Updated

Updated · Fox News · Oct 8

Palatine Police Search for Missing 24-Year-Old Alyssa Smith After Sept. 30 Chicago Trip

Updated

Updated · Fox News · Oct 8

Palatine Police Search for Missing 24-Year-Old Alyssa Smith After Sept. 30 Chicago Trip

Q: What led missing 24-year-old Alyssa Smith to Chicago's West Garfield Park days after she vanished, and is she in danger?

There is no verified public evidence showing what led Alyssa Smith to Chicago’s West Garfield Park after she vanished, and authorities have not said whether she went there voluntarily, with someone else, or under duress. What is known is limited. Smith, 24, left for Chicago with her boyfriend, Jacob Ray Caso, in late September and did not return. Caso later came home without her, but police have said he has not been accused of a crime or wrongdoing. Family flyers and media reports place her last known area somewhere between Cicero, Pulaski and Madison in West Garfield Park, and police have also investigated possible sightings in Grant Park and near Cicero Avenue and Roosevelt Road. As for whether she is in danger, police have not publicly confirmed that. But she remains a missing person, and her safety has not been established. That alone is why authorities and her family are treating the situation seriously. Family posters have mentioned a possible black eye, though police have not confirmed that detail, so it should not be treated as established fact. At this stage, the key point is that there has been no confirmed public explanation for how or why she ended up on Chicago’s West Side, and no public confirmation that she is safe. Investigators are still following leads and asking anyone who sees Smith or knows her whereabouts to contact Palatine police at 847-359-9000 or call 911.

Q: Why did Alyssa Smith's boyfriend return from Chicago without her, and what is the truth behind her rumored black eye?

There is no verified public explanation for why Jacob Ray Caso returned from Chicago without Alyssa Smith. What has been reported is that Alyssa traveled to Chicago with him, he came back alone on Oct. 1, and, according to her mother, later searched the area where he was last with her. Police have said he has not been accused of a crime or wrongdoing, and the circumstances of her disappearance remain unclear. As for the rumored black eye, that detail appears to have come from family-distributed missing-person flyers and social media posts describing her as possibly having one. Police have not confirmed that she had a black eye, and news reports have treated it as unverified. So the factual picture is limited: Caso’s reason for returning without Smith has not been publicly established, and the black-eye claim remains a rumor rather than a confirmed finding by investigators. Authorities continue to treat Alyssa Smith as a missing person and are following up on possible sightings in Chicago.

3 articles · Updated · Fox News · Oct 8

Alyssa Smith, 24, has been missing for more than a week after leaving for a Sept. 30 trip to Chicago with her boyfriend and not returning to her Palatine-area home.
Palatine police said detectives are actively investigating her whereabouts and trying to verify reported sightings from Saturday, Oct. 3, near Grant Park and around Cicero Avenue and Roosevelt Road.
Jacob Ray Caso, identified by Smith's mother as her boyfriend, returned from Chicago without her and later reposted a missing-person flyer saying, "Time to come home" and "No one is mad at you"; police have accused him of no wrongdoing.
Smith is described as 5-foot-5 and 135 to 140 pounds, with brown hair, brown eyes, multiple piercings and tattoos including a Pennywise clown on her left shoulder; she was believed to be wearing a gray hoodie, light khaki pants and white Adidas sneakers.