There’s lots of adjectives Sam Farley would use to describe his daughter — fun, energetic, smart and ambitious.
She studied architecture in college, he said. However, she’s struggled with her mental health the past few years, and has been listless since being diagnosed with depression, he said.
“I felt the heaviness,” Farley told the Tribune. “I had to fight to keep the heaviness off of me.”
Morgan Farley, 25, has been missing since April 3, according to Chicago police, and her dad says he’s relying on friends and prayer to hopefully bring her home, a situation that’s all too familiar for families of Black and brown women and girls in the city.
Morgan went missing in the 1300 block of West 110th Street in Morgan Park. She’s described as being about 5 feet, 10 inches tall, weighing 160 pounds, with brown eyes and black hair. She was later seen over Mother’s Day weekend in a vehicle with an unknown man at Ada Park, police said.
On April 2, Farley said he went downstairs around 7 a.m. and saw Morgan, who he lives with, walk outside, figuring she was stepping out to smoke a cigarette. But when Farley got back to his house a few hours later, he noticed that the potato she cut up for breakfast was still sitting on the kitchen counter.
“The next morning, I took a more thorough look and I said if she doesn’t show up till after I do the prayer call, then I’ll go to the police station,” he said.
However, Farley struggled to get attention from police on the case, as first reported in Capital B News. He said it took more than a week to get ahold of the assigned detective after filling out a missing persons report on April 3. The Police Department posted a flyer on April 16. Although Farley said he knows police have a lot of people to worry about, the process seemed “very slow and drawn out.”
A police spokesperson said in a statement that the department “thoroughly (investigates)” every missing persons case based on available evidence, in the hope that the individuals can return home to their loved ones.
“The Department is continuously working to strengthen communication with those affected by these missing persons cases,” the statement said. “Our goal is to ensure the families of missing individuals are treated fairly, and with dignity and respect, as these investigations proceed.”
Over the past two decades, Black people have accounted for about two-thirds of missing person cases in Chicago, a 2023 Pulitzer Prize-winning report from the Invisible Institute and City Bureau found. It also showed that despite making up only 2% of the city’s population, Black girls and women between the ages of 10 and 20 make up about 30% of all missing person cases.
In Farley’s case, he said he’s largely leaned on family and friends in his search. They’ve combed through social media, attempting to find clues about Morgan’s location, and posted her flyer, he said. She’s never disappeared before, he added.
Farley said Morgan had isolated herself, and only had a few friends who she didn’t hang out with much anymore. He assumes she’s still in Chicago, saying he drives by nearby housing complexes on the off-chance he spots her.
“I’m a man of prayer. I thank God I have a lot of people who surround me, and it’s just literally forcing me to do the work,” Farley said. “When I say do the work, force me to stay in my Bible, keep my prayer life where it needs to be. That’s the only thing that’s keeping me going.”
Anyone with information is asked to call 911 or contact Area 2 SVU detectives at 312-747-8274.