The tearful mother and friend of missing person Taylor Casey said they were "not surprised" when they learned an official at the head of the investigation was placed on leave last week.
Chief Superintendent Michael Johnson, officer-in-charge of the Criminal Investigation Division at the Royal Bahamas Police Force, went on leave on Friday after voice notes involving him were released.
The news comes as police continue to investigate the disappearance of Casey, a Chicago resident who went missing on June 19 near Paradise Island. She was attending the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Retreat.
While the content of the voice notes has not been released, Casey's friend Emily Williams and 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 call for answers in the case.
"We're not surprised that Michael Johnson has now been suspended for corruption because we felt that while we were there and we could tell by the way the details weren't lining up," Williams said.
Seymore said the incident has left her with worries about how the department is handling the search effort for her daughter.
"If he can be corrupt in that department and take bribes for dropping investigation cases, that just gives me a grave concern about how did you treat my child's case?" Seymore said. "And I saw, actually, how they treated it when we were there. Nonchalant, lack of urgency, lack of care."
Seymore and Williams traveled to the Bahamas last week seeking more information about Taylor's disappearance, but they said they left with even more questions.
"We were met with a photo op, with a press conference," Williams said. "We weren't met with caring detectives that wanted to give us an update on where our loved one was. They couldn't keep details straight. They gave us misinformation, and then they tried to push us out."
Seymore detailed a series of failures by both the police department and the yoga retreat in the search for Taylor. She claimed that the department had a wall of missing people, and Taylor was not on it.
"Actions speak much louder than words in this scenario," Williams said.
Seymore also alleged that there were people at the yoga retreat who did not know that Taylor was missing and she was not allowed to speak with the person who called to report Taylor's disappearance.
"They said she's on the premises, she's in a class. So what is more important, a class or [an] American citizen, a human being missing? I don't understand," Seymore said.
Williams and Seymore said they left the trip early because "we feared for our safety."
Since then, Williams said they have not seen significant developments in the case.
"We're not going to let this go," Wililams said. "We're not going to allow them to just push us to the side. I think they thought that that's what was going to happen. I think they thought that no one would care about Taylor."
Seymore cried as she spoke about how much she loves and misses her daughter.
"The pain I felt 42 years ago while birthing you doesn't compare to the pain I feel today, with you missing out of our lives. The pain, the hurt, the agony is practically killing me," Seymore said.
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Jenna Sundel is a Newsweek reporter based in New Jersey. Her focus is reporting on breaking news. Jenna joined Newsweek ... Read more
