The disappearance of Nanaimo girl Makaya Chang bringing together hundreds of worried people at a vigil in Nanaimo Tuesday evening.
All looking for answers about the 16 year-old’s whereabouts, afraid her case is going cold.
Picking up posters for the vigil ahead, Brandy McKee breaks down in tears seeing pictures of Makayla Chang.
“Such a sweet girl,” says McKee looking at Chang’s image.
The Nanaimo girl she knows, who has now been missing an agonizing 43 days.
“Just to see her face,” says McKee in tears. “We need her home. This is such a big help like I can’t thank you enough. The family can’t thank you guys enough for like everything, everything that the community’s done.”
The emotions are raw from weeks of worry and fear since the 16-year-old vanished from Nanaimo March 17th, without a single confirmed sighting or post on social media since.
“I think this message and what’s happening tonight is going to bring forth something, it’s going to spark something,” says the family friend. “Makayla’s going to get word that we love her and that we miss her. That her family loves and misses her.”
Chang had just turned 16, when she vanished while she was staying with a 57-year-old Nanaimo man against her grandmother’s wishes. In video obtained by CHEK News, Chang is seen singing for the first time in public. The way those who love her remember her.
“Yeah we need to bring this young lady home,” says McKee. “This could be anyone of our girls.”
Nanaimo print shop In Print, is donating posters in hopes it will help jog memories at the vigil.
“Different images of what she looked like at certain times that they’ve had pictures of so if it sparks anybody’s memory as to where they might have seen her at different locations,” says In Print’s Craig Palin.
“We have to stay positive,” says McKee. “We just have to. We have to right.”
A feeling shared by the hundreds gathered at Tuesday evening’s vigil at Chang’s former High School, John Barsby and the many more watching from on.
Skye Ryan
