A Kenyan lady has allegedly gone missing in the US 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.
According to the CNN, Irene Gakwa's last contact with her family was on February 24, 2022 when she spoke to her parents in Nairobi via WhatsApp video call.
"When her face appeared on the phone screen, her dad teased her that she looked hungry and tired," CNN said.
The news agency says her father advised her to take hot milk and to relax. That was the last time they saw her.
Gakwa, 32, is the only daughter and the youngest child in a family of three children.
Her two older brothers, Chris Munga and Kennedy Wainaina, also live in the US in Idaho city of Meridian.
Gakwa, who at the time of her disappearance had been in the US for less than three years, was living with her boyfriend in Gillette, Wyoming without her parent's knowledge.
CNN gave the identity of the man as Nathan Hightman saying when police spoke to him, he said Gakwa packed her bags one night and left in a dark SUV.
Her father Francis Kambo told CNN 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.
"I was going to buy that ticket myself for her to come if she couldn't afford it," Kambo said.
Her family reported her missing on March 20 after repeated video calls to her went unusually answered and her text messages sounded odd.
Gakwa's oldest brother noted that she was no longer using a mix of English and sheng but rather unnatural English like if someone was using Google Translate to send them.
In one of her text messages sent to her dad during that period, Gakwa claimed her phone had fallen in water and that's why she couldn't do video calls.
"I just want you to know I love and miss you and mom," she said in one of the other messages. Her last Whatsapp message to her father was on March 9.
Hightman, her boyfriend, is considered a person of interest in her disappearance.
He was arrested in May after he allegedly depleted Gakwa's credit card, changed her banking password and deleted her email after her disappearance.
