Family renews pleas for answers one year after daughter’s disappearance
It has been one year since loved ones have heard from Kara Nichols.
The then 19-year-old left her home in Colorado Springs on Oct. 9, 2012 for a modeling job in Denver. She never came back. The last call on Nichols’ cellphone was recorded at 11:45 that night.
Kara’s parents, Paul and Julia Nichols released the following statement on the first anniversary of their daughter’s disappearance.
“It’s been one year since our beloved daughter Kara Nichols went missing from her residence in Colorado Springs, and our family is bracing for another holiday season without her. As of now, we are no closer to knowing what has happened to her than we were on that awful day she disappeared. While many tips have come in, none have led to answers. It’s been a long year of heartache, frustration and deep fear for Kara’s safety. She was only 19 years old; now she would be 20. Always a very social person, it would be extremely out of character for Kara not to contact family or friends, unless she were somehow unable to do so. But we will never give up hope of finding Kara. Someone, somewhere, knows what happened and we are begging that person to leave a tip with the El Paso Co. Sheriff’s Department. Our family is offering a $1000 reward for information leading to answers in Kara’s disappearance. Meanwhile, we wait in a state of fear and grief. Our family has a deep wound that can’t be healed, and our hope is that
no one may have to go through this pain we have had to for the past year.”
In July, Nichols’ parents announced a $1,000 reward for information leading directly to Kara’s whereabouts.
Kara Nichols had an online modeling profile on the site Model Mayhem and had become involved in drugs and prostitution before she went missing. Investigators have said that they believe foul play may be involved in the disappearance.
A former teacher of Nichols’ won’t give up hope she’ll see her friend again. Dina Wood called Nichols funny, smart, artistic and well spoken.
“She would be at my desk all the time,” said Wood. “I was not easy on her. I was tough because I could see the potential.”
Wood believes her former student was targeted by sex traffickers and taken but thinks Nichols is smart enough to survive an ordeal like that.
“Unfortunately, so many good young women do go missing and we find them, they are the miracles like Elizabeth Smart and the women in Cleveland,” said Wood.
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