A graduate student from a Catholic university in Washington, D.C. was reported missing on Wednesday, and the nearby Catholic University of America has organized a prayer session for her safe return.
Taylor Hackel, 24 years old, is a student at CUA’s Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family. The Wisconsin native was last seen on October 24, and his disappearance was reported two days later.
Hackel is 5 feet 4 inches tall, weighs 130 pounds, has blonde hair and blue eyes, and was last seen wearing a tan sweater, white shirt, and black pants, according to the D.C. police notice. Anyone with information was requested to call the police at 202-727-9090.
According to an email sent to students on October 28 by the university’s vice president of communications, Karna Lozoya, Hackel was last seen on October 24 in the 600 block of Jackson Street, Northeast, near the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.
Friday at 1:00 p.m., members of the JPII Institute community will pray the rosary for Lozoya at the St. John Paul II National Shrine (Luminous Mysteries chapel) at 3900 Harewood Road. All are welcome to attend.
“Please call the MPD… Please join us in praying for Taylor’s safe return if you have any information,” Lozoya ended.
As of Friday afternoon, there was no information regarding Hackel’s location.
According to an article in her hometown newspaper, Hackel graduated in 2016 from Wausau Newman Catholic High School in Wausau, Wisconsin. During her undergraduate studies at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, where she obtained a bachelor’s degree in chemistry, she volunteered with various philanthropic groups, including the Salvation Army, a Catholic Charities warming center, and a prison pen pal program. In La Crosse, she also frequently prayed with the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration.