The search continues for a Langley, B.C., mother and teacher who went missing over a week ago.
Naomi Onotera, 40, has not been seen since Aug. 28 after she left home. Her mother reported her missing the next day.
Onotera, who has an 18-month-old daughter, was supposed to be back teaching at Katzie Elementary in Surrey on Tuesday.
“She had meetings set up with friends. She wanted to be social,” family friend Kylie Hannan said. “She was excited to go back to work. Everything leads towards such a happy and healthy person.”
Langley RCMP’s serious crimes unit, search-and-rescue staff, along with dozens of volunteers have been scouring the area trying to locate her.
Among those offering support is the family of Trina Hunt, the Port Moody woman whose remains were found in May after being reported missing in January.
“There can’t be another missing woman in the Lower Mainland,” said Hunt’s cousin Stephanie Ibbott. “How is this possible? It just reignites all the trauma we went through with Trina.”
Ibbott said they’re helping share Onotera’s information on social media and coordinating the volunteer search because they understand what her family is going through: “Hanging on to so much hope at a week out, but really trying to process it all and understand there’s so much that you have to do.”
“You have to act faster and harder than you’ve ever acted in your life while also facing the most unimaginable trauma,” Ibbott said.
Onotera’s friends and family are planning to hold a candlelight vigil Sunday night at Sendall Botanical Gardens.
— with files from Amy Judd