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Missing in Manhattan: LaTia Jefferson disappears from Upper East Side amid COVID lockdown

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No one’s heard from LaTia Jefferson since Tuesday, May 12, 2020, when she stepped out of her Upper East Side apartment and into the socially-distanced abyss. Some sources state Jefferson’s date of last contact was May 11th; however, according to Jefferson’s mother, Roshonda Ludy, the 28-year-old was last seen or heard from on the 12th, when she is believed to have stepped out of her apartment to grab lunch. Jefferson did not make it back home, and has not been in contact with her family since. Her keys, wallet, cell phone, ID, and glasses were later discovered in her apartment.

Physical Characteristics

Gender:Female
Race:Black
Age:28
Height:5’8″ – 5’9″
Weight:110-120 lbs; slim build
Hair:Light brown, short locs
Eye Color:Brown

An All-Too-Real Nightmare

LaTia Jefferson’s story feels like one of those all-too-real nightmares so common now, as we cope with two months of plague-avoidant living. It highlights how even those directly spared by the virus can be blind-sighted by its secondary and tertiary consequences.

28-year-old Jefferson originally hails from a town outside St. Louis, Missouri. After graduating with a B.S. in computational math in 2014, according to her LinkedIn, she soon began working in New York City’s tech scene. She also appears to have worked as a confidence/life coach. On her Instagram page, she describes herself in her bio:

I move people from the chaos of who they think they should be to the clarity of confidence in who they’ve always been. 

When the pandemic hit the city hard in mid-March, Jefferson was living in an apartment near on Manhattan’s Upper East Side near Tramway Plaza and working at a tech start-up. But, as the economy ground to a halt, Jefferson was laid off.

Amidst the uncertainty, Ludy says she found comfort in knowing that her daughter, who lived alone, would at least be safe in the confines of her own apartment. Ludy tells me she was making plans to move her daughter back home to Missouri so she could wait out the pandemic far away from its epicenter. Instead, Ludy was forced to grapple with something worse: LaTia Jefferson was missing. Her last contact with her daughter was via text message.

In an document describing her daughter’s story, Ludy wrote:

Everyone talks about shelter in place, but how can this mother shelter in place knowing her daughter is somewhere out there with no food and shelter? The implications of this virus are much greater than they appear. What does one do when they’ve lost their job as a result and immediately their life is turned upside down?

A Hindered Search

There’s very little information out there about the circumstances of Jefferson’s disappearance, even less than is typically out there about people who go missing when when we’re not battling a plague. In fact, as the media is dominated by COVID coverage, the only statement I’ve seen from law enforcement about the case is a tweet from the NYPD’s 19th precinct.

What is clear, however, is just how much COVID-19 has neutered search efforts. In an email, Ludy wrote:

What does a mother do when she’s helplessly searching the streets and subways of New York City for her daughter but people are scared to even come near you in fear of contracting the virus? Or when your daughter is one of millions of missing people in one of the largest cities and what seems like years of searching to you is but another footnote in a pile of missing persons’ cases?

What’s Left Behind

LaTia Jefferson’s case has some parallels to that of 18-year-old Maddie Bell, whose May 17th disappearance in Ohio has dominated true crime media for the last week. Bell—who was days away from her high school graduation—went missing after going to a tanning salon, and concerns of foul play grew with each passing day. As I researched Jefferson’s case, the news broke that law enforcement had located Bell safely, and that she may have disappeared voluntarily.

Maddie Bell [Image via[

But, before Bell was located, I focused on a what might be an insignificant similarity between the two cases: when Bell’s car was found abandoned in a church parking lot, searchers discovered her keys and cell phone left behind. Searchers in Jefferson’s case also discovered her keys, phone, and wallet in her apartment. This seems like it could be a foreboding detail: people generally don’t leave their keys behind on purpose. And, after all, don’t us young people tend to take our cellphones everywhere? It seemed to hint at something malicious.

But the cases diverge from there. Bell’s case received significant media attention, and involved cooperation between several branches of law enforcement—including the FBI—and had hundreds of volunteers joining the search. People in the community knew Maddie Bell’s name and face and knew she was missing.

Sadly, Jefferson’s disappearance hasn’t received even a fraction of the attention that Maddie Bell’s elicited. I’ve talked before about both the concept of “missing white woman syndrome,” and more generally on how cases involving people of color tend to get less media coverage. But even if we attempt to put that aside, unlike in Ohio, New York City is still under lockdown, hindering search efforts and (understandably) diverting resources elsewhere.

But, most importantly, unlike Maddie Bell, LaTia Jefferson’s whereabouts remain unknown. Even if exactly what went down in Bell’s case remains murky, at least Bell’s family can go to sleep knowing that Bell is alive. Jefferson’s family does not have that privilege.

LaTia Jefferson [Image via Facebook]

Finding LaTia

The 19th Precinct of the New York City Police Department is investigating Jefferson’s disappearance, but her family has also consulted with several Private Investigators, and eventually created GoFundMe in hopes of raising enough money to hire the one they like. In the meantime, they are asking all New Yorkers—but particularly those on the Upper East Side and Harlem—to keep an eye out. Roshonda Ludy will keep asking for tips, keep searching for her daughter, and hopes that someone out there knows something about what happened to LaTia Jefferson:

Please hear this mother’s cry and share any information you may have in the disappearance of LaTia.

If you have any information about LaTia Jefferson’s whereabouts, please contact the NYPD’s 19th Precinct, or contact Jefferson’s family at (201) 266-3946 or BringLaTiaHome@Gmail.com.

Posted in Crime, Missing Persons

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