Awareness walk Saturday for missing woman

PENTICTON – An Awareness walk has been scheduled Saturday, Jan. 10 for Roxanne Lynn Louie, who has been missing since Sunday, Jan. 4.

“There are no new leads,” Louie’s mother, Lana Hall, said Friday. “We will be gathering at Wal Mart in Penticton at 1 p.m. Saturday, to walk to Skaha Beach.”

Hall said the group will carry posters of Roxanne in the hopes of making her face more public in that part of the city.

“The last timeline and place we have of her seen in public is at the Wal Mart plaza around 5 p.m Saturday evening,” said Hall. “We’re hoping to find someone who has seen her since then."

Louie, who lives in Vancouver, was in the Okanagan with her young son, visiting family and friends. Hall said it was out of character for Louie to be away from her son for so long.

“She mentioned to a number of friends that she was only going to be here until Sunday. She was excited to be going home with her son and starting the new year.”

Louie arrived in the Okanagan on Dec.27.

“She also visited her father, who lives in Oliver,” Hall said.

Louie was staying at her son’s great-grandmother’s, who lives in an adult trailer park near Princess Margaret Secondary School on Saturday, Jan. 3. She left the house around 12 a.m. on Jan.4, saying she was going to spend the night at a friend's house, and catch a 9:45 flight to Vancouver out of Penticton airport Sunday morning. It isn’t known whether she was picked up or whether she walked to her destination. She never returned.

“We are pleading with the public to let us know if there is a chance that someone has seen her. We know nothing of her whereabouts from the time she left her grandmothers house,” said Hall.

“The window of opportunity to find her is narrowing,” said Hall. “It’s hard. I don’t want to give up—I want to do everything possible. I so need to hang on to the hope she’s okay. I hope the walk will help in some way.”

To contact the reporter for this story, email Steve Arstad at sarstad@infonews.ca or call 250-488-3065. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.