Back of the Yards family desperate for news about missing 13-year-old girl

Weeks after 13-year-old Lesly Morales crept out of a bedroom window at night in her Back of the Yards home, her distraught family still has no clue where she might be.

And they are particularly worried, because Morales was depressed at the time, having recently lost her father, her family said Friday.

“She became extremely depressed,” said the girl’s mother, Regina Trujillo, 46.

Chicago Police Department

Morales’ family huddled and prayed at Lincoln United Methodist Church, in the 2200 block of South Damen Avenue, where Pastor Emma Lozano is helping get the word out about the missing girl.

Lesly was last seen April 21, according to a Chicago Police Department missing person report.

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The family says she went to school at Hedges Elementary that day and returned afterward to the family home in the 4900 block of South Wood Street. She shared a bedroom with her two sisters, one of whom noticed early the next morning that Morales was gone and that the bedroom window was open.

“She had obviously used that window to leave,” Lozano said.

When last seen, she wearing a white T-shirt with an image of the Virgin Mary, blue jeans and black gym shoes with yellow stripes. She is in eighth grade and was supposed to graduate from Hedges later this year.

Morales had become withdrawn since her father’s death. “After her father passed away, she started to show signs of cutting herself,” Lozano said.

Lozano said she has been in contact with Chicago police, but said that when she called the department, she was told the officer handling the case is on furlough.

Anyone with information is urged to contact detectives at 312-747-8380.

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times