Account
Aug 19, 2009
Nov 20, 2022
Yasmin
Acree
31
15
61 inches
125 lbs
Black / African American
Female
On January 15, 2008, fifteen-year-old Yasmin Acree disappeared from her home in Chicago, Illinois. That evening, she had returned home from the North Lawndale YMCA, did a load of laundry, and then went to her basement bedroom for the night. Her adoptive mother, Rose Starnes, and her daughter were out for the evening, leaving Yasmin at home with Starnes's live-in boyfriend. The following morning, she was gone. Starnes's boyfriend noticed she wasn't home but assumed she had already left for school. It wasn't until Yasmin failed to return home that afternoon that her family realized something was wrong and reported her missing. Upon checking her room, Starnes discovered that a normally padlocked gate leading to the house was open, the padlock having been cut, and the door to Yasmin's basement room appeared to have been forced open. The initial police response to Yasmin's disappearance was criticized by her family, who felt that investigators wrongly assumed she was a runaway. This assumption was fueled by claims from some of her school friends who said Yasmin had talked about running away. As a result, crucial early steps in the investigation were missed; authorities later admitted they made serious errors by not immediately dusting for fingerprints or collecting the broken lock from the basement door as evidence. It wasn't until two days after she vanished that investigators returned to the home to collect the cut lock, but no fingerprints were found. Yasmin had no history of running away and was a freshman at Austin Polytech Academy, about to start a new job. She had a difficult childhood, having been in the Kentucky foster care system where she experienced abuse before being adopted by her aunt by marriage, Rose Starnes, in 2006. Months turned into years with no sign of Yasmin. Her family, particularly her adoptive mother, worked to keep her case in the public eye, believing the disappearance of a young African-American girl from the West Side was not getting the attention it deserved. A significant development came in 2011 when reporters discovered a hidden diary in Yasmin's room that mentioned Jimmie Terrell Smith, a former tenant in their building. Smith, who had a criminal history, had reportedly taken an interest in Yasmin. A year after Yasmin's disappearance, Smith was arrested for multiple rapes. While in jail, he claimed to know what happened to Yasmin but has never been charged in connection with her case, though he remains a person of interest. Despite the passage of time and the death of her adoptive mother in 2014, Yasmin's family continues to seek answers. The case remains unsolved, and foul play is suspected in her disappearance.
Jan 15, 2008
Chicago
Illinois
Cook County
60644
25893
Chicago Police Department - Area North
Chicago
Illinois
Cook County
60618
Mike Roth
Det.
2452 West Belmont Avenue, Illinois
3127448266
Local
Law Enforcement
M08A1869
Chicago Police Department - Area North
Brown
Brown
Brown
No
05/23/2026
