Police in Merritt, B.C., are asking for the public's help in locating a young mother who disappeared under suspicious circumstances last week.
Brandy Deann Cowell, 32, was travelling with her new boyfriend Robert Bishop in a distinctive red 2008 Dodge Charger when they disappeared.
Cowell called her family from a pay phone on Sept. 1 to say she'd be home from the trip a day late, but still in time for her son's first day of school. Her family reported her missing on Monday.
She was last seen at a gas station in Princeton, where an employee says she could tell something was wrong -- Cowell seemed to be crying.
Bishop, 34, has a criminal record in Kamloops, and police are describing him as a person of interest in the case as the last person known to have seen her. The couple have only been together for a few months.
Police say Cowell is known to be a good parent, and allowing her son's first day of school to come and go with no contact is what led them to view her disappearance as suspicious.
"There are some circumstances that lead us to believe that something has happened," RCMP Const. Tracy Dunsmore said.
Cowell told her family that she was headed to Vancouver, but the RCMP aren't so sure. At the same time, they don't know where to focus the search.
That's why Cowell's family is appealing for help from the public, and for Brandy to contact them.
"Brandy, we urge you to call home. We're concerned about you," her father Rick Thompson said.
"We're worried about you, your mother and I, and your son asks about you every day. He misses you, and we know that you wouldn't miss his first day at school intentionally."
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Kent Molgat
