Family pleads for help to find missing Chicago Pastor Warren Beard
Family and friends of the Rev. Warren Beard, a beloved father of five, Sunday school teacher and assistant pastor at New Israelite Missionary Baptist Church in Chicago, Illinois, are now desperately praying and calling on the public for help in finding him after he disappeared without a trace more than a week ago after visiting with friends in Joliet.
“We are all hurting right now because we know that Rev. Warren Beard is not someone who would just disappear without saying a word to his family,” the 53-year-old pastor’s aunt, Theresa Boss-French, told reporters at a press conference cited by the Chicago Sun Times. She noted that his family is “very wary and concerned for his safety.”
Information released by the Chicago Police Department said Beard was last seen on the night of July 2 at around 9 p.m., as he left the gathering of friends in Joliet.
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Investigators told the pastor’s family that his black 2023 Honda HR-V with Illinois tag DY20511 was later spotted by a plate-reader at the intersection of Jefferson Street and Larkin Avenue about 10:30 p.m. on July 2.
Since then, Beard’s family and friends haven't seen or heard from him. The pastor, who has multiple tattoos and a pierced left ear, was last seen wearing a white button-up short-sleeve shirt, with light blue and navy-blue polka dots, navy-blue pants, and black Cole Hann laced-up shoes. The Chicago PD is asking anyone with information on his whereabouts to contact them at (312) 747-8380 or call 911.
New Israelite Missionary Baptist Church’s senior pastor, Chenier A. Alston, told reporters that Sunday was difficult for him without his assistant pastor.
“Sunday was the hardest day I had to preach here ... because I had to walk from my office into this church without the man that always stood behind me or beside me,” Alston said while noting the church will host a prayer meeting for Beard at 7 p.m. Thursday.
“All we’re asking is if you know anything, anything, please send an anonymous tip to the police department. ... Send up a smoke signal. We just want to bring him home to us.”
Beard has served as assistant pastor of the church located at 1625 W. 75th Place for the last six years. He also works as a director at Preservation of Affordable Housing Communities, the Chicago Sun Times said.
Alston said that hours before Beard went missing on July 2, he spoke with him on the phone and nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
“He was jovial. He was happy, joking as usual,” he recalled before they would eventually end the conversation telling each other “I love you.”
The pastor’s family members told the outlet they are now considering hiring a private detective in an effort to answers.
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