'Somebody knows something': Dad's desperate plea for missing pregnant postal worker Kierra Coles

The father of a pregnant Chicago postal service worker who vanished nine months ago believes his daughter is alive and is pleading for the public to help.

"I just want my baby to come home, along with my grandbaby that I never got to meet," Joseph Coles said at a news conference on Monday.

Coles' daughter, Kierra Coles, a 26-year-old employee of the U.S. Postal Service, vanished on Oct. 2, 2018. She was about three months pregnant at the time.

Chicago police said in October that they suspected possible foul play.

Joseph Coles on Monday suggested his daughter may be being held captive in a vacant home.

But he said the police are out of leads.

"Somebody knows something," he said. "If you've got any information, please come forward. I'm the father and I will not be going anywhere no time soon."

"I will continue to keep looking," Joseph Coles said. "I will keep pushing this information until she is brought home safely to me."

Chicago police said Tuesday that no one is in custody in the Kierra Coles case, calling it an active investigation.

Joseph Coles said he also wanted to draw attention to the others currently missing in Chicago.

"We need to bring them home to their families safely," he said.

He encouraged anyone with a missing loved one who needs help securing resources to contact him.

Among the other speakers Monday was Norma Peterson, sister-in-law of Stacy Peterson, who vanished in Bolingbrook, Illinois, nearly 12 years ago.

"We still search for her every day," Norma Peterson said.

"We just want them home," she said, her voice shaking.

Each year 600,000 people go missing in the U.S., according to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs). While many are found, tens of thousands remains missing for more than one year, according to NamUs.