Some three weeks after 13-year-old Lesly Morales crept out of a bedroom window at night in her Back of the Yards home, her distraught family still has no clue where she might be.
And they are particularly worried, because Morales was depressed at the time, having recently lost her father, her family said Friday.
“She became extremely depressed,” said the girl’s mother, Regina Trujillo, 46.
Morales’ family huddled and prayed at Lincoln United Methodist Church, in the 2200 block of South Damen Avenue, where Pastor Emma Lozano is helping get the word out about the missing girl.
The family said they last saw Morales April 26. She went to school that day at Hedges Elementary and returned to the family home in the 4900 block of South Wood Street.
She shared a bedroom with her two sisters, one of whom noticed in the early morning hours of April 26 that Morales was gone and that the bedroom window was open.
“She had obviously used that window to leave,” Lozano said.
Morales was last seen wearing a white T-shirt with an image of the Virgin Mary, blue jeans and black gym shoes with yellow stripes. She is in eighth grade and was supposed to graduate from Hedges later this year.
Morales had become withdrawn since her father’s death. “After her father passed away, she started to show signs of cutting herself,” Lozano said.
Lozano said she has been in contact with Chicago police, but said that when she called the department, she was told the officer handling the case is on furlough.
