Friends and family of a missing Chicago woman gathered at Daley Plaza Sunday as they marked two years since her disappearance and committed not to give up in their pursuit of answers.
“I love you, I miss you, I need you, like, I need to breathe, please come home Cheretha, please," said Oretha Miller.
Miller shared her heartbreaking appeal, pleading to see her sister, Cheretha Morrison, who was last seen on Feb. 26, 2021. Miller said there are so many other missing persons cases being investigated in Chicago, that it takes away police attention from her sister's case.
"It's so hard for them to really focus on the cases because there was so many other cases," she said. "So I would like to help of everyone to help me find my sister.”
Chicago police detectives have been searching for Morrison, who was last seen in the 6900 block of South Throop in the city's Englewood neighborhood. Family members say Morrison, who was pregnant, was supposed to meet with her adult son on the morning she disappeared, but didn't answer her phone.
Morrison's car was later found in Rogers Park.
"I really don't know, you know, what was going on, what she was into, who she was into it with, so I'm just trying to have some closure," Miller said.
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Robbin Calhoun, Morrison's niece, criticized how missing persons cases are handled.
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"...I don't feel like they do enough," she said. "I don't feel like they care about us. You know, especially when we Black, they don't care.”
Calhoun's words are supported by people including journalist John Fountain, who wrote about the "Forgotten 51" - 51 women of color in Chicago who either disappeared or were killed. To date, their cases have yet to be solved.
“What is missing are the stories of hundreds thousands of women of color, girls of color, whose stories get blacked out," he told NBC 5 in 2021.
Miller has come to terms with the possibility that her sister may no longer alive, but hopes that the public and police take her sister's case more seriously.
“I just want the closure," she said. "I want to bring this to peace with me or my family or... find her body.”
