A Vancouver woman travelling alone in the Middle East has been missing in Syria for more than a month, says her brother who is co-ordinating a search for her.
Matthew Vienneau told CBC Radio on Friday that his sister Nicole was last seen on March 31 when she left her hotel near Hama for a day trip to a place called the Dead Cities, ancient ruins in northwest Syria.
Nicole Vienneau, 32, is missing in Syria, and was last seen on March 31.
(Vienneau family photo)
But hotel staff told him she did not return. He has also been told that Syrian police are searching the area.
Vienneau said his 32-year-old sister is an experienced adventure traveller.
"You have hope that … maybe she's just in prison, or at this point, one of our best-case scenarios is that she's been kidnapped, which is a very weird situation to be in, but at least in that case we'd know that she's alive."
Vienneau told The Early Edition that Canadian Foreign Affairs officials have done what they can, but that most of the information on his sister has come from people in Canada and Syria — who read about Nicole on the internet and offered to help.
Now, her family is asking anyone with family or friends in Syria to help them trace what may have happened.
"But you hope that, you know, maybe it's just something happened, she's in the mountains and it's remote, or she got unexpectedly delayed somewhere in the desert."
Vienneau said his sister is a careful woman who doesn't take stupid chances.
"It's almost impossible to imagine that something might have happened. And the constant reassurances from the Syrians that nothing like this happens, it's very unusual, and if something had happened, we'd know about it.
"For someone to just disappear is so strange that it gives you hope that it's something so out there, we never would have thought of it, but she's OK and just waiting for us to come find her."
