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Police are now considering foul play in the case of a Filipino-American in Atlanta, Georgia, who remains missing five months after she was last seen by family and friends.
The Filipino-American community in Atlanta gathered on Tuesday to distribute fliers for 42-year-old Cecilia Bustamante, who was last spotted leaving her job at a restaurant on Oct. 28. They also organized a candlelight vigil in front of her home in Chamblee City.
However, she was not reported lost until five weeks later, when Bustamante failed to show up at a Thanksgiving celebration, Fox 5 reported. Bustamante’s friends have never heard from her again since then, even though her Facebook account was reportedly fiddled one time in January.
Chamblee police feared that Bustamante might be in “grave danger,” since she disappeared without taking her credit cards, cash or her passport.
READ: Relatives of Filipino missing in the US for 2 months seek help in finding her
Pia Valeriano, a member of the Filipino American Association, told the news site that being Bustamante’s “kababayan,” it was her duty to help find her whereabouts. Willie Blanco, another member of the association, said that he and the whole community hoped that Bustamante would return home safe and sound.
“Some of the evidence is not there anymore but they are following up several leads that may lead to something else,” Blanco told the news site. The Filipino-American community even hired a private investigator, Eric Echols, to assist Chamblee police in the case.
Bustamante has a 7-year-old son with estranged Filipino-American husband Carlo Johnson. Bustamante’s relatives in Capiz believed that her disappearance was somehow related to her crumbling marriage with Johnson and her lukewarm ties to her mother-in-law.
“She told us that her husband beats her up and that he was [the] jealous [type],” Cecilia’s younger brother Rey previously told the Inquirer.
Blanco opened the Facebook group “Where is Cecilia Bustamante?” for anyone who can give additional information regarding Bustamante’s case. Gianna Francesca Catolico /ra