Six months gone: Plant City woman's mother losing hope in daughter's disappearance

PLANT CITY, Fla. - In March 2020, time stood still in America as COVID-19 spread across the country. But on February 6, Canitha Taylor's world came to a halt.

Her daughter, Cieha's car was found along the railroad tracks on Trapnell Road in Plant City. Cieha hasn't been seen or heard from since.

"It is like the twilight zone," Canitha told FOX 13 six months after her daughter's disappearance. "It's like time stopped."

Polk County Sheriff's Office deputies are not ready to say there's no hope of getting answers.

Canitha, however, believes, "statistically, six months, it's slim to none."

Since February, investigators have been trying to figure out if Cieha was taken, or if she left on her own.

Did she leave her car where it was found, or did someone else?

Why were her phone and purse still inside?

In February, deputies put up an electronic sign asking for tips. They have interviewed Cieha's friends, family, and the people who, as far as they know, saw her last.

Investigators do know Cieha dropped her boyfriend off at his nearby home three hours before her car was found.

"At every single avenue, they are just coming up with no answers," said Crystal Clark of the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office. "It is too hard for them to say at this point if it is a homicide or if she is still out there."

Her mother is convinced her daughter was hurt because, she says, the relationship with her boyfriend - who deputies have not publicly called a suspect - was rocky.

Canitha hopes the six-month mark brings new tips from whoever knows what happened.

"You don't just vanish into thin air and not one single little trace of evidence that she was ever even right there," Canitha said.

And if she is still out there, this is her mother's message: "Help us find you. Whatever it is, a signal, a smokescreen. A dream. Something. Send us something."

"You open your heart when you have a child," Canitha said. "And then, for every day, for them to be missing, you just can't describe it. It literally feels broken."

A vigil is being held Saturday to bring attention back to Cieha's disappearance. HCSO says it is discussing the case next week on its new podcast.