FEBRUARY 2021:
New information has been released regarding surveillance footage pertaining to the Kierra Coles missing persons case. The young postal worker went missing from Chicago, Illinois in early October 2018.
One of the main forms of evidence in the case was surveillance footage obtained from a neighbour’s residence, which appeared to show a woman resembling Kierra walking in the area of 81st Street and Vernon Avenue. Many questions had been raised regarding the footage, including the outfit the woman was wearing, her movements and those of Kierra on the day she went missing, with many feeling it simply a case of mistaken identity.
In February 2021, Kierra’s mother, Karen Philips, approached the media and revealed that the woman in the footage is not, in fact, her missing daughter. According to Karen, investigators had known this all along and had asked her to not reveal the information to the public. Given the amount of time that’s passed and the lack of movement in the investigation, Karen has decided to take matters into her own hands and reveal this detail to the public.
Karen had immediately known the woman wasn’t her daughter. Not only was the shape of her body off, but she didn’t appear to walk the same way Kierra did. When she brought these concerns to the Chicago police, they told her they were aware of this and that the woman was another postal worker who lived on the same street as Kierra.
Karen also shared that another neighbour of Kierra’s came forward with additional surveillance footage from the Tuesday before she disappeared, which appears to show she and her boyfriend, Josh Simmons, leaving her apartment in separate vehicles. Furthermore, detectives later shared with Karen that they had footage from a nearby ATM, which showed Kierra taking out $400 from her bank account and handing the money over to her boyfriend that same night.
Those involved in the investigation have failed to comment on the new developments.
Stories of the Unsolved will update this post as more details emerge.
Image Credit: CBS News
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