Search for missing 21-year-old Indigenous woman, Courtney Wale, spans Metro Vancouver

Courtney Wale, 21, was reported missing to Coquitlam RCMP on Jan. 13. (Facebook)

A group of people plan to search Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside Wednesday in hopes of finding an Indigenous woman who disappeared earlier this month.

Coquitlam RCMP confirm Courtney Wale, 21, was reported missing on Jan. 13, though Mounties have yet to notify the public.

“Typically, missing person releases only get sent out when police have exhausted all other avenues or if we believe the person might be in an area, but we don't exactly know where,” Cpl. Alexa Hodgins told CTV News on Tuesday.

Wale’s friends and family members have been posting on social media to spread the word about the young woman’s disappearance.

She’s described as a member of the Gitxsan First Nation who stands 5'9" and has brown hair and grey eyes.

On Wednesday, 10 people plan to meet outside the Astoria Hotel on East Hastings Street at 10 a.m., in an effort to locate Wale if she’s on the Downtown Eastside. 

The missing woman’s mother, Cher Wale, wrote on social media that her daughter was out on a day pass from a healing centre in Coquitlam on Jan. 13.

CTV News has reached out to Cher Wale, as well as the Red Fish Health Centre for Mental Health and Addiction.

Staff there confirm Wale was receiving treatment at the centre before she went missing, but declined to share further details other than her unit’s name of “salmonberry.”

The 105-bed facility is located on on səmiq̓ʷəʔelə in Coquitlam, formerly the Riverview lands, and treats British Columbians who live with the most severe, complex substance use and mental health issues, according to its website.

The Provincial Health Services Authority operates the centre.

Anyone with information regarding Wale’s whereabouts can contact Coquitlam RCMP and cite file number 23-1170.

 

This is a developing story and will be updated.