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Search intensifies for missing 82-year-old woman last seen in Skokie

By and Jenna Carroll
Published  July 17, 2024 7:57am CDT
Missing Persons
FOX 32 Chicago

Elderly Skokie woman missing for more than 48 hours

An 82-year-old woman has been missing for more than two days now. Tonight, friends and family are frantically searching for her.

SKOKIE, Ill. - The family of an 82-year-old woman who was reported missing from Skokie this week is seeking the public's help in finding their loved one.

Tsering Wangyal was last seen in the 9500 block of Bronx Place, where she lives with her husband, on July 15 around 4:00 p.m.

Her husband was asleep at home at the time when Wangyal slipped out.

Her daughter, Tenzin Wangyal, believes she was probably headed to the Tibetan Alliance of Chicago Community Center, where she was to attend an event that night. However, she never showed up. She left home without her cane, phone or ID.

Surveillance video from the condo building on Bronx shows two different angles of Wangyal leaving her building. Her family and police have been searching the area ever since.

"We don't even know exactly if she walked, kept walking or if she got on a bus, if she got a ride. Skokie Police Department is helping us find her. They did a lot that evening. They had the Cook County K9 Group come with their bloodhounds to find her scent," said Tenzin Wangyal.

On Wednesday night, Skokie police were spotted back at the condo building continuing to look for Wangyal, while a few miles away a group of volunteers were searching the Harms Woods Forest Preserve.

"She kind of just vanished; we can’t seem to find her," said one member of the search party Tinzing Chutop.

Wangyal's daughter said the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) is checking on possible video if that's the case and the Skokie Police Department is investigating.

Tsering Wangyal, 82

Wangyal is roughly five-foot-one and weighs about 160 pounds. She has silver hair, brown eyes and wears glasses.

She was last seen wearing a dark-colored long-sleeved shirt, light-colored pants and slippers. 

She is Tibetan and speaks her native language. Her daughter said she can speak a bit of Hindu and English.

If you have any information on the whereabouts of Wangyal, you are asked to contact 911 immediately. You can also call the Skokie PD at (847) 982-5900.