Kirandeep Chumber says her trip to the supermarket on Saturday left her feeling “empty and alone”.
“The person I used to go shopping with [with], who knew everything about the house, is no longer there. It’s all up to me now,” the 27-year-old told CTV News.
It was her first visit to the store since her mother, Neena Chumber Rani, disappeared on February 17.
Kirandeep has dedicated every moment of his life to finding her ever since.
“Wherever I go, I keep looking for her,” he said, fighting back tears. “And every time I see people, I want to go up and ask them, ‘Have you seen my mom?'”
“I’ve been calling shelters, visiting hospitals, asking people on social media to share.”
Neena Chumber Rani has been missing since February 17. Her family and police say there are reasons to fear for her safety. (Kirandeep Chumber)
The day Chumber Rani disappeared, she made tea for her son and took out the garbage before abruptly grabbing her keys and running out the door, Kirandeep says.
Video surveillance footage would later show Chumber Rani entering Parc des Bateliers in the Ahuntsic-Cartierville district. It was the same park where Ariel Jeffrey Kouakou, 10 years old he was last seen before disappearing in 2018.
“First it was Ariel, now it’s my mom, I don’t want someone else to go through this ever again,” said Kirandeep, who is pleading with authorities to install cameras in the park to prevent this from happening in the future.
“I just miss my mom,” he said. “It’s very difficult. It’s very difficult.”
CALL FOR MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS
According to Kirandeep, Chumber Rani had been behaving strangely before her disappearance. She did not sleep well and sometimes claimed that people watched her and recorded her.
Members of her family would stay up with her late into the night and try to lull her to sleep.
Worried, Kirandeep started making calls to therapists and the GP, but was put on waiting lists, unable to get a straight answer.
“Is it stress, is it depression, is it schizophrenia?” she asked. She even took her mother to the hospital at one point, where she instructed Chumber Rani to take melatonin to help her get some rest.
“I don’t know what else I could have done. And I feel like sometimes I feel like I didn’t do enough,” Kirandeep said.
Although Kirandeep and her family were trying to get help, she says the seriousness of her mother’s condition was not fully recognized and wonders if things might have turned out differently if they had known.
In South Indian culture, Kirandeep explains, the topic of mental health is often misunderstood.
“In our society, that’s not talked about much. We really weren’t that knowledgeable about mental health and illness,” he said, adding that “if they don’t see you physically sick, they don’t think it’s a real problem.” business.”
She hopes that society as a whole can broaden its understanding of mental health to prevent incidents like this from happening in the future.
“If someone talked about it, maybe today I would have been in a different scenario. I would have known.”
THE SEARCH CONTINUES
Montreal Police (SPVM) say they are still looking for Chumber Rani, who left almost a month ago.
A spokesperson told CTV News that “there have been no indications” of their presence in Parc des Bateliers since they began patrolling the area, which included searching the waters of the nearby river.
The SPVM requests the public’s help in locating the missing woman, who is described as 1.5 meters tall and of medium build, with gray-black hair, black eyes and brown skin, with a mole under her right eye.
She was last seen wearing a brown knee-length coat, a dark tuque and brown boots, and speaks English, French and Punjabi.
Anyone with information is asked to call 911, and anonymous tips can be made by calling (514) 393-1133 or through the Info-Crime Montreal website.
With files from CTV’s Max Harrold, Rachel Lau and Luca Caruso-Moro.
