Nicole Vienneau (Courtesy of family)

It is every family's worst nightmare. In this case, Nicole Vienneau, a vivacious 32-year-old Canadian backpacker went missing in Syria on March 31 while heading out on a one-day sightseeing trip. She still hasn't been found, though the search on the ground is beginning to intensify.

A research co-ordinator with a Vancouver firm, and an experienced world traveller, Vienneau had been making her way through northern Africa and parts of the Middle East for almost five months before she disappeared. She had also backpacked extensively for long periods in the past.

Adding to her family's anguish, almost a month went by before they could zero in on her last known location: the Cairo Hotel, a small family-run hotel in Hama, said to be one of the most picturesque towns in Syria.

Fellow tourists had helped pinpoint the hotel by responding to her brother Matthew's Internet blog about his missing sister. When the family investigated further, it found her large travel bag and gear were still at the hotel — only her day-pack and camera were missing.

The working theory is that she disappeared at some point after heading off to see the ruins of a nearby castle at Qasr Ibn Wardan, about an hour by bus from Hama.

Since determining her last known whereabouts, Matt and Nicole's long-time boyfriend, Gary Schweitzer, have spent weeks in Syria trying to retrace her steps and jog the memory of anyone who might have seen her. In particular, they are trying to track down a couple of American tourists who were at the hotel around the same time.

Schweitzer is in Syria now, as is Nicole's mother, Kathryn Murray, and her stepfather, Bruce Murray. They've been speaking with police and local officials, trying to ensure Nicole's story and image are disseminated as widely as possible.

Kathryn Murray spoke to CBCNews.ca from her hotel in Syria.

Have there been any new developments in your search for Nicole?

Kathryn Murray: Have we any more clues as to where she is, no.

We arrived on Thursday. On Friday we did go up to Hama where Nicole was last seen. We visited the hotel, and we walked around the area to get a feel for city and the nearby towns. We talked to the manager of the hotel and what his recollection of Nicole was and what she had done.

It was part of our attempt to get a sense of the environment, which was helpful because from Canada you have an impression, which was much different from when you are actually here.

It's quite a busy place, with lots of markets, lots of people. It feels quite safe, really. The people are friendly, not too much to worry about. So we retraced her steps, or what we believe she took.

So you went as far as the old castle ruins in the desert?

Yes, we went as far as Qasr Ibn Wardan. We stopped at the towns along the way. This is an hour in the car. We stopped at the local markets and left posters. Everybody is familiar now with the case but nobody we've seen remembers seeing her.

There is no record of her at the ruins. When we paid and signed in there was no record of her signing in. But the way the place is set up there is no need to sign in. It's a very small place, you can see most of it without actually signing the record book.

Nicole Vienneau (Courtesy of family)

Have the hotel people been helpful?

Yes, quite helpful. We've spoken with both the manager and his son, who was the receptionist at the desk. He came and talked with us and told us Nicole had come by in the morning and asked for directions to the bus and he gave those to her.

This is a small hotel and quite nice. There are lots of people moving in and out. Foreigners, backpackers, people with families. It feels like a safe environment.

What are the police there telling you?

It's like a big question mark to everyone here. She was at the hotel and now she's nowhere. There's no indication of anyone seeing her later that day. There's no hat, no running shoes. It's like she's completely vanished. It's a mystery to them as well.

I have the feeling they are doing everything they can. They are following up on everybody who was staying at the hotel and cross-checking this with car rentals and the like. I don't know all the ins and outs because it's police business.

The most difficult thing for them is that they haven't had tourists go missing. So they are really at quite a loss what to go after.

We were able also to arrange to see someone in the mayor's office and we're getting permission now to have posters possibly on the outside of the buses, and for getting assistance to Gary, Nicole's fiancé, for his search.

He's been doing almost a grid search. He's been here two weeks now and he will be here another two weeks. This is his second trip.

If she had taken the bus out towards the castle she would have had to walk or hitchhike the last two kilometres. So he is literally walking that distance himself, in the hot sun, checking both sides of the road for any sign of her or her clothes or anything.

Is there any possibility she might have taken off on her own?

Absolutely not. In her journals she is content with everything. She had written me e-mails that she was coming home early possibly. She had written Gary that she was thinking about that too. If you read her journals, the only thing she was looking forward to was being back with Gary, she really, really missed him.

Had they started out on this trip together?

No, she was on the trip on her own because Gary couldn't afford the time away from his job.

She was a very experienced traveller. She did five months in Southeast Asia when she was 18. She did 10 months in Central and South America when she was 22 or 23. She did five months in East Africa, Kenya down to Cape Town, when she was 27, and she was almost five months into this trip.

She had started this one in West Africa and flew up to Egypt, where she met my son Matthew and his girlfriend. When she disappeared, she was going through Syria up into Turkey and was going to fly home from Istanbul on May 14. That was about a week ahead of schedule.

Have Canadian embassy officials been helping you in this?

Over here they've been absolutely wonderful. We couldn't have gotten as far as we have without them. Not only did we get into the mayor's office on Sunday, but we saw the governor or Hama and he authorized the story to run in the newspapers in the whole province and the distribution of posters.

That was arranged through the embassy.

We had paid for an ad in some of the papers here that has been running for the last few weeks. We now have received permission to have news stories to run in most of the major newspapers, which should reach more of the Syrian people. And it looks like we have permission for the story to run on Syrian national television. We've already taped an interview.

This has all been through the Canadian embassy.

This is now three months after she went missing. How soon was it that you found out she wasn't where she should have been?

During all her trips she knew she had to be in contact with us at least every two weeks. That was our rule. But on her last two trips, since e-mail and the Internet cafés were more prevalent, we were used to more constant contact. She would usually get in touch with us or Gary every two or three days.

So when we didn't get an e-mail 10 days from her previous one … then I'm talking with Gary to see if he's heard anything … by two weeks we were quite concerned.

At that point we got in touch with the Canadian embassy in Ottawa. The trouble was that we thought she would have been in Turkey by then because that's what her itinerary would have had.

It took us two weeks to determine that she never made it to Turkey.

The Turkish embassy over here had to work with the authorities to see if she had ever entered Turkey and the Syrian embassy had to determine if she had left Syria. So it was literally May 1 before we confirmed she had never made it out of Syria. At first we were focusing on Turkey.

Then what happened?

Once we knew she was in Syria, Matthew got a list of all the hotels she might have stayed out of The Lonely Planet guidebook because that's what she was using.

He asked anyone who was staying to check for any sign of her and that's how we found our her belongings were still at the hotel in Hama, through his blog.

That was May 3rd. Almost a month had gone by before we were able to pinpoint where she was last.

What are you doing next?

We fly out on Saturday morning. Gary is staying until the end of the month. If we can get radio and television going and operating then we can hopefully let the system work. Somebody here knows what happened to her. It's just a matter of getting to them.

What's been your impression so far?

Well, the one thing I'd like to say is that the people here are very, very kind. We had this sense when we were in Canada and it was three months, well, from a Canadian mindset that doesn't bode well.

But over here the sense that it's three months is much more positive, I'd have to say. Most people feel we'll find her alive.

And you're holding up OK?

I'd have to say it's been a pretty difficult week over here. But we're holding up OK.

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