Police in Palatine are continuing to search for a 24-year-old woman who has not been seen since she traveled to Chicago with her boyfriend late last month, according to authorities and her family.
Alyssa Smith was reported missing on Sept. 30, Palatine police said Monday, three days after she last had contact with her mother, Rebecca Smith. Alyssa worked at a Chipotle Mexican Grill before she disappeared.
She was last seen in Chicago’s 11th police district, in an area described as “somewhere between Cicero, Pulaski and Madison,” according to a missing person’s appeal shared on Facebook. Police said she was wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt, light khaki-colored pants and white Adidas shoes, and noted she has a Pennywise clown tattoo on her shoulder.
Smith had traveled to Chicago, roughly 30 miles from her hometown of Palatine, with her boyfriend of 20 months, Jacob Ray Caso, a tattoo artist from Crystal Lake. Caso returned home alone on Oct. 1 and searched the area where she was last seen, according to Smith’s mother.
Palatine police said they have received reports of possible sightings in Grant Park in downtown Chicago and on the city’s West Side. Family members have shared missing person posters referencing a “possible black eye,” though police have not confirmed that detail.
Caso has posted repeated public appeals as the search enters its second week. “Time to come home b,” he wrote in a Facebook post Friday. “No one is mad at you.” He has also shared posters claiming Smith was identified from a TikTok video, though he did not provide further detail. A post shared Wednesday claimed an anonymous tip reported Smith had been found alive, but Palatine police have not issued any confirmation.
Rebecca Smith has pushed back on speculation about her daughter’s whereabouts, insisting she remains missing until she is located and confirms her own safety.
“Until Alyssa is physically located and can speak for herself and tell authorities and her family that she is safe and does not wish to return home or have contact, we will continue to consider her missing and continue looking for her,” she wrote online, asking people to stop “debating the circumstances [of her disappearance] in the comments.”
“Until Alyssa herself is found and her safety is confirmed, we will keep looking.”
Smith and Caso began dating Jan. 21, 2025. In a Feb. 2 Instagram post marking their one-year anniversary, Smith wrote: “I can’t believe I’ve been with this old guy for a year now. I love you so much and I can’t wait to see what the future brings us.”
You must be logged in to post a comment Login