Irene Gakwa, a Kenyan lady allegedly disappeared in the United States, three years after she left Kenya.
Police in Gillette in the state of Wyoming are trying to unravel what happened and where the 32-year-old woman is.
The youngest of three and a nursing student, Gakwa went missing after being in contact with a boyfriend she met on the online platform, Craigslist.
Craigslist is an American classified advertisements website with sections devoted to jobs, housing, sales, community service, gigs, and discussion forums.
On February 24, before her disappearance, Irene made a WhatsApp video call to her parents where they sensed that something was off.
According to her father, Gakwa appeared on the phone screen looking hungry and tired. Her face was gloomy and her hair disarranged.
“Make sure you drink hot milk and relax,” her father Francis Kambo told her.
On March 3, her family received strange text messages from her phone saying that she would be moving to Texas because she did not like Gillette.
At this time her parents were not aware that she was living in Gillette with Nathan Hightman, a US national she had met on the dating forum.
Her father told an International TV station in a recent phone interview that his daughter was supposed to come home for Christmas but it’s been six months since they heard from her.
Her family reported her missing on March 20 after repeated video calls to her went unusually answered and her text messages sounded odd.
Chris Kagwa, her brother said the family suspected that something bad had happened and asked the police to investigate.
“We have a reason to believe that something terrible might have happened since it is unusual for her to go silent for such a long time,” he said.
“She used to call our parents almost on a daily basis and also kept in touch with us. My sister is not a silent person because we believe she might not be okay,” Chris added.
Investigations by the Gillette police revealed that Hightman had stolen over Sh366,600 from Irene.
Hightman allegedly depleted Gakwa’s credit card, changed her banking password and deleted her email after her disappearance.
However, he later denied that he had interacted with her saying that she left Gillette in March and bid him goodbye before boarding a dark-coloured SUV.