MEMPHIS, Tenn — ABC24 is highlighting one group dedicated to assisting searches and raising awareness.
Tamia Taylor was reported missing on September 10 after visiting downtown Memphis last Saturday to go on a Riverboats cruise. Her body was found in the Mississippi River on September 23.
Two other Black women, 33-year-old Jacqulyn Vail and 63-year-old Tanna Stevenson, were reported missing in Memphis earlier this year. Stevenson was found dead in late February.
“When we go missing, we go missing usually from our neighborhoods,” Jasmine Ellis. the CEO of the Dock Ellis Foundation, said. “We are usually with our friends. We are usually with people that we feel comfortable around, or we are out doing things most normal people do.”
Her organization's goal is to locate missing women and raise awareness about missing minorities.
“At any day, I can leave my house to go to work and not make it home,” Ellis said.
Taylor’s disappearance is one of thousands of minorities that go missing, a phenomenon disproportionately impacting black women and girls.
According to the Black and Missing Foundation, Black women and girls make up roughly 7% of the U.S. population, but they account for nearly 36% of all missing women in the country.
It’s a narrative that Ellis believes will take transparency to change.
“The truth about it is that the only way for people to work to bring me home, we have to have people talking,” Ellis said.
Ellis advocates for conversation that goes beyond social media and includes intervention and prevention.
She suggests sharing info directly with authorities and protecting yourself when going out by sharing your location with friends and keeping those you trust in the loop.