The brother of a Vancouver woman who disappeared while backpacking in Syria has returned to Toronto empty-handed after searching for her.

"We found a lot of negatives. We know she wasn't doing this, she wasn't doing that," said Matthew Vienneau, who spent the last two weeks looking for his sister Nicole.

Nicole Vienneau, 32, is missing in Syria, and was last seen on March 31.
(Vienneau family photo)

"There's no way she could have been snatched on the walk to the bus station. It's way too crowded a street."

Nicole Vienneau, 32, 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.

Matthew Vienneau went to Syria accompanied by Nicole's partner, Gary Schweitzer. They retraced her steps, trying to find clues to her whereabouts.

They also put up posters in English and Arabic and started a website appealing for help.

Vienneau said they looked through a knapsack she had left in her room, which contained most of her belongings, including books, clothing and a journal.

"She actually made an entry the day before she disappeared which describes what she had done in the past two days already. So once again, we knew where in Hama not to go."

Nicole Vienneau, an experienced traveller, had backpacked around remote regions of the world before.

Her latest adventure was in the Middle East, where she contacted her mother at least every two weeks. But that stopped seven weeks ago.

"As soon as she hadn't done that, then I knew there was something preventing her from calling," said her mother, Kathryn Murray.

'She was very prepared'

Arlene Star, who met Nicole Vienneau travelling through West Africa last January, said she was shocked when she found out Vienneau was missing.

"She knew what she was doing. She was very prepared. She knew where she was going next. She had her whole route scheduled and planned out for her."

Canada's Foreign Affairs Office and the Syrian police say they're looking into Vienneau's disappearance.

Schweitzer has stayed in Syria to keep searching.

"Are we spending the next couple of months searching, the next couple years searching?" Matthew Vienneau said.  "Will I be — 50 years from now — on my death bed wondering what the heck happened? And that's just an agonizing thought."

Matthew Vienneau has not given up his search, but for now, he's home to be with his mother, who believes her daughter is still out there.

"I have to. She's alive until proven otherwise," Murray said.