SAD UPDATE: Body of Warren C. Beard Recovered
Rev. Warren C. Beard from Chicago has been missing since July 2nd and was last seen in Joliet, Illinois after visiting with a friend from college at Harrah’s Casino. Photo by family.
Police in Will County, Illinois recoved the vehicle belonging to Warren C. Beard on July 9th. It had been submerged in eight feet of water in a river. The body of Beard was also recovered in the driver’s seat. The Will County Coroner’s Office told media that an autopsy will be peformed and the results will be released in about two months. In the meantime, an investigation into Beard’s death has begun.
Family and friends in the Chicago area are growing more concerned by the day after a 54-year-old minister went missing three days ago. Rev. Warren C. Beard, a 1988 alum of Hyde Park Career Academy, was last seen in Joliet, Illinois on July 2, according to family members. He was in Joliet meeting with a friend. The two men went to Harrah’s Casino and then to a mutual friend’s house in Joliet. According to his wife, Wanda Beals, Beard left their house on the South Side after dropping off his work bag Tuesday evening and told her he was going to hangout with a friend from Iowa who was in town. That was the last she heard from him.
“I fell asleep and woke up about 3 a.m. Wednesday morning and noticed he had not returned home yet,” she told Jcoydenreports exclusively. “I called the friend who he was with and he said they had left a house in Joliet about the same time and that he had not heard from him since.”
Beals said she called her husband’s cellphone and it rang once then went to voicemail. Multiple calls to the phone since have not yielded any results either. The family filed a police report the next day in Chicago and it has been reported to Joliet police as well.
Beard is driving his 2023 Honda HRV Sport that has a black-on-black color with Illinois license plate DY20511. According to family members who spoke with police in Joliet, the car was picked up on a license plate reader in Joliet on Tuesday night at 10:24 p.m. at the intersection of Jefferson and Larkinm which is a short distance from I-80 the expressway Beard would have used to travel back to Chicago. The next time a license plate reader picked up the car was the following day at 4:30 p.m. traveling on Interstate 55 near Harlem Avenue, according to Beals.
Joliet police went to the residence where Beard was last seen with his friends. The female resident spoke with police and allowed them to search the home and nothing was found to be out of the ordinary, according to Beard’s family. The resident said she saw Beard get in his vehicle and leave around 9:30 p.m. an hour before the vehicle was picked up on the license plate reader at Jefferson and Larkin. However, police cannot tell if Beard was actually driving the vehicle.
Beard works as the facilities director for the Preservation of Affordable Housing (POAH) in the Woodlawn community in Chicago. Co-workers Jcoydenreports spoke with on Friday said Beard was last seen at work on Tuesday July 2nd. They described him as easy-going and a friendly person, which is why they were alarmed when he did not show up to work the next day without calling. Jcoydenreports has also learned through co-workers that he was not answering his company phone or responding to messages on TEAMS, which they say is out of his character.
Beard and his wife have known each other for over 20 years and got married in 2008. Beard has a birthday coming up on July 17th. The couple have not had any financial or marital problems and family members are fearing that Beard may have been the victim of a carjacking or robbery that went bad.
Rev. Warren Beard is pictured here with his sister Chloe, who posted on Facebook about her concern for the welfare of her missing older brother. Photo courtesy of Facebook.
“He is just a guy who grew up in Englewood on 62nd and Princeton and played football in high school and then in college at the University of St. Francis,” Beals said. “Anyone who meets him likes him. He is not the biggest talker but he is very friendly. He got into the ministry about 14 years ago after we got married. He is a good husband, father and friend.”
Beard is six feet tall and weighs about 200 pounds with a muscular build. He has amber-colored eyes and has a bald head with mustache and goatee. He has a brown skin complexion. He has multiple tattoos. One on his right forearm is a scroll with the inscription “My World” and the names Stefan, Shane and Tia. The tattoo of his left forearm is an image of praying hands with WCB, Beard’s initials. On his right chest there is a tattoo of a heart with the initials WB inside the heart. On his upper back there are three Chinese letters, which are believed to represent “hard knock life” and on his left arm there are more Chinese characters. His left ear is pierced but he is not wearing an earring. He was last seen wearing a white button-up short sleeve shirt, with light blue and navy-blue polka dots, navy-blue pants and black Cole Hann laced-up shoes. He has no physical or mental health ailments, according to his wife.
Anyone with information on Rev. Beard’s whereabouts is being asked to contact the Chicago Police Department at (312) 747-8380 or you can call 911. In the meantime his family is planning a prayer vigil on July 6 and will then head to Joliet to post and pass out flyers seeking information about his disappearnce.