A mother recently returned from China is desperate to find her 17-year-old son, who has been mysteriously missing for nearly three weeks.
• Read more: 17-year-old missing in Montreal
“I have to get him back at any cost, I’m willing to trade my own life,” Sujing says in Mandarin, pushing Nie between two sobs.
Yuan Tian, his son-in-law by marriage, translated the interview into English. He explains that they haven’t seen Feng Tian since October 17th. Only three months in Montreal, the young man speaks neither French nor English, which makes him fear for his safety.
“He’s very shy. He doesn’t have any friends as far as we know. He might be lost,” the Concordia University engineering student said worriedly.
In Montreal for six years, Yuan Tian arranged the visit of his cousin Feng, his mother, his 10-year-old brother and rented an apartment near him in Montreal’s Notre-Dame-de-Grace district.
Warm milk before bed
Mme You were at home on October 17th at 9:30 pm when you received a final text message from your son, who had prepared some hot milk and was about to go to bed.
But the next morning she did not find him in her room.
She was initially worried to learn that he went to classes without his bag knowing it was an exam. Then, unable to reach him, anxiety took on a new dimension.
Yuan Tian believes that her cousin may have texted her mother and gone for a walk to ease her stress.
“I don’t know what happened. He may have lost his cards, wallet and may not be able to come back,” he worries.
A teenager’s routine is well established, he points out. Every weekday morning, he took public transportation to his English classes at the YMCA International Language School downtown before spending dinner and the afternoon at his cousin’s house. In the evening, he returned to the other apartment rented for his mother, his brother and himself for dinner and sleep.
On October 17, she was last spoken to at her home on Sherbrooke Street West at around 4:30 p.m.
“When he left my house, we talked about his day, lessons,” she recalls.
Fearing for his safety
The family informed the police, who issued a search warrant.
Every evening, Sujing Nie goes from Saint-Jacques Street to Chinatown to look for her son, while Yuan Tian hunts with his friends. They put up Feng’s posters everywhere, to no avail.
They obtained video from the police from a surveillance camera that showed a young man walking on the pedestrian bridge of Highway 15 near Saint-Jacques Street.
“We’re not 100% sure it’s him,” Yuan Tian says, showing the video.
As of Monday, the family hasn’t heard from Feng for exactly three weeks.
“Because of his recent arrival in the country, investigators and his relatives have reason to fear for his safety,” read a search notice from Montreal police.
Poster needed
- Feng Tian is 1.80 m tall and weighs 68 kg. He has black eyes and hair.
- The teenager was last seen on October 17 near the intersection of Sherbrooke Street West and Cavendish Boulevard in Montreal’s Côte-des-Neiges-Notre-Dame-de-Grace borough.
- He was wearing a black sweater and coat and white and black shoes.
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