KALAMAZOO, Mich- A family searching for their missing daughter is making a cry for help.
Teleka Patrick, 30, was last seen December 6 in the parking lot of Borgess Medical Center in downtown Kalamazoo. Patrick was reported missing when she didn’t show up for her work. Patrick is described as 5’7″, 160 pounds with black hair.
Here is the letter sent to FOX 17:
It’s been seven days, and we still can’t find our daughter. Teleka Cassandra Patrick is our eldest and has always been the light of our lives. The dark unanswered questions: where is she? who is she with? Is she ok? Is she alive?– the questions claw at us, tearing us to shreds. It takes all of our energy not to fall to the floor and scream our hearts out. Because it’s cold outside, and she is just a girl, the sweetest, kindest and most hopeful girl you could ever meet, who was was never too shy to show every single last one of her teeth when she smiled, never to shy to help someone in need, and never to shy to laugh out loud at her own sarcastic corny jokes (she thought she was hilarious). And oh, do we need to see her smile again.
She’s worked so, so hard every day of her life and recently finished a dual MD/PhD program at Loma Linda University, before starting her residency at Borgess and Bronson Methodist Hospitals. That is where she went missing on December 5th 2013. The days since have been the most brutal, maddening all consuming thing we have ever faced. It’s been seven days. Seven prayerful, hopeful, terrifying, excruciating, sleepless, tear-filled days- each day a lifetime, and she’s just a girl. A girl who loves sunflower seeds, playing her violin, sneaking white chocolate late at night, blasting her speakers to sing and dance to the latest Mary Mary song. A girl who loves cracking jokes on her little brother and sister Eddie and Tenesha and turning around and giving them sage old advice as if she were their grandmother. And now she’s lost.
We are holding fast to our lifeline, Jesus Christ. The inescapable harsh reality is that everyday that goes by, every day she’s lost in the freezing Midwestern winter means the search gets tougher and infinitely more frustrating, and the odds grow scarcer that she will ever be found. And we can’t live with that. We won’t. We need help, we need a miracle and we need your help. Our entire extended network of friends and family has come together to help in the search to find Teleka, but it hasn’t been enough. There is a growing social media campaign (#findTeleka), a gofundme account which is helping us raise funds for the search effort (www.gofundme.com/findteleka), youtube videos (http://youtu.be/4H9p6nDqxNM) and countless prayer lines that have been set up, but we need more help. We just do.
We are a family of deep faith, and we will celebrate together when Teleka is found. Our hearts are broken, but we continue to search, we continue to hope and pray and love against odds that get tougher by the day. And we won’t stop no matter what. Please continue to pray, donate, and share her story with everyone in your network.
Thank you,
Mattahais & Irene Patrick
If you have any information, you are asked to call the Kalamazoo County Sheriff’s Department at 269-383-8748 or Silent Observer at 269-343-2100.
