Post by LadyBlue on Sept 22, 2007 13:11:01 GMT -5
Nailah Franklin spent last weekend visiting her boyfriend in Milwaukee and attending a wedding in Lake Geneva before returning to Chicago Sunday night.
Her boyfriend, Andre Wright, said she arrived back home at 8 p.m. and they spoke twice that night. On Monday evening, Wright said, Franklin, 28, was relaxing at home as they chatted on the telephone about their day.
"She was fine," Wright said. "She was her normal, cheerful self."
Franklin's boyfriend was the last of her family and friends to have seen the Eli Lilly and Co. pharmaceutical representative, who has been missing since Tuesday.
Chicago police are trying to speak with many people, including a man they believe made threatening calls to Franklin within the last two weeks. A different woman filed two orders of protection against the man Sept. 12 and 18, according to a source and court records.
Franklin filed a police report last week regarding the calls. Detectives encouraged her to also file an order of protection against the man, but she didn't, said Sgt. Virginia Zic-Schlomas, head of the Special Victims Unit at the Harrison District police station.
Franklin casually dated the man before she met her current boyfriend in June, family members said. "We don't know if the [threatening calls have] anything to do with this," her sister Lehia Franklin A. Cox said.
Wright, who first met Franklin this summer at an art gallery event in Chicago, said Franklin never mentioned the man until the phone calls started. He said the man called multiple times and she did not call him back.
Two friends last spoke to her Tuesday, and three people -- her boss, boyfriend and youngest sister -- received a vague text message that night stating she was at dinner and would call them later, her family said.
She never called.
Wednesday morning, Franklin missed an important meeting with her boss in suburban Chicago and, soon after, her family reported her missing. Family and friends say Franklin is a happy person with a thriving career and lots of friends. They suspect foul play because she would never just drop off the radar, they said.
"This is something she would never, ever, ever do," Cox said. "She would never miss work and not be in contact with her girlfriends or boyfriend."
Her company-issued vehicle, company laptop and personal laptop are also missing, according to police, who have not named any suspects but said they have "good leads." They are checking Franklin's cell phone and credit card records, as well as police-owned street surveillance and cameras inside her condominium complex at University Village Lofts in the 1500 block of South Sangamon Street.
Before the threatening phone calls, family and friends said they had never heard Franklin express concerns for her safety.
Wright arrived in Chicago Friday morning to help dozens of volunteers distribute about 10,000 fliers in the area around University Village.
Police have said Wright is cooperating and is not believed to be involved in the disappearance.
Franklin's missing company-issued vehicle is a black, 2005 Chevrolet Impala with Illinois license plate 1957855.