14 September 2023 , 08:50
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A heartbroken family has made a desperate appeal to locate a missing mum who vanished during a booze cruise trip.
Tamia Taylor, 21, was celebrating her birthday on the Mississippi River on September 9 when she was reported missing at around 10.30pm, according to the Memphis Police Department. She was onboard with three work colleagues when she suddenly disappeared for more than 15 minutes. The mum has now been missing for five days.
A group of friends searched the entire boat at around 1.45am when the cruise docked as emergency services were called to try and locate Tamia. The search has entered its fifth day, with cops still unsure of her whereabouts. "You got to have hope," Taylor's mum Debra told Fox 13. "Anybody that knows anything, people just give us whatever information. Even if you think it's not important, it may be more important than you think."
Kuandera Jenkins, one of her work friends, told Action5News earlier that day Tamia had driven from Brownsville to Jackson to go shopping. "[At] 7.30pm, that’s when we all got dressed and was heading our way to Memphis. Tamia was already drinking. She had a little bottle with her and she was already taking shots and we were smoking,” said Jenkins.
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She was last seeing boarding the "booze cruise" on Saturday (Fox News)At around 10.15pm, the pair met up with some friends and boarded Memphis Riverboats, but while they were waiting Tamia spoke to someone in line. Them two were talking and whatever and he was telling her ‘Oh, you a Virgo, she’s a Virgo,’ so they started laughing and talking so he gave her some money to buy her a drink so she can celebrate her birthday,” said Jenkins.
Tamia walked alone to the toilet and was gone for more than 15 minutes. ”I walked down there to the first floor and I was talking to Canesha and Shanquila and I asked them where is Tamia? They looked and said she was just right here. So we all split it up and searched the whole boat while the boat was moving looking for Tamia. I’m praying she didn’t fall off that boat. I think somebody snatched her or I think somebody [or] some people on that boat got something to do with it."
The company, Memphis Riverboats, posted a statement on Monday expressing sympathy for the Taylor family and said video from the cruise shows Taylor on their boat as it returned to the harbour.
“We can confirm from video footage circling around that she was last seen on the boat as the boat was pulling into the Harbour, where we dock our boats. We have no reason to believe she could have gone overboard and we will be respecting MPD as they conduct their investigation. We hope she is found safe and returns home,” the company said in its statement.