Missing Chicago woman’s family says staying positive is their ’only option’

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CHICAGO (AP) — Nailah Franklin’s sister says their family is just trying to stay positive.

Even as the days pass with no word from the 28-year-old pharmaceutical sales representative. Even as Chicago police retrieve her car from Hammond, Ind. — a place to which her sister has no known ties.

Lehia Franklin Acox, Franklin’s sister, says being positive “is our only option.”

“We’re all just trying to keep our spirits up, but it’s a challenge,” Acox said Saturday afternoon ahead of a prayer vigil that evening.

“This is really taking a toll on us, with every day that passes. We’re not sleeping well, we’re not eating well.”

Franklin was last heard from Tuesday, when she sent an uncharacteristically vague text message to friends and family saying that she was having dinner and that she’d call later. She never did.

When she didn’t turn up for an important meeting Wednesday morning with her boss at Eli Lilly and Co., where she’s a pharmaceutical sales representative, co-workers called family, and family called police. Eli Lilly is based in Indianapolis. Franklin’s sales territory covered Chicago’s suburbs, her sister said.

Franklin’s 2005 Chevrolet Impala, along with some personal items, was found Friday night near an abandoned building in Hammond, according to Monique Bond, spokeswoman for the Chicago Police department. She said the car is being transported to Chicago for forensic and evidence processing.

Several jurisdictions, including Chicago, Hammond and the Cook County Sheriff’s department are searching for Franklin, Bond said. Divers have been involved in the search.

Acox said it’s unusual for Franklin not to contact her friends or family, leading them all to fear that she didn’t leave willingly. Last week, Franklin filed a police report about threatening phone calls she’d received, but she declined to file an order of protection against the alleged offender, a man she’d once dated.

Acox said the discovery of Franklin’s car was heartening because it could yield some clue to Franklin’s whereabouts, but “on the other hand, it’s still maddening because we do not have (her) back with us.”