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Dan Kadison

It was 4am on New Year's Eve,  and three volunteers searching for Ani Ashekian rushed to Tsim Sha Tsui  in the belief that a missing Canadian tourist had been spotted. Preston Powell, one of the local volunteer leaders, received an early morning lead from a Hong Kong caller. The tipster said he had encountered a woman  at about 6pm the previous day near the intersection of Nathan Road and Humphreys Avenue.  She was Canadian, strumming a guitar, and looking for some extra dollars to help buy a visa to  the mainland.
He thought her name was Ani.
Hope swelled with the new lead. The number of volunteers grew throughout the morning.
By 11.30am,  more than 20 people were canvassing not only Kowloon, but Hong Kong Island as well.
Forty-five minutes later, the woman was located in  Tsim Sha Tsui. It wasn't Ms Ashekian. The woman's name was Elizabeth 'Emily' Brule.
Like Ms Ashekian, Ms Brule was Canadian, a brunette, travelling solo, and blessed with a wide grin. But Ms Brule is a 23-year-old preschool instructor teaching in Shenzhen, and was in Hong Kong to renew her visa.
Ms Ashekian is a 30-year-old tourist, and  she has gone missing in the city.
According to passport records, Ms Ashekian arrived in Hong Kong on November 9. Her family last heard from her a day later.
Loved ones have only two real clues to follow. She was seen at  Chungking Mansions on November 10, and she visited an ATM inside the Causeway Bay MTR station.
'There is no information so far that she had ever stayed in the hostels or guest houses in  Chungking Mansions,' a police  official said via e-mail. 'She was seen in  Chungking Mansions before withdrawing money in Causeway Bay.'
The last place where Ms Ashekian was known to be was the ATM,  where she twice withdrew money a little after midnight on November 11. The advances totalled  HK$2,800  and were made minutes apart, loved ones told the  Sunday  Morning Post.
Closed-circuit television footage confirms it was Ms Ashekian withdrawing money. Police e-mailed several stills to the family last week.
In a couple of photos, Ms Ashekian was seen looking over her shoulder.
'She had her head turned,' said Ms Ashekian's  sister Sossy, 28. 'Maybe she was just checking out the scenery or whatever. But she was turned and she was looking behind her.'
Ms Ashekian was known to stay at hostels. Some speculate she may have been looking for a room at  Chungking Mansions.
If Ms Ashekian decided to spend the night there, she might have been both thrilled and scared, said Ms Brule - who coincidentally was staying in the building when she was mistaken for Ms Ashekian.
Chungking Mansions is filled with blocks of cheap guest houses and hostels, and the location is very convenient for a traveller, Ms Brule said.
Unfortunately, males outnumber females there  - and it  took a while to adjust to the constant invitations and come-ons from men inside the building, she said.
'You really have to know  whom to trust,' said Ms Brule. 'There are some people  who are completely innocent. They just want to make friends, and they want to know your story, you want to know their story.
'And there are some people who have an underlying thing.  They want you to come with them wherever they're going.'
As with any unsolved mystery, people are left to guess what happened to Ms Ashekian: was someone lingering near the ATM? Was she harmed inside  Chungking Mansions? Was she hurt during a hike? Did she fall in with  the wrong  crowd? Does she just need time alone?
The police aren't saying much.
'There is no record of Ani having left Hong Kong after she entered the territory on   November 9. There is also no evidence or indication that she was injured,' the police  official said. 'As the case is now under extensive  inquiry by the regional crime unit of  Hong Kong Island, it is not appropriate for us to disclose details of the police investigation at this juncture, including the photos of CCTV footage.'
The case is  puzzling. Tourists just don't  disappear in Hong Kong.
The last publicised case of a missing tourist was in April  2002, and involved Michael Gilbert, a 55-year-old British man, who told friends he would walk from his Mui Wo hotel to Discovery Bay before visiting Hong Kong Island.
Like Ms Ashekian, Mr Gilbert was well travelled. Police told relatives he was last seen near the  Trappist Monastery on Lantau Island.
'After an extensive search and investigation,' Mr Gilbert hasn't been found, the police  official said.
Police statistics show that 6,846 people were reported missing from last January to November.  Of that  number, 6,072 were found.
Last week's false lead didn't diminish hope for local volunteers. Meanwhile, back in Toronto, Ms Ashekian's family and boyfriend, Wenddell Walsh,  are trying to stay optimistic.
'We still need everybody's help,' Mr Walsh said. 'She's still at large. She's still not brought back to safety.'
Ms Ashekian, a paralegal who also had a real estate licence, planned to  go home for the holidays and then move to Argentina this month.
Mr Walsh and Ms Ashekian were discussing  whether he would relocate to South America with her. There was  not time to further that personal discussion. Instead, Mr Walsh has been trying to co-ordinate efforts to find his girlfriend.
He searched for Ms Ashekian for five days in Hong Kong last month. While in the city, he handed out fliers, met  police and consular officials, stopped at  hostels and spoke  to the media.
He heard many 'credible leads'.
One of them was from volunteer Luke Pierce, a 19-year-old living in Kennedy Town.
Around December 2, Mr Pierce said, he stopped to help a woman in Causeway Bay. She was asking for directions to Ikea. She said her hostel was nearby.
Mr Pierce walked the woman to the corner, and thought nothing of it - until, weeks later,  he saw a Facebook group page devoted to Ms Ashekian's disappearance.
Mr Pierce quickly remembered the woman from Causeway Bay. He recalled her face and her jacket, and talked it over with Mr Walsh.
'I'm confident you met Ani,' Mr Walsh told him.
Other leads place Ms Ashekian in the city after December 2, the  Post has learned.
While Mr Walsh believes she will  turn up safe, he knew something wasn't right  during two days of silence after Ms Ashekian sent a text message to one of her sisters.
'I've had a lump in my throat since November 12,' he said.
One of the traits Mr Walsh adores about his girlfriend is her passion for travel.
He and Ms Ashekian flew back from a Central American trip on October 19. Upon her return, a pair of friends,  female prosecutors, asked her to go  with them to Beijing.
Ms Ashekian, who sought to visit 30 countries before her 31st birthday, took them up on their offer, and flew to China with the women on October 25.
Ms Ashekian planned to stay in Asia longer than her friends. She checked out of her hotel on October 30.
While it's unclear where she went next, her credit card  statement indicates she  withdrew 2,500 yuan (HK$2,850) on  the mainland on November 8. The next day she was in Hong Kong. Soon, she was missing.
Her family hoped she would make her return flight  to Toronto from New Delhi on December 15. Sadly, she didn't.
Last week, her relatives packed up her apartment and moved her belongings out. The  lease was up.
Ms Ashekian is  1.63 metres  tall and weighs 55kg. She is of South Asian appearance.
Loved ones, who are offering a HK$50,000 reward for information leading to the missing woman's whereabouts, say  she is financially stable and doesn't have any troubles, including medical problems.
They describe her as a free spirit, smart,  kind and responsible.
They say she's best friends with her two sisters.   She's an avid hiker who loves to read, travel by herself and keep a journal.
Most of all, they say they care about her, miss her and want her home.
'It makes my heart weak to know that she needs help,' said Sossy Ashekian.   'Something's wrong. She needs help because we know that she's just not calling us.'
Anyone with information can contact the Hong Kong Island regional crime unit at 2860 7834. Mr Walsh can be contacted at wenddell@hotmail.com. Mr Powell reached by calling 9534 9531.
Mistaken identity
At 4am on New Year's Eve, volunteers helping Wenddell Walsh (bottom right) search for his girlfriend, Ani Ashekian, received a tip about a woman who seemed to fit her description. They eventually found Elizabeth Brule (below), another Canadian woman travelling alone. Ms Ashekian's whereabouts remain a mystery
The number of missing persons reported in Hong Kong between 1998 and November 2008: 81,318
The number of missing persons located: 73,139
The percentage of cases solved: 89.9%



Missing in Hong Kong