Episode 139: Sheena Gibbs – Bite-Sized Crime

When a woman planning to visit family suddenly disappears in the heart of Chicago, her loved ones set out to find the truth. Where is Sheena Gibbs?

Episode Media

Sheena’s mural by artist Damon Lamar Reed *(Chicago Sun-Times)*

Episode Sources

Episode Transcript

Welcome back to Bite-Sized Crime. This week I’m bringing you a missing persons case from Chicago, a case that has not gotten much attention but that has the potential to be solved with the right information. This episode discusses sensitive topics, so listener discretion is advised.

Sheena Louise Gibbs grew up in the small town of Muscatine, Iowa, a rural community on the banks of the Mississippi River. Sheena’s family described her as strong-willed and determined, a go-getter who knew how to make things happen for herself. Sheena couldn’t wait to leave her small-town life behind and make her way in the big city. After high school, Sheena enrolled at Truman College in Chicago, 200 miles away from Muscatine. She was ready to make a splash.

After some time at Truman, Sheena transferred to Northwestern University and then to Spoon River College in Canton, Illinois, where she was elected vice-president of the student senate and graduated with honors. She then moved back to Chicago, making friends and settling into life in the city.

Then, at the age of 25, Sheena was diagnosed with cervical cancer. This was an incredibly tough time for her, but her friends and family rallied around her. She went through treatment, and her cancer went into remission. As is the case for many cancer survivors, the experience changed Sheena. She began to focus on advocacy work, connecting with others who had gone through the same thing and finding new ways to help her community. Not only did she work with cancer patients, but she worked as a home health aide and an HIV/AIDS educator. She also taught dance classes and raised money to bring clean water to areas of the world stricken by drought. When the pandemic hit in 2020, Sheena began working at the University of Illinois Chicago, scheduling COVID tests in the city. Sheena was determined to make a difference in her community.

But Sheena also changed in other ways. She slowly began distancing herself from her friends, and she went through a string of romantic relationships that her friends described as abusive. One friend told the Black Girl Gone podcast that it seemed as though Sheena felt she could save these men, but it never worked out that way.

Sheena was also dealing with the declining health of her mother. Sheena was incredibly close to her mom, and it was difficult being so far away from her during this time. In the fall of 2021, Sheena made several trips to Iowa and was considering moving back to take care of her mom full-time. Sheena’s aunt Lela told the Black News Channel that while Sheena wasn’t excited about returning to small-town life, she would do anything for her mom. Sheena planned to work out some details in Chicago and then return to Iowa.

In early November of 2021, Sheena’s mom was hospitalized. When Sheena got the news, she texted her aunt Lela on November 3rd to let her know she would be there the next day. Sheena had power of attorney and she knew she would need to make some decisions on her mom’s behalf. But the next day, Sheena didn’t show up. She usually took the bus when she was traveling home – maybe there had been a delay. Lela called Sheena to check on her, but all her calls went straight to voicemail. She called around to other family members, but none of them had heard from Sheena.

Another day passed, then another. All calls to Sheena were going unanswered. This was very unlike her – Sheena had always been in regular contact with her family, even more so since her mom had gotten sick. She never ignored their calls, and if her plans had changed, she would have let someone know.

Lela began reaching out to Sheena’s friends in Chicago. After nearly two decades of living in the city, Sheena had an extensive network of friends and colleagues. But Lela learned that they were just as surprised as she was that Sheena wasn’t responding to calls and messages.

At this point, Sheena’s family knew they needed help. They contacted the Chicago Police Department and filed a missing persons report. However, the police didn’t seem very motivated to help find Sheena. She was a grown adult who didn’t have to answer the phone if she didn’t want to. The Chicago Sun-Times reported that 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.

But Sheena’s family and friends knew that this time was different. If the police weren’t going to investigate, they would do it themselves.

Through their own detective work, they were able to piece together a timeline of Sheena’s movements. They learned that Sheena had been living with a boyfriend since June, but very few people in Sheena’s circle knew about him. Her friend Sarah told the TV show Disappeared that Sheena had been pretty secretive about her relationships in the last few years. “I think maybe she knew we might not approve of her boyfriend… I noticed that the caliber of men that she was dating seemed to be a little bit more questionable.”

One of Sheena’s friends told the Black Girl Gone podcast that Sheena had called her one night and asked if she could come over. She’d had a fight with her boyfriend and needed to cool off. Sheena eventually went back to the apartment she shared with her boyfriend, but the friend was left with a lingering sense of worry. They checked in on Sheena a few days later to see if everything was okay, and Sheena assured them that it was.

But 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. It’s unclear why Sheena wanted to go to the Edgebrook Motel or how long she stayed there before heading back to The Greenleaf House, but her friends believed it could be significant in finding out what happened to her.

Sheena’s friends shared all of this information with the Chicago Police Department, hoping it would spur them into action. 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.

The last known communication with Sheena was on November 8th, when she texted a friend to say she was going to Iowa. After that, no one heard from Sheena again.

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. Lela told the Black News Channel that they were frustrated with the state of Sheena’s case. “We’re kind of feeling a little stuck right now, because there’s information out there, but there’s really not a whole lot being done with that information.”

Finally, in June of 2022, detectives requested Sheena’s phone records. But according to the Black Girl Gone podcast, they were only given access to her phone’s location pings, not her calls or texts. The data showed that after Sheena left The Greenleaf House on November 5th, her phone pinged 4 miles north of there in Evanston. Five days later, on November 10th, Sheena’s phone pinged for the last time in the town of Winthrop Harbor, Illinois, an hour north of Chicago near the Wisconsin state line.

Even with this new, possibly case-changing information, detectives didn’t search Winthrop Harbor until three months later. 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.

In spite of the frustrating investigation, Sheena’s family and friends have continued to fight to bring awareness to her case. In May of 2022, a local artist named Damon Lamar Reed painted a mural at The Glenwood bar just a few blocks from where Sheena was last seen. The mural featured Sheena’s smiling face in vibrant colors with the word “Missing” and a phone number to call in tips. Reed told WGN that the focus of his work is to bring attention to cases of missing Black women and girls in the Chicago area. “Sometimes we see photos and just kind of you know go past it, so I thought by creating an artistic interpretation that would help to put more eyes on it.”

As of this recording, Sheena Gibbs is still missing. 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.

Sheena’s loved ones continue to hope that she will come home someday. Lela told the Black News Channel, “We’re holding on to hope and our belief that we will find Sheena. As every day goes by, it doesn’t seem like that’s gonna become a reality, but our faith is strong and we’re hoping and praying that she’s gonna surface somewhere sooner than later.”

Sheena Louise Gibbs was last seen on November 5, 2021, at The Greenleaf House near the corner of W. Greenleaf Avenue and N. Sheridan Road in the Glenwood neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. Her phone last pinged in Evanston on November 5th and in Winthrop Harbor around November 10th. At the time of her disappearance, Sheena was about to turn 40 years old. She is described as a Black woman with a dark complexion, brown eyes and black shoulder-length hair, standing 5’9” tall.

If you have any information about the disappearance of Sheena Gibbs, please contact Cook County Crime Stoppers at 1-800-535-7867. All tips are anonymous. And please share Sheena’s story using the hashtag #HelpFindSheena. Let’s bring her home.