Two days after cashing in a lottery check, Roberta Taylor, 70, dressed up in her new white dress and slipped on some comfortable tennis shoes for the long bus ride to her hometown in Tennessee.
Then she disappeared.
Taylor left her home in the Grand Boulevard neighborhood of Chicago on Monday, heading for a family reunion a week early. Every year, she goes by herself to Murfreesboro, Tenn., mostly to spend time with her sister, said Taylor’s daughter, Yvonne Kelsey.
“She was so happy,” Kelsey said.
Beyond looking forward to seeing familiar faces and shopping, she was buoyed by a recent windfall, family members said.
Taylor, who plays the lottery every day, won “almost $10,000” in a game about a month ago, Kelsey said.
Taylor, she said, cashed the check June 17. The store owner where she bought the lucky ticket estimated the winnings at $5,000.
The luck came just in time for Taylor’s trip, but family members said they do not know whether she took any or all of the money.
Kelsey said Taylor’s husband saw his wife get into a cab about 3 p.m.
Kelsey said that she had called the cab company that her mother always uses and that the cabbie who picked her up told her that he dropped Taylor off in front of the Greyhound bus terminal at Jefferson and Harrison Streets.
Chicago police said they have not determined whether Taylor got on the bus. They said that they have checked hospitals and morgues for her and that they have entered Taylor’s name and description on the FBI’s missing-persons list.
“It’s a waiting game, and it’s a lot of footwork and asking questions,” said Officer Harley Martin of Wentworth Area police.
Taylor suffered from diabetes but otherwise was in good health, Kelsey said.
“I don’t think she’d wander off,” she said, “because she was looking forward to her trip. . . . She wanted a white dress for her trip. We went to seven or eight stores, looking for that dress.”
Taylor has just a few friends with whom she socializes, Kelsey said. Most of her time was spent at the laundermat, church or with her daughters, said Kelsey, who lives near her mother’s home.
Had Taylor become ill because of her diabetes, Kelsey said, a bracelet she wore would inform people of her disease and how to treat her.
Kelsey said she became worried about her mother because family members did not receive a call from her Tuesday. Taylor usually calls shortly after arriving, Kelsey said.
She said that she telephoned her aunt in Tennessee and that the aunt told her that Taylor had not made it. Kelsey said she that she then checked with her four sisters in Chicago and a brother in California but that none had heard from Taylor.
A short time later, the family called police.
