Newly released video has captured the last known movements of a pregnant postal worker who vanished in 2018 as investigators said the “person of interest” in the case has given conflicting accounts about when he last saw her alive.
Kierra Coles vanished without a trace from her home in South Vernon, Chicago, on 2 October 2018 and has not been heard from since.
The 26-year-old postal worker was three months pregnant and her mother said she was “so excited” to welcome her first child.
More than three years on from her disappearance, Chicago Police released new surveillance footage of the missing woman as police appeal for help in solving the cold case.
The footage, on 2 October 2018, shows Ms Coles walking up the path to her home in South Vernon, carrying shopping bags.
Chicago Police Lt William Svilar said that a man, who has been identified as a person of interest in the case, then also arrived and entered her home.
Sometime after, Ms Coles and the man left her home and got into her car, driving off with the postal worker in the driver’s seat of the vehicle.
At around 10.43pm that night, Ms Coles was then spotted on surveillance footage at an ATM machine inside a store.
Lt Svilar said that the 26-year-old made two ATM withdrawals before leaving a couple of minutes later.
This is the last known sighting of Ms Coles.
Investigators said that her vehicle was then seen arriving and parking in another area of the city less than an hour later.
The person of interest was seen exiting the passenger side of the vehicle but nobody exited the driver’s side.
The next day – 3 October – surveillance footage then captured the person of interest parking Ms Coles’ vehicle near her home.
Lt Svilar said that the man was then seen “entering the building and exiting with unknown items” before he then “drives away in his personal vehicle that was parked on the block overnight”.
One day later – on 4 October – a missing persons report was filed by Ms Coles’ family after they couldn’t get in contact with her.
Bodycam footage shows officers entering the postal worker’s home and finding no sign as to her whereabouts.
Lt Svilar said that officers questioned the person of interest after Ms Coles was reported missing and “he gave varying accounts of the last time he saw her”.
Her disappearance remains a mystery three years and eight months on and police said the case remains a “high-risk missing person investigation with potential foul play suspected”.
Police have not released the identity of the person of interest in the case.
However, Ms Coles’ mother Karen Phillips told ABC that the 26-year-old’s boyfriend had lied to her about when he had last texted her.
Ms Phillips said she last spoke to her daughter on the day she went missing when they chatted about what she should get from the store for her unborn baby.
“She was asking me what she should get – what kind of milk,” she said.
“She was just so excited to be pregnant.”
Ms Phillips urged anyone with information about her daughter’s disappearance to come forward saying “I’m begging you as a mother”.
Chicago Police is asking anyone with information to submit a tip at http://CPDTip.com
