Parents of Missing Medical Resident Pray for Her Safe Return
Published at | Updated at
ABC News(KALAMAZOO, Mich.) — The family of a medical resident now missing for two weeks holds out hope that police will find her in time for Christmas.
Dr. Teleka Patrick, 30, a first-year medical resident at Borgess Medical Center in Kalamazoo, Mich., received a suspicious call the day before she vanished, her loved ones told ABC News. Family members said Patrick’s demeanor changed after she received the call, but they didn’t know who it was from.
“The police are working and putting together the pieces for me,” Patrick’s mother, Irene, said.
Patrick was last seen Dec. 5 around 8 p.m. on surveillance footage as she returned from an evening out and tried to get a room at a Kalamazoo Radisson hotel. Her parents, who say they do not know why she was at the hotel, said she was turned away because she didn’t have enough money for the room.
Patrick took a hotel shuttle to her car, a gold Lexus, which was found two hours and 20 minutes later in a ditch more than 100 miles away in Portage, Ind. Patrick was reported missing when she didn’t show up for work the next day.
“The Indiana State Police, they have gone out in the area looking all over, looking for any clue related to this case,” Kalamazoo Sheriff Richard Fuller said.
Investigators found Patrick’s purse and cellphone at the medical center, only adding to the mystery and leaving her family desperate for answers.
“We keep getting closer to Christmas, and it keeps getting further and further away,” Patrick’s sister, Tenesha, said.
There’s a $10,000 reward for information leading to Patrick’s whereabouts. Those with any information are urged to call the Indiana State Police at 219-696-6242 or the Kalamazoo County Sheriff’s Department at 269-383-8748.
Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio