Police say foul play is suspected in the disappearance of a woman reported missing from Markham last month.
York Regional Police have been searching for 53-year-old Isabella Dan, who was last seen on March 3 at around 8:30 p.m. near her home in the Water Walk Drive and Verclaire Gate area.
Officers have called Dan’s disappearance “unusual” and “suspicious.”
In an interview with Global News on Monday, York Regional Police Sgt. Clint Whitney said Dan “got into a vehicle of a business associate that was a Porsche Cayenne.”
“She was dropped off at a location shortly afterwards, somewhere between 822 and 8:45pm that night” Whitney said “That’s what investigators have figured out.
Whitney said Dan was dropped off to meet another person in the Highway 7 area, between Warden Avenue and Leslie Street area, or on Yonge Street between York Mills and Eglinton Avenue in Toronto.
Anyone with dashcam footage from March 3 between 8:22 p.m. and 8:45 p.m. in either of those areas is asked to contact police.
“We’re perplexed as to where she’s gone,” Whitney said. “We’re very concerned, they’re suspicious circumstances and it’s gotten to the point where our homicide unit investigators — they suspect foul play — and we’re worried about Isabella dan.”
In a previous interview with Global News, York Regional Police Const. Maniva Armstrong said investigators located a vehicle belonging to Dan near her home, in the Warden Avenue and Highway 7 East area.
Armstrong said the vehicle seemed to “have been left or abandoned in that area of the residence.”
According to Armstrong, Dan was also an “avid member” of the LA Fitness gym in the area.
Whitney said, though, that police have not been able to speak to anyone that knows Dan in her personal life.
“And that’s unusual,” he said. “Additionally, we’re finding that there’s just no activity on her accounts, right now.”
Police said when officers attended her condo, there was still food inside and items that we left behind that were “out of character for her.”
“All indications are that she was planning to come back home,” Whitney said.
The force said she may have gone by other names, including Rui Dan and Rourun Dan.
Police said Dan is five-feet-seven-inches tall with a medium build. She has brown eyes and long, dark hair.
She was last seen wearing a beige coat with a fur collar, black pants and was carrying a red gym bag.
According to court records previously obtained by Global News, a statement of claim shows that Dan was facing a civil lawsuit claiming more than $1.8 million in damages relating to negligence in carrying out fraudulent mortgage transactions for clients.
None of the claims have been proven in court.
Whitney said police are “looking at everything” in this case.
“We hear the same things that everybody else hears, and we’re looking into things as deeply as possible,” he said. “We’re looking into associations that Isabella has had with businesses, business partners, whether or not those relationships were going well or if there were troubles.
He said the force is also urging anyone who knew Dan on a personal level to contact police.
“Sometimes people don’t realize that it’s just the small things that can make a big difference in an investigation,” Whitney said.
Anyone with information regarding Dan’s disappearance is asked to contact police or Crime Stoppers.
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