Sheena Louise Gibbs

Status:

Open

Jurisdiction:

Chicago Police Department (IL)

Missing From:

Chicago, Illinois

Summary:

Sheena Louise Gibbs, a 39-year-old Black woman and cancer survivor from Chicago's Rogers Park neighborhood, disappeared in early November 2021 while planning to travel to Iowa to care for her hospitalized mother. She was last seen on November 5, 2021, and her phone last pinged near Winthrop Harbor, Illinois. Her case remains unsolved and is classified as a high-risk disappearance suspected to involve foul play.

Vital Statistics

Circumstances of Disappearance:

On November 3, 2021, Sheena Gibbs made plans to travel from her home in Chicago to Davenport, Iowa to care for her hospitalized mother, whom she had Power of Attorney over regarding her healthcare. She told her aunt that she would be arriving the following day, November 4th. Around the time Sheena's mom was hospitalized, Sheena and her boyfriend got into a fight and he kicked her out of the apartment. Sheena decided to rent a room at The Greenleaf House, a small hostel across from Loyola Park. She checked in on November 1st but told several people that she wasn't planning to stay long – she was going to be returning to Iowa soon to take care of her mother. Sheena's friends learned that in the months before her disappearance, she had connected with a local Uber driver. He told them that he remembered giving Sheena a ride on November 3rd, the same day she had last texted her aunt Lela. She'd told him the same thing she'd told Lela – she was leaving the next day to go back to Iowa. He said he had driven Sheena to the Edgebrook Motel on West Touhy Avenue before taking her to The Greenleaf House about 7 miles away. On November 5th, Sheena checked out of The Greenleaf House using her credit card – surely there would be security footage from the front desk that would show whether Sheena was alone or with someone at the time. But by the time detectives followed up on this information, the footage had long since been deleted. She texted a friend on November 8; this is the last time anyone had contact with her. The last place her phone pinged was in Winthrop Harbor, Illinois, near the Wisconsin border.

Additional Details:

By November 2021, she had worked as a home health aide at the University of Illinois Chicago, where she performed COVID test scheduling. Sheena had visited her friend in her home and told her friend how her boyfriend had allegedly thrown a coffee mug at her during a bitter argument. While Bethany requested her to be wary of this guy, Sheena soon returned to live with him in their shared residence. Police considered Sheena to be a "habitual missing" case, meaning that she had been reported missing before and had always turned up a few days later. In January of 2022, two months after her disappearance, Chicago police finally reclassified the investigation as a "high risk" missing persons case. But although this change indicated that Sheena could be in serious trouble, Sheena's family didn't see any progress being made in the actual investigation. They continued to pass on tips to the detectives, including the name and address of Sheena's boyfriend, but detectives didn't seem interested. The latest update in Gibbs' case came in April, when it was determined that her disappearance is "the result of a crime." Gibbs, who was reported missing Nov. 3, is depicted in a newly completed mural at The Glenwood bar by artist Damon Lamar Reed with the Still Searching Project. The mural shows Gibbs smiling wide in purple, pink and green hues. The word "missing" and a phone number for tips and information on the case frame Gibbs' face. On September 6, 2022, volunteer search teams joined law enforcement to search the area near where Sheena's phone last pinged. Police have not revealed whether anything relevant to the case was discovered. Her family and friends believe that the man she was living with was connected to a sex trafficking ring and that Sheena may have gotten pulled in. According to the Black Girl Gone podcast, several people involved in that ring have already been arrested on trafficking charges; however, it's unclear whether detectives have pursued that avenue of investigation in Sheena's case.

Case Last Updated:

Nov 09, 2026