'It Hurts Every Day:' Family Of Pregnant Postal Worker Who Vanished In 2018 Offering Reward

The family of a pregnant Chicago woman who mysteriously disappeared almost three years ago is now seeking help from the public looking for any new information related to the cold case. 

On Sunday, Kierra Coles’ parents addressed the media in downtown Chicago to revive interest in their daughter’s unsolved missing person’s case. Coles vanished in October 2018. At the time, she was 26 — and three months pregnant with her first child. 

“We miss her,” Coles’ mother, Karen Phillips, told WGN-TV. “We are just ready for her to come home.” 

Coles’ family has offered a $49,500 cash reward for any information regarding the young expecting mother’s disappearance.

Coles was last seen in the vicinity of her apartment building in Chicago’s Chatham neighborhood on Oct. 2, 2018. On the day she disappeared, she reportedly called in sick and to work. Initial reports, however, suggested surveillance cameras had captured a woman who appeared to be Coles wearing a postal uniform, seemingly on her way into work.

Postal investigators, however, later stated they didn’t believe it was Coles seen in the video.

"There's other postal employees that live on that block, so the postal inspection service does not believe that is Kierra Coles on that video," Julie Kenney, a public information representative at the United States Postal Inspection Service, told Oxygen.com in 2018.

Coles’ purse, cell phone, and lunch were found inside her parked car.

For years, her disappearance has baffled authorities. 

"Based on the length of time of Kierra Coles' disappearance and the fact that she has fallen off the grid, police suspect possible foul play," Chicago Police told Oxygen.com in 2018. 

Chicago Police, in conjunction with the FBI and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, are still actively investigating the case. A spokesperson for the FBI declined to comment on the case on Tuesday.

In the years that have passed, her’ father, Joseph Coles, said he hasn’t stopped knocking on doors and walking Chicago’s streets in search of his missing daughter. Investigators have given him little information, he said. 

“Every day is a struggle for me,” Joseph Coles told the Chicago Tribune last year.

The family also often wonders if their grandchild was born and what may have happened to the child.

"He or she will almost be two,” Karen Phillips told ABC News. “And not knowing if she's out there, the baby's out there, if they're together — it's hurting.”

In September, loved ones publicly gathered at a Chicago pub to commemorate Coles’ 28th birthday and to continue raising awareness around her case. 

“We have not forgotten, not given up on our sister,” Mack Julion, president of the local chapter of the National Association of Letter Carriers, told the Tribune.

Coles is described as Black with brown eyes and black hair. She is five feet, four inches tall, and weighs approximately 125 pounds. She has a heart tattoo on her right hand and another tattoo on her back that says “Lucky Libra.”

“Speak up. If it was your family and I knew some information, you’d want me to speak up,” Joseph Coles also told WGN-TV last year. “All I am asking is for you to speak up. I’m just looking for answers.”

Coles was one of three women, two of whom were pregnant, who disappeared around the same time from Chicago’s south side in 2018.

Anybody with information related to Coles’ disappearance or whereabouts is asked to contact Chicago Police homicide detectives at 312-747-8274 or by submitting an anonymous tip online.