the search.

[...]

“The focus was going to be taken off of finding my child, my child being missing and that they were going to put the focus on ‘oh, Taylor’s transgender,’ which should not be the focus at all,” said Casey’s mother, Colette Seymore, referring to the media. “It should be the focus is finding Taylor, an American, human being citizen that’s missing in the Bahamas.”

[...]

“Taylor told me, ‘Ma, this is hard,’” Seymore said. “And when Taylor told me that, I just felt something, because Taylor is not a quitter, and Taylor loves yoga and really wanted to do that. I just had this eerie feeling.”

Later, Seymore and Williams said, they were told that Casey appeared “isolated” and “not integrated well into the program” by several people who attended the retreat. Casey was the only Black person and the only trans person out of the 14 retreat participants, Williams said.

[...]

 

[branmuffin]

TN Exclusive: Best Friend Of Missing Woman In The Bahamas Describes Her As 'Loving,' Urges Authorities To Do More To Find Her

"How can anyone want to harm her? I just don’t understand it," said the best friend of Taylor Casey, the woman missing in the Bahamas.

travelnoire.com

Jessica Savano was at the Istanbul airport, Turkey, flying to Croatia, when she saw a missed call that shook her to her core. It was from Colette Seymore, the mother of the missing 41-year-old woman, Taylor Casey, who disappeared while attending a yoga retreat in the Bahamas.

Savano tells Travel Noire that while there is a lot of speculation about what happened to Casey, she doesn’t think her disappearance is related to foul play from the yoga retreat center.

…

The last message Savano received from Casey was three days before she went missing. Savano sent Casey a voice text about the fun she was having in Istanbul and then reminded Casey that she loves her. Casey replied with her latest adventure in the Bahamas, adding how the yoga courses are “intense.”

I dunno. If someone is described as nerdy and innocent I don't see them leaving the ashram at 11 pm to go to party in a foreign country for Juneteenth. It doesn't track in my mind.