Family and friends continue search for missing York University student
Posted May 12, 2018 1:44 pm.
Last Updated May 13, 2018 11:20 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Friends and family of 30-year-old York University doctoral student Zabia Afzal are scouring parts of the city on Sunday after she went missing from the Ashbridges Bay area three days ago.
Search parties will meet in three locations across the city and cover the Scarborough Bluffs, Toronto Islands and the Thorncliffe community.
Well wishers have also covered large parts of the GTA with missing person posters and started a social media campaign using #FindZabia. Facebook and Twitter pages have also been created to assist search efforts.
According to police and Afzal’s union CUPE 2903, she went missing on Thursday after taking an Uber to Woodbine Beach from her workplace in the area of Highway 400 and Major MacKenzie Drive West, at around 9:40 a.m.
She was last seen in the area around 10:40 a.m., and her shoes, sweater and other belongings were found on an outcropping of rocks near the water in the early afternoon.
CUPE 3903 said she might be without a coat, shoes and purse.
Afzal is South Asian, five feet four inches tall, 128 pounds, with shoulder-length, dark brown hair. She was wearing black pants, a black or navy zippered hooded sweatshirt and a green floral shirt.
Toronto police have been helping York officers with ground and water searches, and the York Regional Police helicopter was brought in to scan from the air on Saturday.
Anyone with information is asked to call police at 1-866-876-5423, ext. 7441, or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).
