Gone since 2017, Alexis Scott is featured in new art exhibit on missing Illinois women

PEORIA — It's been four years since Alexis Scott went missing at age 20, last seen briefly at a party in Peoria.

Since she vanished on Sept. 23, 2017, family, friends and an active Alexis Camry Scott Campaign Facebook page have kept Scott's name and face in the public eye. 

This year's remembrance will not have a march or a vigil as in years past, said Scott's mother, April Allen. That's due to the recent violence at Peoria High School — a short walk from where Scott disappeared — and the desire to spare children more trauma by having a visible display.

This year, Scott is being featured in a portrait by a Chicago-based artist as part of an effort to highlight missing women in the state.

Scott was last seen at a party on Richmond Street in Peoria, having arrived there at about 5 a.m., investigators have said. She left a short time later, and that’s where the trail stops. Police say they have talked to the people who were at the house, executed search warrants, put her name into a national missing persons database and spent hundreds of hours on the case.

'Give voice to the voiceless'

Damon Lamar Reed has painted a portrait of Scott in his project "Still Searching," which highlights missing women from Illinois. The project, which features both portraits and murals, is on display at a former Chicago Public Schools building that is now used for fine arts programs. 

"It was to give voice to the voiceless," he said. "Some of these high-profile cases (like Scott's) can help raise awareness for the cases that no one is paying attention to."

More:How Peoria handles missing-persons cases

The portrait is colorful and yet somber. Reed said he wanted to be creative and draw people in as a way to humanize the missing women to help possibly solve their cases. The artistic license he used helped to drum up interest as well.

"If I had just posted a picture, you wouldn't be talking to me right now," he said.

The project will also be the subject of a Hulu documentary, also called "Still Searching," and will feature his artwork as well as interviews with family members, he said.

A family's plea for help, and worries as violence spirals

Peoria police have said the Facebook page about Scott, run by Dusti Moultrie, has brought in tips over the years and kept the case in the public's eye. But missing person cases take time, and older ones are harder due to the passage of time. 

Allen said she hopes anyone with information regarding the fate of her daughter will contact police to help solve the case. 

And worse, the ongoing violence in the city is not helping detectives assigned to Alexis' case or other missing persons cases.

"Each major criminal event affects the ability of the detectives to work on Alexis' case," Moultrie said. "It pushes her further to the bottom of the barrel. She's a cold case right now. We haven't had tips in a long time."

Previously:Peoria exhibit honors missing women

And that's why the Facebook page has begun to post more about recent crime and share posts regarding other missing persons. It's to help try to solve some crime, and it's a way to educate those who "liked" the page but who aren't from the areas of the city hardest hit by the violence.

"What I have learned along the way is that a lot of single mothers are struggling with their teens. Runaways are a prime target for criminal entities who can use them for sexual trafficking or to commit crimes, whether it is robberies or shootings," Moultrie said.

She likes new police Chief Eric Echevarria, having met over Zoom with him twice, and says the team of police officers working on the Alexis Scott case are doing what they can. 

But Moultrie says real change needs to happen for the community to rally behind Echevarria's plea for help from citizens throughout Peoria, issued Tuesday after three shootings, one fatal, occurred within hours of each other.

More:'Enough is enough,' says frustrated Peoria police chief after three shootings in 24 hours

Yes, more people of color are in positions of power now, but she said it's also about experiences. 

"The leaders of the city are still in a different realm than the people who are in the midst of the violence," Moultrie said. "They don't live in the same neighborhood and are not affected in the same way.

"Until leaders in those neighborhoods become part of the leadership, then things are not going to change."