Nationwide — Kierra Coles, an African American postal worker from Chicago, Illinois, disappeared nearly eight years ago while three months pregnant. Authorities have now increased the reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction to $250,000.
Coles was 26 when she disappeared on Oct. 2, 2018. Her family last saw her near 81st and Vernon in Chicago’s Chatham neighborhood, where police later found her car parked near her home with her phone and purse still inside.
According to CBS News, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service announced the $250,000 reward Tuesday. The amount is the largest reward the agency has ever offered and is a significant increase from the $25,000 reward announced shortly after Coles disappeared.
In 2022, Chicago police released surveillance footage showing Coles withdrawing cash from an ATM inside a Walgreens in Chatham. The footage remains the last known image of her. Earlier footage showed her leaving her apartment with a man investigators later identified as a person of interest.
The man returned to Coles’ apartment the following day and left her car outside. Investigators questioned him, but police said he gave conflicting accounts of what happened that night. Authorities have not made an arrest in the case.
Coles’ family has also offered a $63,000 reward for information that could help locate her. She is described as 5-foot-4 and 125 pounds, with black hair, brown eyes, a medium complexion, and tattoos of a heart on her right hand and “Lucky Libra” on her back. Anyone with information can contact the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.