A mother has traveled from China to Canada to search for her missing daughter, Maggie Liu.
Liu reportedly went missing on 30 October.
Mother Chang Guiying was informed that her daughter was missing on 1 November by a priest at the church where Liu worked. Chang, who came from Jiamusi, China (1500km from Beijing) is now in Winnipeg, Canada to look for her only daughter.
“I just don’t believe she is just gone, without saying goodbye,” said Chang through a translator. “The last time she talked to me, she invited me to come to Winnipeg to celebrate our Chinese New Year.”
Chang told the translator that she last saw her daughter was at Liu’s wedding in 2013.
“I really didn’t know [how] to react actually,” she said through tears.
Liu was living in Winnipeg for two years with her husband Podge Dimagiba. According to Dimagiba, Liu disappeared in the night after the couple went to sleep. She left behind her wallet and credit cards.
Chen Lei, Liu’s closest friend from China said, “she told me almost nothing about herself during the two years,” said Chen Lei, who is Liu’s closest friend from China. “After I arrived … her husband told us that she was not very happy sometimes,” said Chen.
Chen added that Liu didn’t have friends in Winnipeg and the pair didn’t talk very much over the past year as Liu was so busy. Chen said Liu was going through depression.
“I had no idea from her,” said Chang. “I feel so bad from the bottom of my heart because I didn’t take perfect care of her.”
Chang and Chen have met with missing persons detectives.
“I just want to find my daughter now,” she said. “I request all the help from Winnipeggers, Canadians and other people because I have no one to rely on.”
Chang also believes her daughter is still alive: “Maybe she is hiding somewhere, she met some troubles, but she’s still [out] there.”
Chang and Chen have not decided when they will return to China.
Liu is five feet tall, 120 pounds and has shoulder-length black hair and brown eyes. She may be wearing a grey jacket, dark-coloured pants and dark shoes, police said.
Anyone with information about Liu’s whereabouts is asked to call the Winnipeg Police Service’s missing persons unit at 204-986-6250.
