Cold Case: LaKisha Taylor was last seen 14 years ago
Lake Charles, LA (KPLC) - It’s been 14 years since LaKisha Taylor was last seen, leaving her family still without any answers after her disappearance in 2008.
“I don’t even have closure. We would like closure, that’s the main thing we want is closure. After 14 years, that’s a long time,” LaKisha’s brother Emile Alexander said.
In June of 2008, LaKisha Taylor vanished and since then the case has been cold. Her brother said any leads the case may have had turned up short of any answers.
“For her to just vanish like that, it’s odd. So, I know something happened to my mama. I know. I know that for a fact something happened to my mama,” LaKisha’s daughter Dionce Taylor said.
One of the three children LaKisha left behind was just a 6-year-old little girl when her mother went missing, now Dionce Taylor is 20 years old.
“As you can see, I’m still weak,” Dionce said. “It hurts, it hurts. It’s not easy. Like I said, everybody have they mama, I don’t have mine.”
Those close to LaKisha said her leaving, especially without her kids, wasn’t in her character.
The then 27-year-old LaKisha was living with her cousin at the time of her disappearance, that cousin, Sandy Stevenson, spoke to 7News in 2014 recounting the morning she went missing.
“I ended up going to get some breakfast or whatever...When I came back her clothes and everything was ironed on the bed, bath water was ran, but she wasn’t there,” Stevenson said in the 2014 interview.
LaKisha’s family filed a missing person’s case with the Lake Charles Police Department back in 2008. Eventually, the circumstances surrounding her disappearance led investigators to suspect foul play.
That investigation was led by former Deputy Chief Mark Kraus.
“This is not just an ‘I’m going to walk out of my life and start somewhere else.’ We have some very narrow concerns that this is criminal activity,” Kraus said in a 2014 interview.
So where is LaKisha Taylor?
Her family suspects someone has to know something.
“We’re just asking for answers,” Alexander said. “Somebody made a call, an anonymous call, but they ain’t say nothing. They never called back with the number. We just want answers. That’s all we just want answers.”
In the absence of those answers, her family is still strong in their want for closure, managing to remember and honor the woman they once knew.
“I want people to remember her as the person that she was. Because she was known. A lot of people know her out here. So, if they knew her, that’s how I want y’all to remember her. She was like the life of the party,” Alexander said.
LaKisha’s family gathered this June for a balloon release commemorating the 14 years that have now passed without her.
“She was special,” Dionce said. “I know she’s looking over me and she’s happy that we’re doing this for her.”
There hasn’t ever been an official suspect identified in LaKisha Taylor’s case. However, at one point her estranged husband was named a person of interest.
The family urges anyone who may know anything that can help the investigation to call the police.