CHICAGO (WGN) – It was all smiles for Kandace Schipper when she landed at the airport in Tokyo back on May 8 for a month-long trip abroad.
“Every single day she had been communicating with family and friends,” Adam Willea, Schipper’s brother-in-law told Nexstar’s WGN. “I mean text, phone calls, pictures, updates, Instagram posts. And then it all abruptly ended on June 4.”
Her family hasn’t heard from the 29-year-old, or a man she was traveling with — 27-year-old Luis Torres — since.
Schipper, originally from Chicago, was last heard from in Shibuya, Japan after a credit card transaction alerted the family.
Willea said their family has filed a missing person’s report with the Chicago Police Department, and contacted the U.S. Embassy and authorities abroad to help them locate Schipper, but he said they’ve hit a roadblock with Tokyo Metropolitan Police.
“I guess it’s [an] issue because technically her flight home isn’t scheduled yet,” Willea said. “So, until she misses her flight home, they won’t even start a report.”
He added that Schipper’s phone appears to have been turned off.
“We’re here stateside. There’s literally nothing we can do,” Willea added. “So, this helpless feeling of not knowing if she is in a hospital, is she being held somewhere against her will? Is she hurt? There’s nothing we can even do because it’s in Toyko, Japan. We need feet on the ground over there.”
Schipper’s family is making plans to travel to Toyko to search for her, according to Willea.