A Kenyan lady has been reported missing in the US since March 20^th. American channel CNN identified the 32 year old woman as Irene Gakwa. She had her last conversation with her family in Nairobi through a WhatsApp video call on February 24^th.

CNN says that Ms. Gakwa met her boyfriend on Craigslist, an American platform that used to be for dating but now issues advertisements. Her father attests that they have not been able to reach her daughter since 24^th

“When her face appeared on the phone screen, her dad teased her that she looked hungry and tired,” reported CNN on their last video call. He advised her to drink hot milk and relax.

Irene was the last born, brought up in a household of 3 children, all of whom (herself included) have relocated to the United States. Both her brothers live in Idaho city.

When she disappeared, she had been living in the US for less than 3 years and was staying with her boyfriend in Gillette, Wyoming, without her parent’s knowledge. Her boyfriend’s name is Nathan Hightman.

He has since been arrested pending further investigations by state police. His story is that one night Irene woke up and packed her bags, got into an SUV and drove away into the darkness.

Irene’s father on the other hand told CNN that Irene was supposed to fly home for Christmas but she didn’t and he has not heard back from her in 6 months. He adds that he had even offered to purchase her flight ticket to Kenya.

The family reported that she was missing on March 20^th owing to unanswered calls, and odd text messages. Normally she’d use a mixture of English and Sheng to communicate via texts.

However, her texts started being unusual, as if the writer had been using Google Translate.

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One of the texts said that her phone had fallen into the water which is the reason why she was unable to video call her family members.

“I just want you to know I love and miss you and mom,” she wrote in her last WhatsApp message to her dad, dated March 9^th.

Nathan Hightman is being held by police for charges of depleting Irene’s credit card, changing her bank password and deleting her email after she disappeared.

“We have reason to believe that something terrible might have happened since she instantly went silent after talking to her parents based in Kenya on February 24,” Chris Gakwa, his brother said.