(NewsNation) — Chicago police released the last known video of Kierra Coles, the pregnant postal worker who went missing in 2018, NewsNation local affiliate WGN reported.
Coles was last seen leaving her apartment in Chicago’s Chatham neighborhood on Oct. 2, 2018, when she was 26 and three months pregnant. Newly released surveillance video shows her walking into her apartment, and leaving her home hours later to enter a car with a man.
Video also shows Coles withdrawing money from an ATM at around 10:42 p.m., according to WGN. Police said Coles exited the business three minutes later.
Her car was later found a block away from her home. Inside were her prenatal bag from a recent visit to the clinic, her packed lunch and her cellphone. She hasn’t been seen since.
Coles’ family told NewsNation that the young woman’s disappearance came at a time when she was excited about the future. She had a steady job, was renting an apartment, and had saved up for a car.
“I couldn’t get in touch with her all that day, on (Oct. 3),” Karen Phillips, Coles’ mother, said. “I called (police) to do a well-being check and then once we found out she wasn’t in there, and I told them I’ve been calling her all day yesterday, but there was no response, that’s when I made the missing person report.”
Police eventually questioned a man, identified as a “person of interest,” who was seen parking outside Coles’ apartment, WGN said. He gave several different accounts of what happened, police said, but was never charged.
Phillips said she is hopeful for answers for other families as well as her own, according to WGN.
“I pray every day that she is safe, I hope that her child is with her, I hope they’re both doing OK,” Phillips said. “I just hope, soon, that this will be over.”