Update on Taylor Casey: Tearful mother of missing woman accuses police of corruption

The tearful mother and girlfriend of missing person Taylor Casey said they were “not surprised” to learn that an officer leading the investigation was placed on leave last week.

Chief Superintendent Michael Johnson, head of the Royal Bahamas Police Force’s Criminal Investigation Division, was placed on leave on Friday after voice notes about him were released.

The news comes as police are still investigating the disappearance of Casey, a Chicago resident who vanished near Paradise Island on June 19. She was attending the Sivananda Ashram yoga retreat.

While the contents of the voice messages have not been released, Casey’s girlfriend Emily Williams and his mother Colette Seymore accused him of corruption at a press conference on Thursday. The conference brought together family, friends and local elected officials in Chicago to honor Taylor’s 42nd birthday and demand answers in the case.

“We are not surprised that Michael Johnson has now been suspended for corruption because we sensed that during our time there and could see from the way the details did not add up,” Williams said.

Seymore said the incident left her concerned about how the department was handling the search for her daughter.

“If he can be corrupt in this department and take bribes to stop investigations, then that makes me seriously concerned about how you handled my child’s case,” Seymore said. “And I actually saw how they handled it when we were there. Indifferent, without urgency, without care.”

Seymore and Williams traveled to the Bahamas last week to seek more information about Taylor’s disappearance, but said they left with even more questions.

“We were greeted with a photo op and a press conference,” Williams said. “We were not greeted by caring investigators who wanted to give us an update on the whereabouts of our loved one. They couldn’t piece together the details. They gave us false information and then tried to push us out.”

Seymore detailed a number of failures by both the police and the yoga retreat in the search for Taylor. She claimed that the police had created a missing persons list on which Taylor could not be found.

“In this scenario, actions speak louder than words,” Williams said.

Seymore also claimed that there were people at the yoga retreat who did not know about Taylor’s disappearance and that she was not allowed to speak to the person who called to report Taylor’s disappearance.

“They said she was on site, she was in a class. So what’s more important, a class or an American citizen, a missing person? I don’t understand,” Seymore said.

Williams and Seymore said they cut the trip short because “we feared for our safety.”

Since then, Williams said, there have been no significant developments in the case.

“We’re not going to let this go,” Wililams said. “We’re not going to let them just brush us aside. I think they thought that’s what was going to happen. I think they thought nobody was going to take care of Taylor.”

Seymore cried as she talked about how much she loves and misses her daughter.

“The pain I felt 42 years ago when you were born is nothing compared to the pain I feel today because you are part of our lives. The pain, the hurt, the agony is killing me,” Seymore said.

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