Community members, friends and family of missing Syosset woman Jasmine Joseph gathered at a Veterans of Foreign Wars Hall on Queens Street Tuesday morning to organize into teams, post missing person fliers and search for Jasmine’s car.
Police say the 22-year-old called her mother at 5:17 p.m. on Feb. 24 while at Lifetime Fitness on Robbins Lane in Syosset and told her she would be home within an hour. She was driving a silver Nissan Altima with license plate number GAD3453.
“She has not been heard from since,” says her father, Sony Joseph. “This is very confusing to our family as this is very out of character for Jasmine.”
Jasmine’s mother, Lovely Joseph, tells the Tribune her daughter has never taken off like this before and that police are looking for Jasmine’s car to determine a possible reason for her disappearance.
“They said as long as the car is not found, they don’t see any foul play,” she says.
Jasmine is a nursing student at the New York Institute of Technology’s Old Westbury campus, but the school issued a statement saying Jasmine had not been enrolled in classes since May 2013, leading some to believe Jasmine could have taken off on her own if she stopped going to school and was hiding it from her parents. But Jasmine’s mom doesn’t believe that is the case.
“They say she hasn’t been enrolled in class, but that’s not true,” she says. “We pay for the tuition.”
But if it is true, she doesn’t care.
“For me, she’s always been like a blessing,” she says. “I’d just tell her no matter what it is, come back home, we are waiting for her.“
Jasmine is 5 feet, 4 inches tall, 120 pounds with dark brown eyes and long black hair. She was last seen wearing white and black sneakers, black jeans and a green sweater.
Joseph’s family has started a Facebook page called “Jasmine Joseph Is Missing” to aid in the search.
If you have any information on Joseph’s whereabouts please call the Nassau County Police Department’s Missing Persons Squad at 516-573-7347 or dial 911.
There is a $5,000 reward for information leading to Joseph’s safe return.
