My Sister, Nicole Vienneau, Has Gone Missing in Syria

Is it time to call in the experts. You've done your best but haven't been able to find Nicole. I think you only have a certain time gap - longer and it's stale news - plus Gary is alone in Syria which is awfully stressful for him. Not to mention the stress on the rest of the family in Canada.

On Lonely Planet's site last year an American (Ryan Chicovsky) disappeared, in Laos and his family seems to have used this team (he hasn't been found but the company seem experienced in the actualities of dogs, government agencies etc.) Can you find a Canadian company that does a similar thing? A big question is did Nicole have travel insurance? If she did, have you contacted the insurance company to help?

http://www.1srg.org/1srg_about.htm

Hope she is ok.my prayers for her comeback safe.really sad news.

Were the 3 Americans in her hotel found? If they were did they provide additional information?

Something just isn't right here (besides her being missing). She was last seen by the Cairo Hotel employee. No one saw her on the street that day? Or at the bus stop? She didn't ask directions or eat? That means she didn't leave the hotel. Or at least not far from it.

That doesn't mean the hotel staff had anything to do with it. It could have been a visitor or anyone stalking. However, I just can't get a niggling out of my head where I recall reports from travellers who had hotel employees peeping on them or otherwise harassing them. The ones I heard were in Jordan but still...it just niggles.

I wonder if any of the employees are involved with any dodgy groups like smugglers or sex traders. Any new employees? Who exactly did she have contact with.

I think you need to hire a private detective - maybe canadian to run this case. Maybe a retired police detective. They will know what adds up and what doesn't. Hire him and send him to Syria.

The CBC interview is posted online along with the other stories of the National, it does not come up right away. I believe it's the third of fourth story.
http://www.cbc.ca/national/latestbroadcast.html

If she got in a car with someone she trusted they probably were foreign tourist likely from Canada / US (possibly Europe). I mean if I was abroad and met Canadians/Americans, I would probably get friendly with them.
The car would have been rented. Perhaps you should review the car rental records during the period when she disappeared. There aren't many car rental companies in Syria so this would not be a huge task.
What about those 3 American tourists? Did anyone find them?

In over three weeks in Syria in March this year I never met a single tourist in a rental car. Maybe they were there but I never met anyone in a rental car - lots of guides and drivers, taxi services, tour groups, walkers, cyclists, public transporters but never a tourist driving a rental car.

therese

If I were backpacking, met someone in another town, and we found out we'd both be in Hama at roughly the same time, how would we get in touch? No phones in the rooms, don't really want to share the hotel I'm staying at, but feel there would be no harm in exchanging e-mail addresses, that way I could think on it and decide if they email, if I even want to meet up after all, you need to get into her email account Matt, it seems like a great place to see her "communication records". You mentioned you were waiting on formal letters, forget that, just find a hacker and get into her account!

Why are there no updates on Gary? How is he doing? Is he ok? He must be going crazy by himself in a strange country.

Matt,

Thank you for the message regarding Gary. We feel much better knowing that he is safe and sound. One must wonder how long he can last mentally however. I know Nicole and I feel a great sadness with this current situation. I hope that you find her soon. Take care of yourself and your family. We hope for the very best. You are all in our thoughts and prayers.

Hi, I've put up another YouTube - not to take anything away from what's already on YouTube, but to keep putting this out there.

I'm going to keep blogging it and emailing it to everyone I can think of.

Has anyone yet volunteered to translate? I know some people, but can't promise anything on their behalf. Do you want me to ask?

Anyway, the video is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJukZqv22kQ

(Not the best, since I've never done anything like that before)

Laurie (www.threat-assessment.blogspot.com)

Matt,

Checking Syria News in the page titled "incidents" in Arabic, I found a disturbing number of disturbing car accidents. They happen almost on a daily basis and mind you they only report the serious ones. Did you check all hospitals. Perhaps you should try to get the officials in Syria to get you a record of all car accident casualties around Hama from early April.
Did you notice how they drive over there?

Yes Matt, I really hope you guys having a nice end to all this. It's frustrating, but everything comes to an end. Hopefully something good comes up bro.

Maybe you could hire a private investigator in Syria(who also speaks english). Someone who knows the culture,language and how to get more information on your sister through various contacts. Someone who knows what's going on behind the scenes in Syria. And who might take a different approach than the police in finding her.

I typed "private investigators in Syria" in Google and there seemed to be some. Maybe there are some Canadian private investigators who deal with Syrian investigators and they work together. Just an idea.

Just trying to think what I would do if I was in your situation.

Take care
C

Hi, I dont' want to write too much but:

- I think you need a contact in Syria, an investigator, someone you trust or someone Government, they needs to keep their ears open for news.

- I thought her diary was found outside? Surely this is the place to start investigating as no one would leave their diary. I think thoughts of travelling all over places without dedicating more time at this initial location, is a good idea.

- Perhaps you could write another Digg plug?

- What about a reconstruction, using someone who looks similar to your sister and visiting the spots she was confirmed to have visited. At the same time get the press to follow it and hand out flyers.

- Why not make the flyers as Business Cards, big sheets of paper are easy to lose/throw away whilst a business card with her photo/details on are more likely to be stored in a wallet.

Good luck!

Dear Matt and Gary,

There are several ISP's in Syria, the best can be accessed using SAWA or
AYA internet cards, you buy a SAWA card then you configure your browser to
use the user-name and password written on that card (Direct access cards
with/without subscription)

Please DO NOT USE the 190 ISP, it's very slow and always down..

I assure you internet didn't go down on other ISP's.

I always use SAWA cards
http://sawa.cec.sy

regards..

You may have touched on this but I'm curious, so maybe if someone reading along can answer. Does the Canadian government help at all with a search like this? No help from law enforcement whatsoever?

Hey Matt, now that you've been back at work for a bit, how about saying something like this when people ask for an update: "Thanks for your concern. I've realized that it's better if I don't talk about it at work - it's the one break I have from focusing on it. I update the blog regularly so you can find the latest there if you want."

The people you work with genuinely care, and want to help. So they might feel badly to learn later that you didn't want to talk about it there. So, you owe it to yourself and to them to tell them what you need here.

You could even send an email to the office... couple it with "Now that I've been back for a bit, I'd like to thank you all for your incredible support..."

BTW, I do know what you mean on wanting the break there. When my sister was in the final stages of her battle with cancer, and then when she passed, I really didn't want to talk about it there - it was my oasis of sanity. Yet the caring the people at work exhibited was one of the things I was most grateful for. It's a balancing act, but it's ok to tell people what you need.

Good to see the close up pic of Nicole posted again.

Thinking of you often.
Roberta