On April 15th, a 55-year-old woman from Ottawa arrived at the Victoria International Airport to visit an “online friend” in town and went missing for over a week.
Patricia Nzuza was reported missing by her daughters on April 19th when they had been completely out of contact with their mother for days.
Her daughter Nakaya turned to social media to plead for help, and that post was subsequently shared thousands of times on Instagram and Facebook.
On the morning of Wednesday, April 26th, Nzuza’s daughter announced via social media that her mother had been located safe and sound on Vancouver Island and is now back home with her family.
“Hello everyone, I’m relieved and overjoyed to let you know that my mom has been found,” Nakaya said on her Instagram post. “
“I want to take this opportunity to express my heartfelt thanks to everyone, all the empaths who helped in the search and shared their support during this difficult time. Your efforts and kindness meant the world to me and my sister, and we’ll never forget your generosity.”
She also asked people to respect her family’s privacy during this traumatic time.
“I kindly ask that you respect our family’s privacy and refrain from asking any further questions or reaching out to my mom, myself, my sister or anyone else in our family directly.”
“We appreciate your love and concern, but we need some time to process and heal from this experience.”
Victoria Buzz reached out to the Sidney/North Saanich RCMP detachment, who initially issued the press release on Nzuza’s disappearance, for confirmation of her being located and any details they could share but they have not responded as of this publication.
BC RCMP as a whole have not issued a statement or press release saying that Nzuza has been found, which is out of the ordinary for missing persons cases.
