Illinois resident passes leaflets, attends Common Council meeting seeking clues
Mady Perez hasn’t seen her sister since last week.
Perez, a resident of South Chicago Heights, Ill., has been searching the streets of Gary, handing out leaflets and asking questions, all in hopes of getting some information about Jessica Flores.
Flores, 36, last was seen Feb. 25 when she offered to give Melina Cottrell a ride home to neighborhood around 35th Avenue and Broadway in Gary. Flores’ car later was found abandoned and burned on Chicago’s South Side, with some of Flores’ belongings still inside, she said.
Police in South Chicago Heights are working with the Gary Police Department and the Lake County Sheriff’s police, officially treating the case as one of missing persons. Gary police said anyone with information about the case should call their tip line at 886-274-6347.
Gary police Chief Richard Allen said his department was considering the case to be a priority.
“We’re working tirelessly to try to solve this,” Allen said at the Gary Common Council meeting Tuesday. “All of our departments are combining their efforts so we can find these people.”
Perez has spent the past week scouring Gary, asking people if they have any information. Her travels even led her to appear at Tuesday’s meeting at City Hall to ask for the help of the roughly 50 or so people in the audience.
Perez said the case takes on personal significance because she is helping to care for Flores’ six children. “The first question they ask me every day is ‘Where’s my mom?’ and I don’t really know what to tell them,” she said.
A man that Flores was living with in Illinois reported her missing Feb. 27 to the South Chicago Heights Police Department, Chief Bill Joyce said. The man became concerned after Flores had left with his vehicle, with his permission, a couple of days before and didn’t return, Joyce said.
Joyce’s department has worked with Chicago police, after the vehicle was found burned on the South Side, and Gary police, along with Flores’ family, since Flores was reported missing, according to Joyce.
“It is concerning because with the amount of time and the car being located,” Joyce said. “We’re still treating it as a missing person case.”
Anyone with information is asked to call Sgt. Jake Kozinski at 708-755-3521, Joyce said.
Perez said she has heard tidbits unofficially that make her think Cottrell, whom she described as a person her sister encountered and was trying to help in life, is not actually missing.
“I think she’s actually hiding from police,” Perez said. “I think if police were to find her, they’d get to the truth of what happened to my sister.”
Allen declined to comment on Perez’s speculation.
Gary police posted on the department’s Facebook page Friday, asking for the community’s help in locating Cottrell, who last was seen Feb. 24.
“Investigators have exhausted all leads and are reaching out to the community for help,” according to the post.
Anyone with information about Cottrell, 26, can call Sgt. Mark Salazar at 219-881-1209 or the crime tip line at 866-274-6347, according to the post.
Perez said she hasn’t come up with any solid information about her sister’s whereabouts from her daily trips through Gary, although she said, “I’m not giving up on this case until I learn for sure what happened to her.”
Perez also said she is concerned because of what she has seen while in Gary during the past week. Some parts of the city make her fear for her sister’s safety.
“I have seen things that were not the nicest,” Perez said. “It’s like there are places of dehumanization, particularly toward women.”
Common Council President Ronald Brewer said he will “pray to God” that Flores “is found alive,” while adding that he hopes Perez does not gain too negative a perception of Gary.
“We have our bad parts, but we also have many good people here who will gladly help to find (Flores),” he said.
“I hope shew doesn’t judge us too much by our appearance,” Brewer said. Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson said she intends to have Gary law enforcement to continue to “offer our full cooperation” to the effort to find Flores.
