Family pleads for help finding missing South Side pastor Warren Beard

Hours before the Rev. Warren Beard went missing on July 2, he spoke on the phone with his counterpart at New Israelite Missionary Baptist Church.

"He was jovial. He was happy, joking as usual," the church's senior pastor, Chenier A. Alston, told reporters Monday.

The call ended as their calls always ended, with the men telling each other, "I love you."

What happened next wasn't usual at all.

Beard didn't show up the next morning, and the car he drove to Joliet went missing, Alston said. In the week since, family and friends say Chicago and Joliet police haven't given them a clue about what the 53-year-old was doing when he disappeared.

"We want answers. We want to know where he is," Alston said. "Rev. Beard is a very important person to us. He's a loving husband, an amazing father."

Beard, a father of five, has been assistant pastor for six years at the church, 1625 W. 75th Place. He also works as a director at Preservation of Affordable Housing Communities.

Family said he was visiting people in Joliet, where he had attended college. He was last seen about 10 p.m. when a license plate reader recorded his black Honda HRV in the 400 block of North Broadway Street, family said.

Alston and family wouldn't say who Beard was last seen with, saying it was up to police to determine that part of the investigation.

The Chicago Police Department, which is leading the investigation, said Monday it has no updates on the case. CPD did not respond to the family's accusation that police have not updated them. Joliet police, in a statement, said it "continues to actively seek the whereabouts" of Beard and assist CPD in its investigation.

A missing person flyer from CPD describes Warren as 6 feet tall, 200 pounds, bald, with tattoos on his arms and back.

Beard's aunt, Theresa Boss-French, said she's worried about his disappearance because it's unusual for him to go silent.

"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," Boss-French said. We are "very wary and concerned for his safety."

Another aunt, Patricia Truitt, said she wanted police to issue an amber alert in the area for his Illinois license plate, DY20511.

Truitt said she was disappointed police haven't given family an update beyond saying where his car was last spotted. She said she wants to know information about the person he was last seen with and location data showing where his two cellphones were last located.

"Rev. Beard had bank cards, debit cards, credit cards. We'd like information on those cards. We haven't received anything," Truitt said, "and that makes this more painful."

Warren's wife, Yowanda Beals, and his oldest son, Shane Beard, said the assistant pastor was a family man and loved by the entire congregation.

Alston told the Sun-Times he was considering hiring a private investigator to take up the case. Since Beard went missing, he's undergone extreme emotional stress.

"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. A prayer vigil for Beard is planned for 7 p.m. Thursday at the church, he said.

"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."