On May 18, 2018, Helen Menzyk’s daughter Joyce Cluchey told her mother she was on her way home.
"I texted her and I said, 'I love you,'" Helen told NBC Chicago earlier this month. "And she texted and said, 'I love you, too.'"
Joyce, 30, told her mother she was about to get on the eastbound bus at 47th Street and Cicero Avenue in Chicago, Illinois. It was an area with which she was familiar, according to a press release by the Chicago Police Department.
Joyce never made it home. Chicago Police Officer Jose Jara told Dateline the young mother was last seen around 11:10 that morning, and hasn’t been heard from since.
"I just want my daughter back," Helen told NBC Chicago. "Somebody out there has her, or knows where she's at."
Dateline independently reached out to members of Joyce’s family but hadn’t heard back by Monday afternoon.
It’s unknown whether Joyce ever got on a bus after texting her mother, but detectives say they plan to check surveillance cameras in the area where she was last seen.
Joyce’s family told NBC Chicago that her 9-year-old son keeps asking when she is coming home.
"He says, 'Nana, have you heard from my mom? Can you find her?'" Helen said, adding that she tells him she is "trying to bring her home.”
Officer Jara told Dateline her mother Helen called authorities to report her daughter missing. He was unable to provide the date of the report, however, but did tell Dateline, “police issued an alert for [Joyce] late at night on Tuesday, June 5, 2018.”
Helen told NBC Chicago that her daughter always called her to say she is OK. It’s now been a month since she disappeared, though, and Joyce’s aunt Bonnie Kovalsky, who also spoke with NBC Chicago, believes her niece may be “in harm’s way.”
"I'm constantly looking at my phone, pacing the floor, getting in my van going to look for her and not coming up with nothing," Helen said.
The press release from the Chicago Police says Joyce, whose nickname is Strawberry, was last seen wearing a black sweater, red shirt, black leggings and flip flops. She is described as being 5’ tall and weighing 100 lbs., with red-brown hair, blue eyes and a light complexion. Joyce is said to have tattoos of the names “Elias” and “Enrique” on her wrists. If you have any information regarding Joyce’s whereabouts, please contact Area Central Special Victims Unit at 312-747-8380.
