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(NewsNation) — A bizarre series of events led up to a young mother’s disappearance in Brooklyn, New York, and now, her loved ones are left scratching their heads about where she could be.
Chelsea Cobo was 22 years old when she disappeared.
Her adopted mother and biological aunt, Rose Cobo, believes someone knows what happened to her daughter.
“My daughter Chelsea Cobo is still missing,” she said. “Where is she? Someone knows.”
Chelsea Cobo has been missing since 2016, and not a day goes by that Rose Cobo isn’t looking for her daughter.
“I’ve been talking, but no one is listening,” Cobo said. “Here, I can talk to people, and maybe they’ll listen, maybe they’ll help.”
She sat down with NewsNation to talk about her daughter’s disappearance.
Chelsea Cobo struggled after her biological mother’s death
Rose Cobo adopted her daughter when she was a young child because her biological parents were unable to care for her due to mental illness. In 2015, Chelsea Cobo became a mother herself, giving birth to a son.
In February 2016, Cobo’s biological mother died. By March, Rose Cobo noticed a change in the girl.
Chelsea Cobo had previously been diagnosed as having bipolar disorder, and Rose Cobo took her to what was then known as Coney Island Hospital for an evaluation.
“I feel very guilty,” she said. “I feel responsible because I put her in to get help, and it turned out to be the worst decision in my life.”
Cobo said a doctor told her that Chelsea Cobo “wasn’t making good friends” in the psychiatric unit.
Chelsea Cobo’s son was 10 months old when she disappeared. (Rose Cobo) 
Chelsea Cobo’s adoptive mother had taken to her a hospital before she disappeared. (Rose Cobo) 
Chelsea Cobo had bipolar disorder and blamed new medications for strange behavior. (Rose Cobo) 
Chelsea Cobo called her mother saying she was getting food and would be home soon the day she disappeared. (Rose Cobo) 
Chelsea Cobo’s family believes she may have been sex trafficked. (Rose Cobo)
In mid-April, she came home from the hospital. About a week later, Rose Cobo said Chelsea Cobo went out one night, and something happened.
“She said that she wasn’t sure what happened,” Cobo said.
She said her daughter’s phone was shattered, and it’s believed she was robbed and sexually assaulted. But Cobo said a rape exam was never performed.
On May 4, 2016, she said Chelsea Cobo came home eating differently, blaming her “new medication.”
Chelsea Cobo disappears
On May 6, the day she went missing, Rose Cobo said she found the 22-year-old with a syringe in hand, so she took her to the hospital.
Chelsea Cobo was transferred to another hospital but left that facility. She called her adoptive mother, saying she was getting sushi and ice cream and said she would be home later.
But Rose Cobo never heard from her again.
NewsNation reached out to the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office about Cobo’s case after allegations of sex trafficking.
A spokesperson said the office conducted “a long and thorough investigation into allegations of sex trafficking in this case and served it back to the NYPD missing persons.”
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Rose Cobo submitted DNA samples to the New York City Chief Medical Examiner’s Office.
A spokesperson for the office said if Chelsea Cobo were a Jane Doe, she would have been identified already based on those samples.
“I believe she is gone, and we’re just looking for remains,” Rose Cobo said.
Chelsea Cobo’s family is asking anyone with information to come forward
She is begging anyone who knows where her daughter is to please leave a message, even an anonymous one.
“We as a family are offering that $54,000 reward for credible information that will lead to finding her,” she said.
Cobo has also hired a private investigator, former NYPD Captain Sean Crowley.
In a 2016 interview, he asked the public for help.
“We truly need the viewers to help us track her down,” he said. “We’re looking at every aspect, from prostitution to just being held against her will.”
A part of Cobo still hopes her daughter will walk through the door.
“We would just look into each other’s eyes, and we would know,” she imagines. “We would hug and hug and cry and jump up and down and hug.”
NewsNation asked the NYPD for an update on the case and was told it is an active and ongoing investigation in the missing person’s unit.
Chelsea Cobo is a Hispanic female between 5’2″ and 5’5″ feet tall, weighing between 150 and 170 pounds. She has brown hair and brown eyes with a lazy left eye. Her hair was blond at the ends when she disappeared, and she has pierced ears, a cartilage piercing and a piercing in her left nostril. She has a tattoo reading “I fly with my own wings” on her left hip and wears glasses with black frames.
Anyone with information about Chelsea Cobo should contact the NYPD’s missing persons squad at (212) 694-7781.