UPDATE on Missing Delta Sigma Theta Member from Chicago
Chicago native and Kenwood Academy graduate Alexa Alexander has gone missing in Arizona. She may be suffering from a mental health crisis and is believed to be in grave danger, according to her family.
IMPORTANT UPDATE: FOUND SAFELY!
On Dec. 10, 2021, jcoydenreports along with our media partner Black & Missing Inc. were able to confirm that Alexa Alexander has been found safely in Arizona. Speaking with her ex-husband Robert Alexander, he confirmed that Alexa has been found safely and the family is currently working to put the pieces together about what happened but for now Alexa is safe and getting any assistance she needs.
Regina Julun, Alexa’s best friend from Chicago also confirmed to jcoydenreports that Alexa was safe in Arizona. She thanks everyone who shared Alexa’s story through social media and word of mouth. She has spoken with Alexa via the telephone and reports she sounds healthy and she will be looking to reconnect with her best friend soon.
ORIGINAL STORY: Family, friends and sorority sisters of a Chicago woman are disturbed by the lack of media coverage surrounding the disappearance of Alexa Alexander, who has been missing for over a month in Phoenix, Arizona. Alexa, 53, who stands 5’4” and weighs about 150 lbs., is believed to be suffering from mental health issues, according to her best friend and ex-husband who spoke exclusively with jcoydenreports on Nov. 14.
“I’m very concerned about my friend and I want her found safely,” said Regina M. Julun, who has been Alexa’s friend for over 40 years.
Alexa, who worked in Chicago as a teacher’s aide for the Chicago Public Schools until the end of June, has not been seen or heard from in over a month, according to her family. She left Chicago in late June about three days before the school year ended and drove to Arizona where one of her sons lives, according to Julun. She said Alexa had been talking about leaving Chicago and moving because she feared she was no longer safe in her Southeast Side neighborhood because of gun violence. However, her ex-husband Robert Alexander, said he was surprised when their son told him his ex-wife had just shown up in Arizona out of the blue without notifying family members she was coming.
“She just showed up here without any money or a place to live so it really caught us off guard,” said Mr. Alexander, who has maintained a good relationship with his ex-wife though they had divorced some years before. “I can only speculate she was expecting to live with our son, but he lives with roommates and there was no room for her there. She may have been living out of her car for a period of time while she was here, but I can’t say for sure.”
Regina Julun (l) shares some laughs with her best friend Alexa Alexander (r) and her dog Bubba. Alexa has been missing in Arizona for more than four weeks.
Alexa’s trek to Arizona has been difficult to piece together, but in interviews conducted with her family members, friends and sorority sisters jcoydenreports has learned that things started going bad for Alexander a few years ago when her grandmother, who raised her, became ill and passed away. Julun says Alexa was living alone with her dog Bubba in the area of 78th and Kingston on Chicago’s Southside and that the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic was taking a toll on her friend. But Julun believes a mass shooting incident outside of Alexa’s residence earlier this year may have been what pushed her over the edge.
“She called me in a frantic voice saying they were shooting outside her house,” Julun said. “I could hear the shots in the background. She kept screaming that she was going to die.”
Alexa had also contracted COVID back in March, according to Julun. It was shortly thereafter when Julun began to notice changes in Alexa’s behavior.
“Her memory was bad. She couldn’t even remember her son’s phone number and I had to keep reminding her of stuff,” Julun said. “She didn’t seem to have a plan moving forward and was making some rash decisions. To me she wasn’t moving to Arizona, she was running from something in Chicago. She would get really defensive when I asked her what her plan was.”
Shortly after the shooting incident, Alexa is believed to have loaded up a recently purchased Nissan Moreno to begin her journey to Arizona after trading in a car that was paid off and in good condition. Julun said it was one of the rash decisions she was concerned about. Alexa headed to Arizona without as much as a good-bye to Julun. She said she only found out Alexa had left Chicago when she was contacted by her. Alexa was in St. Louis at the time and told Julun she was headed to Arizona.
“I was concerned because I had planned on helping her pack up her stuff and have a formal good-bye,” Julun said.
Mr. Alexander said he can confirm Alexa has been in Arizona for the past few months and that she has disappeared twice since her arrival there this summer. He added in each of those incidents she would be found a few days later. He said she has stayed in both women’s shelters and mental health facilities while in Arizona but that each time he or his son found a place for her to stay, she would check herself out on her own recognizance. Mr. Alexander said he has gotten involved on two or three occasions since she came to Arizona in an attempt to assist Alexa.
“Since we are no longer married, I can no longer legally do a lot of things that could help her,” he explained. “It’s really frustrating because the police don’t seem to be doing much and my son is overwhelmed by all of this.”
Mr. Alexander told jcoydenreports about two disturbing incidents in particular. In one, Alexa was picked up by police after she was seen trying to get into cars at a local business and someone called police. In September, Alexa was found inside a McDonald’s parking lot by her son wearing no shoes or socks. When they looked at her feet, Mr. Alexander said the sun and summer heat of Arizona gave them concern about her feet’s health. She was taken to a hospital where doctors discovered she had fractures in her feet. Julun said Alexa told her that her shoes had been stolen and that she had also been arrested and was afraid of police because she had witnessed them mistreating people they perceived as having mental health issues.
Mr. Alexander said he picked up Alexa and took her to the Scottsdale, Arizona police station on one occasion to pick up her purse after it was inventoried as a lost item. He said currently Alexa has no identification or phone on her.
Julun said she last saw Alexa in person sometime in late May. She said during their recent conversations, Alexa confessed to her that she was seeing things. Julun added that after contracting COVID, Alexa became very forgetful, even to the point where she could not remember her son’s phone number.
Her sorority sisters describe Alexa Alexander as a fun and engaging person. Alexa was looking to get into a doctoral program at Arizona State University when she went missing last month, according to family and friends.
Alexa has spent time at St. Luke’s and OAISIS behavioral health centers in Phoenix and Chandler, Arizona respectively over the past few months. She was last seen leaving a Banner Health facility in Arizona in mid-October.
All that know Alexa say she is a smart woman. After graduating from Kenwood Academy, she attended Dillard University in Louisiana where she received a bachelor’s degree in business. She then went on to the University of Illinois where she received a master’s degree and she recently told friends and family she was trying to get into a doctoral program at Arizona State University.
“This just isn’t like Alexa,” said Mr. Alexander. “I know something is wrong. We all do. I’m trying to be there for my sons as well because this is stressful on all of us. It’s the not knowing that is the toughest part.”
Her Delta sorority sisters have created a missing person’s flyer that they are distributing, according to Charisse Neal, one of Alexa’s line sisters at Dillard. Neal believes Alexa is in danger because of the mental health issues and is hoping she can be found safely. She said the sorority is using all of its vast resources to help bring their sister home.
If you have any information on the whereabouts of Alexa Alexander, please call your local police or notify her family at (318) 969-4927.