By NAN Staff Writer
News Americas, Kalamazoo, Michigan, Fri. Jan. 17, 2014: The family of missing Jamaican-American doctor, Teleka Cassandra Patrick, are turning to social media in the hopes that it will help them find their daughter who vanished on December 5, 2013.
A ‘Find Teleka Patrick’ page, (@findteleka), has been set up on Twitter with relatives writing: “Teleka Patrick has been missing since December 5, 2013. Please help our family find her! #findteleka.”
On Facebook, relatives posted an emotional message that reads: “…we miss her and worry about her safety every minute of every day… She is our little girl and no matter what, we will continue to love her unconditionally and search for her without ceasing…”
At GoFundMe, a Find Teleka Page has raised over $35,000 of the $50,000 goal even as the reward for the former Queens resident and Linden Seventh-day Adventist Church, Jamaica parishioner grew from $10,000 to $15,000.
But to date there have been no sightings of Dr. Patrick, 30, who recently moved to Kalamazoo, Michigan and was last seen in the parking lot of the Borgess Medical Center in downtown Kalamazoo, after completing her shift.
According to CNN, a Dec. 5th surveillance video from a local Radisson hotel shows Dr. Patrick at the front desk just after 7:30 p.m. She is dressed in all black and spends about 10 minutes speaking with the reception desk. Dr. Patrick then leaves after failing to book a room.
She can be seen exiting out the hotel’s front doors at about 7:48 p.m. wearing a black full-zipper hoodie, black pants, and black shoes and getting on a shuttle bus, which took her to her car, CNN reported.
She was dropped off at her vehicle that was believed to have been parked in the Borgess parking lot.
Her car was, however, later found abandoned in Indiana by a trooper late Thursday, December 5th in a ditch off I-94 west, bound just east of the Porter/Burns Harbor exit in Indiana. Reports indicate her wallet was still inside the vehicle.
Dr. Patrick was reported missing when she didn’t show up for work on Friday, Dec. 6, 2013. Her cell phone was reportedly left at her place of employment, Borgess Hospital. She has not been heard from since.
However, her family is clinging to hope that their daughter will come back to them and have hired a private investigator even as her ex-husband claimed Patrick was paranoid and heard voices when they were together and as reports surfaced that gospel singer Marvin Sapp had filed a restraining order against Patrick in Sept. 2013, claiming she stalked him and claimed him as her husband.
In September last year, Sapp requested and was granted a personal-protection order against Dr. Patrick by a Kent County Circuit Court judge. In an affidavit that accompanied the request for a restraining order, Sapp said Dr. Patrick had joined his church, came to his home and made claims that he was her husband.
He also said he had in his possession more than 400 pages of communication from her that he never responded to.
Despite the hullabaloo over the Sapp news, her dad Mattahais Patrick, a retired Seventh-day Adventist minister, and mother, Irene Patrick, are focused on getting their daughter back safe and sound.
“We still have hope,” said Irene Patrick. “We don’t know why this happened, but we trust in God. And God wins. He eternally wins.”
A benefit concert was held for Patrick at the Linden Seventh-day Adventist Church on 137th Avenue in Jamaica, Queens, NY recently.
Patrick worked at Loma Linda University School of Medicine and studied there as well, graduating last spring from Loma Linda University School of Medicine with a medical degree and a doctorate in biochemistry.
She is a past graduate of the Oakwood University and attended the Bronx High School of Science.
For now, the world can still see Dr. Patrick, the 5’7” young woman, with shoulder length black hair, smiling brightly in her last Facebook posting of August of 2013.
Investigators ask anyone with information about Dr. Patrick’s whereabouts to call the Kalamazoo County Sheriff’s Office at 269-383-8748, Indiana State Police at 219-696-6242 or contact any local FBI office or the nearest American Embassy or Consulate.
