A Chicago woman who had been missing for two months after she was seen getting into an Uber has been found dead, her body tied up and wrapped in sheets in a shopping cart.
Rosa Chacon, 21, was last seen on surveillance video on Jan. 18, when she got into the rideshare outside her home on South St. Louis Avenue, ABC 7 Chicago reported.
“She said, ‘I’ll be back, Mom. I got the Uber ride there and the Uber ride back,’ that’s what she told me,” her mother, also named Rosa Chavon, told the outlet.
She said she didn’t know where her daughter was going or who ordered the Uber, adding that she did not take anything with her, including her coat and ID.
An Uber rep told the outlet it could not release the information due to privacy and policy reasons.
The family said they reported Rosa missing to police, but that they did little to help them.
“The cop said a crime had to be committed for them to do anything,” Rosa’s boyfriend, Alejandro Guzman, told ABC 7.
Her body was discovered about 10:45 a.m. Wednesday — only about two miles from where she was last seen — and her loved ones identified her through her tattoos.
Her remains were tied up, wrapped in sheets and placed inside a laundry cart in an alley near Western Avenue and 24th Place.
“I don’t know how they have a heart to do somebody like that,” Rosa’s devastated mom told the outlet after the shocking discovery.
The Cook County medical examiner will determine the cause of death.
“I miss my baby,” said Rosa’s dad, Jose Lucio. “Normally when our daughter leaves, we hear from her. She calls the next day, she calls an hour after she leaves, she’s in a house, she’s secure, she’s nice and warm. But we didn’t hear anything.”
On March 6, the family hired a Chicago-based private detective agency to help with the search because they said police were not doing enough.
The Richart Detective Agency, which shared a missing-person flyer online last week, posted an update on Thursday.
“Working closely with the family, we located Rosa Chacon,” the agency wrote on Facebook. “Unfortunately Rosa was found deceased. With the information we had the medical examiner was able to make a positive identification on Ms. Chacon.
“Keep her family in your prayers as it is a very difficult time for them. Thank you all for sharing [our posts about her],” the agency added.
Jose Richart told Newsweek that “the family contacted our office for assistance because they recognize that the city of Chicago has many cases like this.
“We began our investigation and obtained Rosa Chacon’s phone records … We spoke to many individuals and followed numerous leads,” he told the magazine.
Richart said the body “was taken to the Cook County Morgue where it could not be identified for reasons I cannot share at this time … At that time Rosa Chacon was identified as Jane Doe.”
He told Newsweek that one of his private investigators “visited the Cook County Morgue on Thursday, March 16, and submitted identifiers like tattoos Rosa Chacon had.
“After Identifying Ms. Chacon’s body, we visited the family and gave them the awful news. We believe the case is now a homicide and Chicago Police are working diligently on obtaining results,” Richart added.
The local community has offered a $15,000 reward for information that leads to a conviction.
Meanwhile, dozens of people gathered Saturday outside a home in Little Village to offer prayers, hold a moment of silence and released balloons on what would have been Rosa’s 22nd birthday, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Her older brother, Gregory Chacon, said she would have been “found a long time ago if the police would have went out and looked — but they kept telling me and my family that it was not a crime, that she’s fine.”
The Post has reached out to the Chicago Police Department for comment.
