FL FL - Cieha Taylor, 28, dropped off bf, car found on tracks, Plant City, 6 Feb 2020 *Reward*

[EmmaRose]

I’m not local (or even in same state) but I did provide some photos in posts above of the area where Cieha’s car & other belongings were found. That will give you somewhat of an idea of the area.
I could be mistaken but I believe @Magz knows more about the Cape Coral area.
Looking at these two places in terms of miles apart, it states they are 143 miles apart or about a 2hr 15min- 2hr 30min drive.
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خرائط ‪Google‬‏‏

Thank you. That helps. I was under the impression that they were closer.

 

[Magz]

I’m not local (or even in same state) but I did provide some photos in posts above of the area where Cieha’s car & other belongings were found. That will give you somewhat of an idea of the area.
I could be mistaken but I believe @Magz knows more about the Cape Coral area.
Looking at these two places in terms of miles apart, it states they are 143 miles apart or about a 2hr 15min- 2hr 30min drive.
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خرائط ‪Google‬‏‏

Yep-I75 or r41. These would bring you to the north end of Cape Coral. We call it The Cape. Cape is about 120 square miles of land. We break it up into quads NE, NW, SW, SE. Lauren lives in south east (SE) Cape. The Taco Bell she worked at is very close to NE Cape in North Fort Myers on Cleveland Ave. 41 is called Cleveland Ave there. If you keep heading South, you hit Alligator Alley which takes you across the Everglades to Miami.

 

[pizzaman12]

Finding Cieha

I was reading through any new comments. Under April 18 post, the family responds to a question asking if TX Equasearch has been asked to help. The family responded: “Yes, we have but HCSO does not want them to come in and assist.

I don’t understand why HCSO is dead set on not asking for assistance or even allowing other groups and agencies to help!

Well, there does seem to be some issues as to why the car was moved, etc...That may be your answer

 

[Magz]

Well, there does seem to be some issues as to why the car was moved, etc...That may be your answer

We appear to have the same issue with Texas EquuSearch not being allowed in Lauren's case despite one of her sisters knowing TexEq.

 

[mlhenn]

‎Unfinished Business: Cieha Taylor on Apple Podcasts

This HCSO aired their podcast on Cieha’s case. Chad Chronister is the sheriff and is the main person sharing info throughout the episode.

Wow! Wow! Wow! I mean IMO...quite full of information I wasn’t quite aware of or the sheriff shared details I didn’t know about.

Based on HCSO:
•Cieha was living in Plant City with her on & off boyfriend and his friend.
•Feb 6 around 4pm, Cieha left the house
•LE spoke to the boyfriend, friend, and the friend’s parents. Parents didn’t have much interaction with her, but the two guys stated Cieha was acting strange like she was having a mental crisis.
•LE downloaded info from her phone and interviewed those she last spoke to.
•One person was a friend in Lakeland that Cieha stayed with a lot; she was supposedly on her way to the friend’s house (6th) but never made it. That friend also stated she sounded strange.
•Still Feb 6, a citizen saw her car and called it in to LE; they got out to check and noticed the car was running and that it was facing northbound on tracks
•HCSO & PCPD responded to the scene. The deputy & officer made the decision to move the car since it was obstructing an active railroad line
•Feb 9, the boyfriend’s mother sees the car on the side of road & calls the boyfriend. He comes down to the car and then calls the Lakeland friend; that friend comes down and they decide to drive the car to Cieha’s mom’s house. Oh and they got AAA to unlock it for them.
•10th, LE searches vehicle & collects evidence. Only fingerprints are Cieha’s and people she knows like the boyfriend and friends, etc
•there have been several searches and some leads but they’ve ended up as dead ends.

 

[Dre]

That actually gives me hope- since the friend she talked to and was going to go see also said she sounded strange (not scared) its possible that she had or is still having a mental break and traveled somewhere and hasn't reached out. we can hope she's alive and maybe even well?
So hoping for some news or new leads soon. I hope this isn't some breakup violence getting covered up well with the help of the friend; given some of these new facts I'm more hopeful that's not the case.

 

[mlhenn]

I understand the mom calling the boyfriend saying, “hey, Ciaha’s car is sitting here by the tracks.”
I even get him calling the friend in Lakeland if that’s where Cieha was supposed to been going a few days earlier.
What I don’t get is why they decided to call AAA to come unlock the car doors, then decide to drive it to a totally different town instead of either calling LE or calling her mom.????

And is AAA supposed to just unlock any car that someone calls to request & do so??

 

[mlhenn]

Also I listened to the podcast again and I can’t tell if the Sheriff stated the deputy AND the police officer decided to move the car from the tracks because it was obstructing an active railroad line (which I thought he said) or it was obstructing an active roadway lane.
I que that because if the sheriff stated railroad, then that goes against what’s already been reported (that it’s closed down). So if someone else gets a chance to listen, I’d appreciate it!

 

[alexwood]

Also I listened to the podcast again and I can’t tell if the Sheriff stated the deputy AND the police officer decided to move the car from the tracks because it was obstructing an active railroad line (which I thought he said) or it was obstructing an active roadway lane.
I que that because if the sheriff stated railroad, then that goes against what’s already been reported (that it’s closed down). So if someone else gets a chance to listen, I’d appreciate it!

What I heard in listening to the podcast is that the decision was made to move the vehicle because it was obstructing an active CSX [RR] line. It was sitting on the railroad tracks, facing Northbound, with the engine still running.

 

[mlhenn]

What I heard in listening to the podcast is that the decision was made to move the vehicle because it was obstructing an active CSX [RR] line. It was sitting on the railroad tracks, facing Northbound, with the engine still running.

Thank you.
So I wonder if it really is active or not...hmmmm.

 

[alexwood]

Thank you.
So I wonder if it really is active or not...hmmmm.

I think it is. Read this: Plant City, FL

 

[mlhenn]

I think it is. Read this: Plant City, FL

Apparently, the tracks where the car was left running weren’t in use and hadn’t been in some time due to repairs or something of that nature. So there was no danger of a train colliding with the abandoned car.

Finding Cieha

APRIL 18 POST:
Information shared in hopes of answering questions concerned individuals may have and that may lead to finding Cieha
•The boyfriend and his friend have been interviewed multiple times by detectives. LE said that the boyfriend is not a suspect and his story pans out.
•Cieha’s car was found running abandoned on the train tracks. The drivers side door was open. Her phone was found on the ground next to the car on the train tracks.
•A police officer moved her car off the tracks, turned it off, and locked her belongings and keys inside. Tags were not ran.
•Detectives will not release name of police officer but states an internal affairs investigation is going on.
•Train tracks where car was located has not had a train run on them for over a year.

I went back through part of the thread to see where the tracks not being active came from. And it may not be significant at all. That’s just my OCD (literally)!
I quoted two posts, one being mine where I linked the source stating the railroad track had not been used in over a year due to maintenance.

 

[mlhenn]

Why was CT reported missing three days after her last sighting? Doesn't it say that she was usually staying with her boyfriend in plant City and didn't have any other family in the area? Shouldn't he have noticed when she didn't come back that night, or the next night?

JMO, but judging by the family's comments and the facts released so far, this BF is a likely POI.

We now know (based on what the sheriff said) after Cieha left the house she was heading to a friend’s house to stay in Lakeland. That’s supposedly why the boyfriend didn’t notice her missing for a few days.
But....
The house is pretty close to where her car was found. Does that mean the boyfriend never passed that way during those 3 days? Possibly not.
Also, if she was supposed to be going to a Lakeland friend’s house and didn’t show up, wonder why the friend didn’t call the boyfriend to check it out? They had each other’s phone numbers I assume because the boyfriend called that friend right after he was made aware of the car.
Or was it normal for Cieha not to call or text her boyfriend to say, “hey, I made it to Lakeland!” or they talk at some point within those 3 days?

 

[mlhenn]

Sorry y’all if it seems like I’m rambling!

But I wonder if the reason Cieha was going to stay at her friend’s house in Lakeland was due to her and the boyfriend having a fight of some kind?

 

[alexwood]

In my opinion, the car on the tracks was staged. I believe that Cieha has met with foul play at the hands of someone(s) she knows.

 

[oviedo]

In my opinion, the car on the tracks was staged. I believe that Cieha has met with foul play at the hands of someone(s) she knows.

Yep I sadly am in agreement - they need to be searching IMO

 

[Gigi3]

Did her mom speak to her daily? We have 3 different reports that she was behaving strangely, and oddly enough, these 3 people were the ones she was supposed to be with/around during that time.

Something sure seems off about this case and I fear it’s not good. JMO

 

[mlhenn]

Wish we knew what time she communicated with the friend in Lakeland (if it was before or after she supposedly left the house)? If after, that would put her in the car with a very little time frame to get from house, talk or text friend, and to RR tracks.
If before, then oh the possibilities!

 

[Acorunadepor]

In my opinion, the car on the tracks was staged. I believe that Cieha has met with foul play at the hands of someone(s) she knows.

I think something different went down. She supposedly dropped her boyfriend off. And the only witness is a certain friend he was being dropped off at.

I think she tried to flee at that location, whatever was going on in the car it made her leave the car at that location. She was chased down and overpowered, put inside of a car (which was following them) and disappeared from side after that moment.

Staging a car is something quite different, because that means you can be spotted. Leaving the car on the tracks getting into another car. Dont get me wrong my scenario of what possibly happened also includes the risk of being seen. Only difference is it I think it happened all of sudden, in the moment.

 

[HouseRules]

This is such a strange case and my heart goes out to Cieha's friends and family that obviously love her very much and are committed to finding her. As a previous member mentioned, the fact that she spoke to her friend and sounded strange does provide some hope that she could possibly be out there somewhere unharmed.

The car on the train tracks thing really stumps me though. Why leave a vehicle (running or not) in the middle of a roadway on railroad tracks? The only reason I can think of is that you want/expect a train to come along and smash it to bits. If someone besides Cieha put it there, the only reason I can guess they would do that is because there is something they didn't want anyone to find in/on that vehicle and believed that a train smashing it would take care of it. If there wasn't anything they wanted destroyed, it would be much easier and draw far less attention to just move the vehicle somewhere inconspicuous and leave it, not to mention the possibility of it being discovered before a train came along. Trapnell is a country road but sees enough traffic that other cars would almost certainly come up on Cieha's car pretty soon after it was left there.

The other possibility is that Cieha herself put it there but again, why? Even if she intended to run off or harm herself, why would she feel the need to destroy her own vehicle, unless she was just really in a confused or bad mental place. I don't remember seeing if anyone has perhaps searched up and down the areas next to those train tracks in both directions? And then there are her shoes....

I live nearby and anytime I am in Plant City near downtown, there are a lot of trains going through there. I found a CSX map of their routes in the area and it looks like there are three different routes that pass through the downtown/viewing platform area. I believe the only trains I have personally seen in downton were all on the east-west route that runs roughly parallel to MLK through Seffner and Dover to the west and then Hwy 92 as you head East. I've also seen Amtrak trains on that route in Dover and boy, do those things FLY down the tracks.

I'm going to attempt to add a map from the CSX website that I've added some of my not so fabulous drawing onto. The pink is where Cieha's car was found. Red is the east-west route that is very active with both CSX and Amtrak. Orange is a route that I know is active because I live close enough to hear the train horns sometimes and occasionally get stopped at a crossing when I am driving in the area. The green is another route I know is active due to my having been stopped for freight trains at RR crossings on it. Also including link to interactive CSX route map which is kind of interesting in and of itself.

Half tempted to go park somewhere near the Trapnell route with a book and just wait to see if I see any trains come through.

CSX map: CSX.com - CSX System Map

ETA: I'm not sure where the boyfriend's home is located but if Cieha were heading to Lakeland, it's very possible that she was just going to head east on Hwy 60 vs. going up to I-4. The location of her vehicle is not more than a couple miles from 60. Wondering if the vehicle's location is along a route someone might reasonably be expected to take from the boyfriend's home to Hwy 60.